On board the European module of the International Space Station (ISS), January 26, 2021, will mark the end of two RUBI experiment sessions inside the Fluid Science Laboratory (FSL) rack. The FSL rack can host experiments for the study of the dynamics of fluids in space and RUBI — the Reference mUltiscale Boiling Investigation — is expanding our knowledge on the boiling process. At B.USOC (Belgian User Support and Operation Centre), the operators were in charge of this complex ESA instrument.

Stanford University has recently released a list that represents the top 2% of the most-cited scientists in the world in various disciplines. A total of 1413 Belgian scientists have made it into this world ranking, with 9 of them listed in the top 10 in their research field. One of the researchers who made it onto the list is from BIRA-IASB!

On November 28 of this year, BIRA-IASB scientist Alexis Merlaud arrived at the Belgian Princess Elisabeth polar station in Antarctica. His mission: to install two of our instruments to perform local ground measurements of aerosols in the atmosphere for the CLIMB project of the RMI (Royal Meteorological Institute).

The International Space Station was assembled in orbit, and today marks the 22nd anniversary of the launch of the first module of the ISS “Zarya” (meaning “dawn” in Russian) into space (November 20, 1998). A few weeks later, the second module “Unity” was launched and the two modules were coupled together, marking the first stage in the assembly of this permanent station, a cooperation between nations to propel humanity further into an era of space travel and space exploration for humans.

Cluster is one of the few space missions that is older than 22% of the Belgian population! Celebrating its 20th birthday this year, it has been gathering data about the Earth’s magnetosphere ever since. This continuous monitoring is of particular interest to researchers, as it allows for the study of long-term processes in the Earth’s magnetosphere, and how these processes depend on the Sun’s variability.

The hole in the ozone layer above the Antarctic is very deep this year, due to the exceptionally cold temperatures in the stratosphere. Whereas the ozone hole over Antarctica was the smallest ever measured last year, it could well be one of the largest this year. Whether the ozone hole will actually evolve towards a record, will be confirmed by satellite observations in the coming days and weeks and will depend mainly on the further stability of the stratospheric polar vortex.