News Page

December 1999

This month's news stories: Final Cluster Instrument Delivery Cloud Science Online

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This month's news.......

Final Cluster 2 Magnetometer is Delivered

The SPAT Cluster 2 team were celebrating the millenium a month early this week with the completion of the fourth and final flight Fluxgate Magnetometer. In a little over two years, the team have redesigned, built, tested and integrated four brand new replacements for the FGM units lost in the 1996 Cluster disaster. The final unit was delivered to Dornier Satelliten Systems (Gmbh) Germany in early November and has just successfully completed its final system validation test. Although a major milestone in the completion of SPAT's involvment in the mission, there is still much work to be done with only 6 months left until the launch of the first two spacecraft. The team will be heavily involved in further system tests at various sites in Germany early next year with a view to being fully prepared for the launch and comissioning of the instruments.

The photo shows the four new Cluster spacecraft in the test facilities of Industrieanlagen Betriebsgesellschaft (IABG) in Ottobrunn, near Munich, on 24 November 1999, when they were displayed together at an event open to the press. The spacecraft in the large solar simulation chamber is Cluster FM8, ready for its long thermal-vaccum tests. The people in the photograph are the Cluster scientific Principal Investigators and Technical Managers (including André Balogh and Chris Carr from Imperial College), given a privileged close tour of the four spacecraft. (Photo ESA.)

A wine reception was held in the Cluster 2 Laboratory in SPAT to celebrate and thank the many people from within the group and Imperial College who have given their help and support to the team.

Julian Harris and André Balogh 30th November 1999

BBC Science Online features Cloud Physics

During October the HandsOnScience section of the BBC Online web site featured a number of items on cloud physics contributed by Samy Djavidnia of SPAT. The lead item was a three page DIY experiment on Cloud Watching Physics, featuring information on identifying clouds, their effect on climate, and how heavy they are. In support the Specialist Subject section contained an introductory article on the Earth's atmosphere including a page of links. Finally in Mind Games, readers were invited to test their knowledge against Samy's Atmospheric Quiz. I scored 9/10. See if you can do better!

Bob Forsyth 4th November 1999

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