Description
The Observatori de l’Ebre, OE (obsebre.es/en/), is a Research Institute founded in 1904 to study the Sun-Earth relationships. OE is governed by a Non-Profit Foundation belonging to the Ramon Llull University (URL) as University Institute and it is a Coordinated Center of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). Over the years it has excelled in the study of earth currents, atmospheric electricity, solar, geomagnetic activity and the terrestrial ionosphere. Currently, OE carries out two research lines: a) Geomagnetism and Aeronomy, and b) Hydrology and Climate Change; being active (with national and international based projects of research and development) in both of them. The research activity of the group of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy embraces the monitoring and research of the variability of the Earth’s ionosphere and geomagnetic field, as well as the modelling of such variability ingesting available space data. We carry out topics of research that are unique in Spain and competitive at international level. Moreover, OE manages several geophysical observatories: in Spain and in the Antarctic Spanish Base; assuring the continuity and reliability of its observations, with more than a hundred years of history. This enables to develop specific research based on the deep knowledge of the geophysical variables checked daily and providing value added data and products for other research teams. OE is also aware of the importance of the education so that, it contributes to a PhD program at the Ramon Llull University.
The PITHIA-NRF OE team contributes to projects for space weather specification, forecasting and identification of ionospheric irregularities. It is skilled in investigating the variability of the Earth’s ionosphere caused by solar/geomagnetic activity and meteorological effects, and in developing prediction climate ionospheric models and forecasting models of ionospheric disturbance, bounded to the solar activity and to the Interplanetary Magnetic Field conditions. The team also cares the monitoring and analysis of the variability of the Earth’s ionosphere and geomagnetic field being significant data contributor to international databases as GIRO and INTERMAGNET, making data, historical and real-time, standardized and available to the near-space community for their research, applications and modelling purposes. OE contributes investigating the climate of the upper atmosphere specially on atmospheric waves and its impact on the ionosphere, as well as to the International Reference Ionosphere model (IRI) since 2006. OE chairs currently the IRI Working Group and have contributed to develop the last two releases IRI-2012 and IRI-2016.