Brazilian Space Agency (AEB) president José Raimundo Braga Coelho, left, and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden sign agreements to further research into heliophysics and space weather and to enhance global climate study and educational opportunities.
Photo: NASA/Bill Ingalls

[Via Satellite 07-01-2015] NASA and the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB) have signed agreements to further research into heliophysics and space weather, and to enhance global climate study and educational opportunities. The new partnerships build on a framework agreement between the U.S. government and the Brazilian government on cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space.

Brazil will now have access to, as well as the ability to process, space weather data from NASA’s Van Allen Probes mission. In addition, the agreement enables Brazilian participation in missions studying the sun’s impacts on Earth’s space environment such as the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission. Space weather affects satellites in orbit and can also impact electronics on the ground in more extreme cases.

Brazil also joined the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) program, which brings together teachers, students and scientists to use terrestrial and space-based observations to study the global environment.

NASA and AEB will also increase opportunities for Brazilian undergraduate and graduate students to participate in an internship at a NASA center through the NASA International Internship Program. The new agreement, signed separately by NASA and AEB on June 18 will provide a unique educational experience for Brazilian students while providing U.S. students an opportunity to work on international teams.