Space scientist Christian Möstl has become the first Austrian to receive the prestigious ‘Kristian Birkeland Medal’

A major honour for Christian Möstl, space scientist, astrophysicist and both founder and director of the Austrian Space Weather Office (ASWO) at GeoSphere Austria: The Styrian-born scientist is the first Austrian to receive the internationally renowned “Kristian Birkeland Medal” from the European Space Weather and Space Climate Association (E-SWAN).

Christian Möstl was chosen because he and his team have developed new methods that combine fundamental research with applied research in the field of space weather. ‘And that is precisely our aim at the Austrian Space Weather Office (ASWO) – we make real-time forecasts, but we also try to understand exactly what is needed in research to improve these forecasts,’ explains Möstl. ‘We then use these findings in particular for the new space weather missions being planned by the ESA, to track solar storms from the Sun to Earth, for example, and to extend the lead time for space weather forecasts to several hours.’

GeoSphere Austria’s Austrian Space Weather Office is regarded worldwide as a leader in research into methods that will, in future, enable significantly earlier yet sufficiently accurate forecasts of solar storms. This requires space probes in special orbits around the Sun that can repeatedly get considerably closer to the Sun than is currently possible. Möstl: ‘We are at the very forefront internationally in terms of automatically detecting solar storms using AI methods and tracking them from the Sun to Earth using images from space probes, in order to better predict their arrival time.’

„Herzliche Gratulation an Christian Möstl und sein Team. Die Verleihung der Kristian Birkeland-Medaille ist eine hochverdiente internationale Auszeichnung und ein großartiger Erfolg“, freut sich Andreas Schaffhauser, wissenschaftlicher Generaldirektor GeoSphere Austria. Diese Ehrung würdige nicht nur die „herausragenden wissenschaftlichen Leistungen“ Möstls, sondern auch „die erfolgreiche Arbeit des gesamten Teams des Austrian Space Weather Office, insbesondere an der Schnittstelle zwischen Grundlagenforschung und operationellen Anwendungen“, betonte Schaffhauser. „Die Auszeichnung bestätigt zugleich eindrucksvoll die strategische und fachliche Ausrichtung, die wir mit der Gründung des ASWO verfolgt haben, und bestärkt uns in den geplanten weiteren Entwicklungsschritten.“

Christian Möstl, who completed his PhD at the University of Graz in 2009, founded the Austrian Space Weather Office in 2022. The author of 140 scientific publications has also been a working group leader for the ESA Solar Orbiter Mission since 2020, was appointed to the WMO Expert Team for Space Weather in 2026, and represents Austria in a space weather programme (ISWI) run by UNOOSA (United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs). The Graz-based researcher is not only striving to gain a better understanding of the formation and propagation of solar storms from the Sun to Earth using the entire fleet of space probes operated by ESA, NASA and JAXA. Improved real-time space weather forecasts and the design of future space weather missions are also major priorities for Möstl.

Kristian Olaf Bernhard Birkeland (1867–1917) was a Norwegian physicist who conducted intensive research into the aurora. Birkeland, whose likeness appeared on the 200-kroner banknote and after whom a lunar crater and an asteroid are named, was nominated for the Nobel Prize a total of seven times without ever receiving it. The medal has been awarded since 2013.