The space weather station at the University of Alcala

Abstract

The Space Weather station at the University of Alcala (UAH-STA) is a place for instrumentation that is able to produce useful products and services even in a worst case scenario (when power grid and/or communications have been compromised), assuring the access of critical data to decision-makers and consequently, increasing the confidence to take actions. The current development consists of an antenna to monitor ionospheric disturbances through the reception of very low frequency waves and a magnetometer to indicate the geomagnetic disturbances caused by sources external to the Earth. This work shows the development of both instruments and some examples of ionospheric and geomagnetic events recorded by both of them. This project serves also as a success story of using space weather as a teaching tool due to the involvement of undergraduate students at their final stage of industrial and telecommunication engineering.