The “Luigi Broglio” Space Center is located in Malindi (Kenya, 40.19°E, 2.99°S). It has been managed since the 60’s by the University of Rome La Sapienza, through the San Marco Project Research Centre (CRSPM) and, due to its equatorial location on the Indian Ocean coast, it’s an ideal site for launch activities and ground-based satellite monitoring. The center is made up of two segments: the sea segment, with the ocean-based launch platform, and the land segment, with the data reception center. The center is linked to Italy through Intelsat in the context of the Italian Space Agency ASI-net. Read more…
This is a privileged site to deploy an ionospheric observatory because from the field of view encompasses the ionospheric sector referred to the dip equator and to the southern crest of the Equatorial Ionospheric Anomaly (EIA). The EIA is a peculiar structuring of the free electrons distribution that sees a minimum of electron density over the dip equator and two maxima at ± 10-20° from the equator (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Position of the “Luigi Broglio” Space Center (BSC, blue dot) with respect to the dip equator (orange tick line) and to the northern and southern crests of EIA (dashed orange lines) at ± 10-20°.
