ASIM on Columbus

Illustration of the Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM, bottom box) mounted to the European space laboratory Columbus.

The observatory is a collection of optical cameras, photometers and an X- and gamma-ray detector designed to look for electrical discharges born in stormy weather conditions that extend above thunderstorms into the upper atmosphere.

ASIM is international project funded by ESA and led by scientists from the Danish Technical University (DTU Space), the Birkeland Centre for Space Science of University of Bergen (NO), the University of Valencia (ES) and the Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA, France).

The industrial team that built the payload was led by Terma A/S (DK), with major contributions from DTU Space (DK), University of Bergen (NO), University of Valencia (ES), and the Space Research Centre of Polish Academy of Sciences (PL).