DEFINITION:

It includes:

• Space Environment: Methods and models, and inflight monitoring of space environments (including radiation, plasmas, micrometeoroids and micro-debris, atmosphere and contamination).
• Environment Effects: Covers effects due to space environment (radiation damage and interference, spacecraft charging, micro-particle impact risk, …) development of computational tools and related experimental investigations.
• Space Weather Covers technology developments that contribute to the establishment of capabilities for predicting or evaluating hazardous environmental conditions in space, in the ionosphere or on the ground due to space weather, through use of observation technologies coupled with modelling and IT technologies. The observations and modelling relate to phenomena on the Sun, in interplanetary space and coupling with the near-Earth environment.

(Source: ESA TD 4)

SUBDOMAINS:

1.1. Numerical modelling of environments: Establishment of numerical models that represent space environments and their variables, as required by mission development and operation. Associated data analysis, and systems delivering model output for efficient use in development and operations.

1.2. Inflight Monitoring: Technologies to gather data on the space environment. Includes radiation detection (fluxes and derived quantities for all radiation components), plasmas, direct micro-particle detection.

2.1. Effects Analysis Tools: Development of tools for each environmental domain and resources for coordinated assessment. Tools for use in development and operations for quantifying environmental effects in terms of engineering parameters, and for use in product assurance and testing.

2.2. Ground and Space Effects Investigations: Providing data for the development and validation of the analysis tools and including establishment and/or exploitation of on-ground and in-space investigations of the environments and the effects on technologies. Includes radiation effects, charging and ESD monitoring, direct and indirect impact detection, analysis of returned material, etc.

3.1. Modelling Development and IT Infrastructure: Development of numerical models in the various space weather domains (solar, heliospheric, magnetospheric, ionospheric). Also covers IT infrastructure: development of an integrated but distributed system that includes real-time and archived data, coupled modelling and user-oriented informatics tools.

3.2. Space Weather Monitoring Technology: In situ and remote measurement of space weather features for use in forecasting and nowcasting, including solar, heliospheric, magnetospheric and ionospheric domains.