📋 Tender Overview
After completing the test phase, the SODA (Satellite Orbit DecAy) prediction service, jointly developed by Graz University of Technology (TU) and the University of Graz, has officially been part of the Space Safety Programme of the European Space Agency (ESA) since mid-July 2023. SODA provides accurate forecasts of the effects of solar storms on the orbits of low-Earth satellites.
Effects of solar storms on the Earth's atmosphere can cause satellites to crash. To prevent this, ESA relies on the SODA forecasting service developed in Graz. This makes Graz University of Technology the third Austrian institution to contribute to ESA's Space Safety Programme. In addition to Seibersdorf Laboratories, the University of Graz was previously part of the program with the Kanzelhöhe Observatory and the Institute of Physics. Of the five Expert Service Centres in the ESA Space Weather Service Network, Austria is now represented in four, with only the UK participating in all five centres.
The new forecast service is freely available via the ESA Space Weather Service and offers a warning time of around 15 hours. Since solar activity is expected to peak in the next two years, the commissioning of SODA is of additional relevance at this point in time. The extent to which solar storms can affect satellite orbit has already been shown in the SWEETS project funded by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG), on the results of which SODA is based.
Due to the expected increase in solar activity over the next two years, ESA has already raised some of its satellites by several kilometres. With its predictions, SODA is intended to create additional security. For the forecasting service, TU Graz contributes its existing expertise in the processing of satellite data. The University of Graz contributes its experience in the field of solar and heliospheric physics and interplanetary magnetic field observation.
