Creotech Instruments: ionospheric forecasting model to mitigate communication disruptions

Creotech Instruments S.A. has recently completed a project to develop a model for the application of cloud-based solutions to space weather forecasting. The European Space Agency (ESA), which commissioned the project, intends to use the model’s concept as a tool to facilitate research on the Earth’s ionosphere and its processes.

Creotech Instruments and its partners, the Space Research Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) and CloudFerro Sp. z o. o., a cloud services provider, have recently put the final touches on TellTale, their joint project. The project was contracted out by the European Space Agency’s European Space Operations Center (ESOC) based in Darmstadt, Germany. TellTale was initiated to cater to the need for more reliable ionosphere weather forecasts and to eliminate radio wave disturbances caused by solar storms.

“In collaboration with our Partners, we completed an ESA-funded project having a key impact on forecasting solar weather, which is crucial in the context of issues with satellite and radio communication. Perturbations in the ionosphere caused by solar storms disrupt communication in a number of ways and can even damage telecommunication satellites or energy infrastructure. Along with the progress of technology, such phenomena have increasingly severe consequences, making relevant research all the more important. We want Creotech Instruments to be a part of the effort to drive innovation in this field” says Grzegorz Brona, President of the Management Board of Creotech Instruments S.A.

At present, data from ionosondes can be used to predict radio communication disturbances only when interpreted properly and quickly. TellTale involved the development of a cloud platform model that enables data optimization and processing, as well as real-time space weather forecasting. The cloud infrastructure also facilitates sharing data, calculations, processes, and other resources. The TellTale platform also boasts the ability to convert raw measurement data and perform calculations using powerful virtual machines and generate forecasts as diagrams and alerts. These features streamline and reduce the overall costs of processing and analyzing data originating from multiple sources by employing algorithms.

The Platform as a Service (PaaS) model can be applied in centralized infrastructures and distributed models with common product access standards across all services.