Hellenic Evolution of Radiation data processing and Modelling of the Environment in Space

The goal of the HERMES project was to improve, develop and combine radiation environment models and data processing routines to enable more accurate evaluation of space radiation. HERMES exploited recent methods including Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) and investigated other novel methods such as neural networks for the determination of fluxes from radiation monitor data and thereby extract model-quality data and associated error estimates. The flux time series data from ESA radiation monitors such as those on-board Integral, XMM, Herschel, Planck, PROBA-I and Giove-B was determined and included in the updated European database using the Open Data Interface (ODI) system developed for ESA. Where possible, these data was complemented by other data (e.g. the SEM-2 on MetOp and the EPT instrument on PROBA-V) in order to update and validate new solar particle models and radiation belt models as part of an effort towards global community consensus models. This processing took account of instrument directional responses and the resulting reference data sets were used to update and/or validate emerging European, US and International radiation environment models. Bibliographical search and reviews performed on previous ESA projects were updated to include the latest modelling techniques. Recent statistical modelling developments and the availability of a greater volume of data have facilitated improvements in the modelling of the Earth’s trapped radiation belts (such as AE9/AP9/IRENE and ESA’s SRREMs). Models of the Earth’s radiation belt were further developed to provide outputs as a function of user-defined confidence level similar to those that are available for solar energetic particles. The application of statistical distributions to extrapolate results to high confidence levels and longer mission durations in different ways was investigated and verified against one another. A system based on the ESA SEPEM system architecture was developed for the statistical modelling of the radiation belts. The final step of HERMES was the combination of the model outputs - that capture the disparate sources of space radiation - with state of the art radiation effects tools – leading to the construction of the ESPREM (European Space Radiation Model) system. ESPREM applies a statistically robust and efficient methodology to combine existing and newly developed space radiation environment models of Trapped Particles, Solar Protons and Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCR). The architecture of ESPREM is modular, allowing the selection of various models for each particle radiation source and the integration of suitable radiation effects tools.

Project Consortium:

- Institute of Accelerating Systems and Applications (IASA), University of Athens (Prime Contractor)
- DH Consultancy, Belgium

IASA Team Members: Prof. Ioannis A. Daglis (Principal Investigator and Project Coordinator), Dr. Ingmar Sandberg, Dr. Omiros Giannakis, Dr. Georgios Provatas, Mr. Sigiava Aminalragia-Giamini, M.Sc., Mr. Christos Katsavrias, M.Sc., Mr. Constantinos Papadimitriou, Mr. Antonios Tsigkanos, M. Eng., Ms. M. Georgiou, M.Sc.

Funded by the European Space Agency (ESA)

Total budget: 499,985€

IASA Budget: 479,985€

Duration: February 2015 – February 2018