Consortium

ETHNIKO ASTEROSKOPEIO ATHINON - NATIONAL OBSERVATORY OF ATHENS, Greece

The National Observatory of Athens (NOA) was established in 1842. Today it is one of the largest research centres in Greece. The activities of NOA are organised in three institutes staffed with high quality scientific, research and technical personnel: the Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications and Remote Sensing, the Institute of Environmental Research and Sustainable Development and the Geodynamics Institute. NOA carries out state-of-the-art basic and applied research in collaboration with other world-leading research centres. NOA’s research activities are focused on the terrestrial interior, the Earth’s atmosphere, the near-Earth’s space, the deep space and the astronomical Universe. Basic and applied research is conducted by using observational data from hundreds of ground-based stations and several space probes. The Centre, with its rich scientific outcomes and activities, is linked to entrepreneurship, culture, education and the popularisation of science. NOA offers critical social services, such as a daily monitoring of seismicity and issuing earthquake alerts to the Greek State Authorities on a 24/7 basis, weather forecasting, forest fires monitoring, ionospheric activity recording, space weather predictions for the European region, continuation of a 150 years long climatic dataset and operation of one of the largest European telescopes. It also provides the national gate to the European Space Agency.

The National Observatory of Athens participates in DISPEC with the Ionospheric Group of the Institute of Astronomy Astrophysics Space Applications and Remote Sensing. The Ionospheric Group performs research and development project for ionospheric modelling and monitoring while it operates the Athens Digisonde since 2000. The Group coordinates many European Commission funded projects (PITHIA-NRF, TechTIDE, T-FORS) and provides real-time services to the ESA Space Weather Network (The European Ionosonde Service and TID identification service).

UNIVERSITAT POLITECNICA DE CATALUNYA, Spain

The Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC) is a public University under the jurisdiction of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology.

The members of UPC-IonSAT team have several years of experience in ionospheric tomography with GNSS data. UPC-IonSAT is one of the IAAC (Ionospheric Associated Analysis Centre) that provide GIMs for the IGS (International GNSS Service), and it also provides GIMs in real time to the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation). UPC-IonSAT team has experience in exploiting the information provided from GIMs for extensive analysis of the ionosphere, its impact on telecommunications and navigation systems and users. Such studies have further developed in techniques for ionospheric state awareness and for mitigation in RF and GNSS systems. UPC-IonSAT will contribute to the project by applying their tomographic technique to detect and characterise long-term features of the ionosphere and their potential correlation with the atmospheric temperature. Furthermore, the longterm analysis of the ionospheric tomographic data set will be used to detect potential ionospheric imprints of abrupt high-energy geophysical events.

BOREALIS GLOBAL DESIGNS EOO, Bulgaria

The Borealis Global Design Ltd. (BGD) is a consulting company established in 2015 in Varna, Bulgaria, to provide highly specialised expertise relevant to detection, evaluation, and mitigation of the ionospheric effects on the navigational and geolocation systems that employ trans-ionospheric signal propagation, including systems for high frequency geolocation and high accuracy real-time GNSS navigation.

UNIWERSYTET WARMINSKO MAZURSKI W OLSZTYNIE – UNIVERSITY OF WARMIA AND MAZURY IN OLSZTYN, Poland

The University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn (UWM) and its Department of Geodesy has been widely recognised for its quality of research and training in satellite geodesy, and in particular in high precision GNSS methods and applications. Department of Geodesy has conducted several projects funded nationally and internationally related to GNSS positioning, navigation and ionosphere and troposphere studies (e.g. HORION, COSTO, FORSWAR, ATOMIC-WARTK). The Department owns self-developed methodology and software of ionosphere sounding and modeling, as well as space weather monitoring, based on precise carrier phase GNSS data. The Department has also developed its own global ionosphere model based on the combination of thin-plate splines and kriging, as well as ionosphere monitoring service. The experience in ionospheric studies has been extended to Low-Earth Orbit ionospheric data, and observing of lithosphere-ionosphere coupling, with the use of various data combination and inclusion of advanced spectral processing. The recent studies apply spectral detection of ionospheric anomalies focused on the application in natural hazard tracking.

OFFICE NATIONAL D'ETUDES ET DE RECHERCHES AEROSPATIALE, France 

The Office National d'Etudes et de Recherches Aérospatiales (ONERA) is the French national aerospace research centre. It is a public establishment with industrial and commercial operations, and carries out application-oriented research to support enhanced innovation and competitiveness in the aerospace and defense sectors. ONERA was created in 1946 as "Office National d’Études et de Recherches Aéronautiques". Since 1963, its official name has been "Office National d’Études et de Recherches Aérospatiales". However, in January 2007, ONERA has been dubbed "The French Aerospace Lab" to improve its international visibility. ONERA carries out a wide range of research for space agencies, both CNES in France and the European Space Agency (ESA), as well as for the French Defense Agency, DGA (Direction Générale de l’Armement). ONERA also independently conducts its own long-term research to anticipate future technology needs. It focuses on scientific research, for example in aerodynamics for concrete applications on aircraft, the design of launchers and new defense technologies, such as drones or unmanned aerial systems (UAS). ONERA also uses its research and innovation capabilities to support both French and European industry. ONERA has contributed to a number of landmark aerospace and defense programs in recent decades, including Airbus, Ariane, Rafale, Falcon, Mirage and Concorde.