SWANS

Nowadays, our modern society relies on many operational technological systems based on the use of radio waves: ground-to-ground and ground-to-satellite telecommunications, radars, Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) such as GPS or Galileo… Free electrons in the ionosphere perturb the propagation of radio waves. Indeed, the ionosphere is defined as “the atmospheric layer where the free electron concentration is sufficient to affect radio wave propagation”. In practice, Space Weather phenomena are often the origin of disturbed ionospheric conditions which can strongly affect the performances of technological systems based on radio waves. Therefore, it is indispensable to monitor, to model and to forecast the ionospheric activity and its effects on these technological systems.

In the frame of the Solar-Terrestrial Centre of Excellence, Division Ionospheric Profiles from the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium has created an operational web site called Space Weather And Navigation Systems (SWANS). This web site provides different communities of users (scientists, GNSS users, satellite operators…) with information about:

Our web site is mainly based on measurements collected at the Geophysical Observatory of Dourbes or “Centre de Physique du Globe” (CPG).