Space Weather

Investigating changes in the space environment

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Variability in the space environment around Earth has major impacts on a range of technologies.

Satellite orbits decay when the upper atmosphere heats up and onboard electronics can malfunction when radiation levels increase. Satellite navigation, radar and radio communications can all be degraded by changes in the ionisation in the upper atmosphere. The major driver of this “space weather” is changes in the Sun’s output, which follow an 11-year cycle. Variations can also be attributed to natural terrestrial phenomena, such as volcanos, and human-made events, like space launches. UNSW Canberra Space undertakes research to better understand these changes, developing advanced computational models and using state-of-the-art satellite observations. We have done innovative work investigating the impacts of geomagnetic storms and rockets on the upper atmosphere.

Publications

Chand, A. E., Bowden, G., & Brown, M. (2024). Investigation of thermospheric response to geomagnetic storms using GITM‐OVATION prime and‐FTA model with comparison to GOLD and SABER observations. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 129(10), e2023JA031820.

Bowden, G. W., & Brown, M. (2023). Numerical Modeling and GNSS Observations of Ionospheric Depletions Due To a Small‐Lift Launch Vehicle. Space Weather, 21(9), e2023SW003563. (link: https://doi.org/10.1029/2023SW003563)

Bowden, G. W. (2022) Numerical Simulation of Rocket Generated Travelling Ionospheric Disturbances Using a General Circulation Model In Short, W., Cairns, I., & Menk, F. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 20th Australian Space Research Conference (pp. 91-102). National Space Society of Australia. (link: https://www.nssa.com.au/asrc-proceedings)

Bowden, G. (2022). Orbit-localised thermosphere density prediction using a Kalman filter based calibration of empirical models. Acta Astronautica, 197, 6-13. (link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2022.05.005)

Brown, M., Smith, B., Capon, C., Abay, R., Polo, M. C., Gehly, S., ... & Boyce, R. (2020). SSA experiments for the Australian M2 formation flying cubesat mission. In 21st Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies Conference. Maui, Hawaii, USA. (link: https://amostech.com/TechnicalPapers/2020/Space-Based-Assets/Brown.pdf)

Bowden, G. W., Lorrain, P., & Brown, M. (2020). Numerical simulation of ionospheric depletions resulting from rocket launches using a general circulation model. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 125(6), e2020JA027836. (link: https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JA027836)