Project: Reception and processing of science data of the CLUSTER mission at the Panska Ves observatory

This project aims at continuation of our successful involvement in the data reception and pre-processing efforts for the ESA’s Cluster mission at the Panska Ves ionospheric and telemetry station of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. Cluster is a four-spacecraft scientific mission devoted to investigation of plasma processes in the Earth’s magnetosphere and in the solar wind. As one of the key missions of the ESA’s scientific program, Cluster is in the operational phase since 2001. Funding of operations has been extended for four additional years from 2006. In November 2007, orbital manoeuvres are being done to raise the perigee. On purely orbital basis, this opens a possibility to extend the operations until 2011. The WBD wave instruments onboard the four spacecraft of the ESA Cluster mission record fluctuations of the electric and magnetic fields. These instruments were built by the University of Iowa from where they are operated.

Funded by: MŠMT. ME09098

Duration: 2009-2011

Investigator: Šimůnek, J.