About us

The Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium

The mission of the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium is the realization of services supported by research and long term standardized meteorological, climatological and geophysical observations. These services are provided for the safety and information of the population, of the socio-economical and scientific community and are coordinated at a national and international level.

Geophysical Observatory of Dourbes

Besides its activities in meteorology and climatology, the RMI encompasses the Department “Geophysics: Services and Research” which has a long tradition in Earth magnetism, environmental magnetism, ionospheric soundings and cosmic radiation monitoring. The Geophysics Department of the RMI is responsible of the “Centre de Physique du Globe (CPG)” at Dourbes (Viroinval). Inaugurated in 1956, the CPG is a fundamental and applied research centre. The Geophysics Department is organized in three Divisions: Ionospheric Profiles, Geomagnetic Observations and Instruments and Environmental Magnetism.

Division Ionospheric Profiles

The main activities of the Division Ionospheric Profiles are the monitoring and the modelling of the ionospheric activity and its effects on technological systems based on radio waves, in particular, Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). A team of 7 scientists and 3 technicians is working in our Division. At the CPG, a Digisonde 256 performs regular ionosphere soundings since 1984 and a GPS receiver is collecting continuous measurements since 1994. In 2010, a new DPS-4D Digisonde will be installed at CPG. Cosmic ray and geomagnetic activity monitoring is also performed at the CPG. Our team is involved in the monitoring, the modeling and the forecasting of ionospheric disturbances, which affect GNSS. The RMI experience in this field has been recognized by its involvement in several international projects. The Solar Influences Data Centre (SIDC) Space Weather Pilot Project was created in response to an ESA announcement of opportunity of which the goal was to promote the development of Space Weather related services dedicated to any interested user community (customers). The role of the RMI team was to develop services to assess in real time and to forecast a few hours in advance Space Weather effects on different GNSS applications. From 01/11/2006 to 15/07/2008, the RMI has been the Coordinator of a project called GALOCAD. This project has been selected in the frame of Galileo JU call 2423. GALOCAD stands for “Development of a GAlileo LOcal Component for the nowcasting and forecasting of Atmospheric Disturbances affecting the integrity of high precision Galileo applications”. Based on a dense network of GNSS stations in Belgium, the goal of GALOCAD was to create a prototype Galileo Local Component that will assess in real time and forecast a few hours in advance the effects of the atmosphere (ionosphere and neutral atmosphere) on Galileo high accuracy real time positioning.

Solar-Terrestrial Centre of Excellence

During Minister Council of 22 March 2006, the Belgian Government has decided to create the Solar-Terrestrial Centre of Excellence (STCE) which involves the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium, the Royal Observatory of Belgium and the Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy. The STCE is a new (long-term) project which aims at creating an international expert centre in the frame of Solar Terrestrial Relations. The STCE involves both research and operational services. In this project, the role of our team is to monitor, to model and to forecast the ionospheric activity and its effects on real time GNSS applications.

Staff

• Mr. S. Stankov, Ph.D., Research Scientist (Acting Head of Division)
• Mr. G. Crabbé, Technical Expert (Responsible for the Ionospheric Technology)
• Mrs. J. Spits, Ph. D. Student
• Mr. K. Stegen, ICT scientist