ESCAPE - The European Science Cluster of Astronomy & Particle Physics ESFRI Research Infrastructures has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement no. 824064.
The Royal Observatory of Belgium (Koninklijke Sterrenwacht Van Belgie – ORB) is a Belgian federal research institute working under the aegis of the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office. The scientific tasks appointed to the Observatory consist of both fundamental research as well as scientific services, with a special focus on long-term continuity and stewardship of historical data sets. Since 2010, the Royal Observatory consists of 4 Operational Directorates, amongst which the “Solar Physics and Space Weather” directorate. The mission of SIDC is to advance knowledge on the Sun and its influence on the solar system, through research and observations. This knowledge and expertise are put to use through operational services and dissemination. The observational activities range from solar radio-astronomy station and a dedicated building for ground-based solar imaging, to the Science Operations Center for the ESA PROBA2 satellite. Up to a Terabyte per day of additional observations are copied over from other solar observing satellites (such as the NASA STEREO and SDO mission) into the ROB/SIDC data repositories in support of solar research and solar monitoring.