ICTP in Space

The European Space Agency (ESA) has added ICTP's ionospheric modelling system NeQuick 2 to its Space Environment Information System (SPENVIS), making the model widely available to space engineers and scientists.

Spacecraft experience numerous problems as a result of encounters with the space environment. SPENVIS is an internet-based, user-friendly interface to models of the space environment and its effects, including cosmic rays, natural radiation belts, solar energetic particles, plasmas, gases, and micro-particles.

NeQuick 2, a computer model developed by ICTP's Aeronomy and Radiopropagation Laboratory in collaboration with the Institute for Geophysics, Astrophysics and Meteorology of the University of Graz in Austria, provides 3D views of electron density in the Earth's ionosphere.

NeQuick 2 is particularly suitable for the trans-ionospheric propagation of radiowaves and has been recommended by the International Telecommunication Union for the assessment of ionospheric effects in global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) and telecommunication satellite operations.

NeQuick also has been adopted by the Galileo satellite programme to be used for ionospheric corrections in range measurements. The Galileo programme is Europe's initiative for a state-of-the-art GNSS, providing a highly accurate, guaranteed global positioning service under civilian control.