Ørsted-satellitten

The first Danish satellite, the Ørsted satellite is a small  equipped with high-precision instruments to measure the Earths magnetic field and the high-energy particle radiation in space as well as meteorological data. DMI is involved in the Ørsted satellite experiment with contributions within the following areas:

Operation of the antenna which receives the data and communication system to control the satellite

Operation of the Ørsted Science Data Center for processing and distribution of data

Science management and international coordination of the Ørsted project

Construction of the Charged Particle Detector (CPD) experiment for investigation of high-energy radiation

Research projects based on Ørsted geomagnetic data to investigate current systems in space

Processing of GPS-data to be used to help predicting weather- and climate changes

The Ørsted satellitte, with a weight of only 60,7 kg, was sent in orbit the 23 February 1999 with a DELTA II rocket together with an American ARGOS satellite weighing 2700 kg as main cargo. The Ørsted satellite had a predicted lifetime of a little more than a year, but has now been in orbit more than 4 years and is still going strong.

The satellite has been named after Hans Christian Ørsted (1777-1851), a Danish scientist and professor at the University of Copenhagen. The Ørsted project is carried out in colaboration with a number of Danish scientific institutions and private companies.

The instrumentation of Ørsted

The results so far from the Ørsted project