IMAGES: GETTY; COHEN-TZEDEK ADI
REICHMAN UNIVERSITY
Taking Israeli research to space
Ilan-ES has one goal: understanding the relationship between thunderstorms and upper-atmospheric lightning. This requires help from an Israeli astronaut, a group of students and a global network of citizen scientists. Professor Yoav Yair, dean of Reichman University’s School of Sustainability, tells us more
What’s the aim of Ilan-ES? The goal of the project is to duplicate the observation of lightnings and transient luminous events (TLEs) — strange, magnificent illuminations that happen above thunderstorms, in the upper atmosphere — combining simultaneous ground- and space-based observations. This has never been done successfully. When
researchers do imaging from the ground or space, they get a two-dimensional image of a three-dimensional phenomenon. With both, you can recreate a stereoscopic picture to better understand the coupling processes between the lower and upper atmosphere.
The experiment is named after Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut to reach space. What’s the story behind the project? I spent five years at NASA working as a project manager on the first Israeli space mission, from 1998 until it tragically ended in 2003 [when the shuttle disintegrated as it re-entered the atmosphere]. During that mission — among other things — Ilan Ramon helped carry out a similar
28 Israeli Academia | 2022
experiment aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia, conducting observations of TLEs. We’re following up on that experiment with
Eytan Stibbe, who’s the second Israeli to travel to space. He conducted observations from the International Space Station (ISS), and we recorded the same phenomena from Earth. While Ilan-ES is, in this sense, a continuation,
it’s also a new level of science, thanks to much more technologically advanced cameras and robust ground-based observations. Eytan was also a good friend of the late Ilan, so this experience will hopefully provide a sort of closure, too, for the both of us.
Who is supporting you and this project? Ilan-ES is a global project, as well as a really exciting opportunity to combine high-level science, citizen science and school education. We’ve given cameras to 12
schools in Israel, two in Rwanda, two in Ghana, one in
Zimbabwe and one in Hong Kong, where students have joined the project. We’re also relying on an additional network of amateur cameramen all over the world — Europe, China, the Caribbean, Colombia. So many groups have offered to collaborate
because having human eyes in space is a unique opportunity. This is what differentiates the International Space Station today — or the Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003 — from a satellite: when a satellite goes into orbit, what its camera detects is what you get; a human, on the other hand, can point the camera to where they see a storm and, hopefully, record new science.
What about Reichman students? I have 12 students involved in the project, mostly from the International School, from
the sustainability and government double-major program. They immediately understood this is a once-in- a-lifetime opportunity; you don’t get to work on a space mission every day!
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