The primary objective of the project is to establish a collaboration between Cyprus and Romania to conduct mutual solar-terrestrial studies exploiting the expertise of the corresponding ionospheric research groups in the two countries, that is ionospheric monitoring and modeling in Cyprus and solar-magnetospheric-geomagnetic interactions in Romania. The main scientific aim of the project is to explore the morphology of ionospheric storms over the European region and its dependence on solar and geomagnetic activity, season and time of day in order to identify and verify their characteristics.

The results and the subsequent analysis of observations from coordinated studies will aid towards improved understanding of the upper atmosphere environment over the European region and especially of the morphology and climatology of ionospheric irregularities over a significant latitudinal extent also enhancing the knowledge on the coupling mechanisms between the Sun and the terrestrial environment. Emphasis will be placed on the characterisation of the relevant phenomena under geomagnetic disturbed conditions due to space weather effects, which are the main cause of increased ionospheric variability, and their associated consequences which will enable the mitigation of the deleterious ionospheric propagation effects on practical terrestrial, Earth-space communication and navigation systems.

1. B Muslim, Haris Haralambous, Oikonomou, Sefria Anggarani  Global model of ionospheric slab thickness and its validation for foF2 prediction during ionospheric storm , Annals of Geophysics 2015 Vol 58, No 5 (2015).
2. Ray, Sarbani, Bidyut Roy, Krishnendu Sekhar Paul, Samiddha Goswami, Christina Oikonomou, Haris Haralambous, Babita Chandel, Ashik Paul (2017). Study of the effect of 17–18 March 2015 geomagnetic storm on the Indian longitudes using GPS and C/NOFS Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics.
3. Oikonomou H Haralambous , Impact of recent geomagnetic storms on ionospheric characteristics over Europe, International Symposium on Radio Systems and Space Plasma (ISRSSP 2014) Ruse Bulgaria October 2014.
4. G. Mostafa, H. Haralambous Impact of Enhanced X-Ray Flux on the Ionosphere over Cyprus During Strong Solar Flares, Third International Conference on Remote Sensing and Geoinformation of Environment Paphos Cyprus RSCy 2015 16-19 March 2015.
5. Haralambous H The Effect of Increased Absorption on the HF Spectrum due to a PCA Event 12th Ionospheric Effects Symposium May 2011 Washington (IES2008)  
6. Cander, H. Haralambous, Behaviour of the F2 peak ionosphere over Nicosia during quiet and disturb conditions from new DPS-4D ionosonde data, European Geosciences Union General Assembly (EGU2009) April 2009 Vienna.
7. H. Haralambous , L. Cander,   Space weather events: Ionospheric critical frequencies and total electron content over Nicosia, 2nd GNSS Vulnerabilities and Solutions 2009 Conference September 2009 Baska.
8. Cander, H. Haralambous, Observations of ionospheric variability and storm-time variations at Nicosia, European Geosciences Union General Assembly (EGU2010) Vienna 2010.
9. Haris Haralambous, Photos Vrionides, Lefteris Economou, Luigi Ciraolo, Ljiljana Cander Ionospheric response to the major geomagnetic storm during maximum solar activity, European Geosciences Union General Assembly (EGU2010) Vienna 2010.
10. Vryonides, Haralambous H Ionospheric behaviour over Cyprus driven by moderate geomagnetic storms in the rising phase of the current solar cycle 13th International Symposium on Equatorial Aeronomy (ISEA12) March 2012 Lima.
11. H Haralambous, P Vryonides, T.Leontiou A five year validation study of the IRI-STORM model International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy IAGA 12th Scientific Assembly August 2013 Yucatan, Mexico.
12. Haris Haralambous, Photos Vrionides, V. Dobrica, C. Demetrescu, G. Maris, D. Ionescu IRI STORM VALIDATION OVER EUROPE, European Geosciences Union General Assembly (EGU2014) Vienna April 2014.
13. H Haralambous,P Vryonides Impact of Space Weather effects on the ionosphere, 14th International Balkan Workshop on Applied Physics and Materials Science Costanta Romania July 2014. .
14. Haris Haralambous, Photos Vrionides, V. Dobrica, C. Demetrescu, G. Maris, D. Ionescu Effects of major storm events of the current solar cycle over Europe 13th Solar-Terrestrial Physics Symposium (STP 13) October 2014 Xian China.
15. Oikonomou, Haris Haralambous, P Vrionides, V. Dobrica, C. Demetrescu, G. Maris, D. Ionescu,  IRI STORM validation over Europe  11^th European Space Weather Week (ESWW11) November 2014 Liege.
16. Venera DOBRICA, Crisan DEMETRESCU, Georgeta MARIS MUNTEAN, Diana IONESCU, H Haralambous, Razvan GRECULEASA, Defining contemporary trends in space climate change and space weather. Geomagnetic and heliospheric signals, Asia Oceania Geosciences Society 13^th Annual Meeting  (AOGS2015) Singapore August 2015.
17. Paul, Haralambous H Study of the effect of March 17-18, 2015 geomagnetic storm on the midlatitude ionosphere using the European Digital Ionosonde network (DIAS) 2nd URSI-Regional Conference on Radio Science (URSI-RCRS-2015), Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India from 16-19 November, 2015.
18. H Haralambous, C. Oikonomou, Strong spatial and temporal variations of ionospheric characteristics over Europe driven by trough displacements during geomagnetic storms Solar Variability and its Heliospheric Effects Greece November 2015 Athens.
19. H Haralambous, T.Leontiou Comparison of Formosat-3/COSMIC Electron Density Profiles with IRI During Disturbed Conditions 13th Solar-Terrestrial Physics Symposium (STP 13) October 2014 Xian China.

The project consists of 5 work packages:

• WP1. Project Management
• WP2. Dissemination of Results
• WP3. Study of ionospheric storms over the European region
• WP4. Validation of the IRI STORM model over European latitudes
• WP5. Study of CME and HSS characteristics

The main scientific objective with respect to the ionospheric storm aspect of the project is to conduct extensive collection and analysis of Total Electron Content from GNSS receivers and foF2 and hmF2 data from the digital ionosonde in Cyprus and other ionosonde stations over the European region provided by the DIAS system (European Digital Upper Atmosphere Server) in order to analyse the morphology of ionospheric storms over Europe and its dependence on solar and geomagnetic activity, season and time of day in order to identify and verify their characteristics. In addition, to validate the STORM IRI model capability to adequately represent the time development of ionospheric storms over European latitudes.

The main objective with respect to the improvemant of ionospheric storm onset prediction, as a consequense to space weather events, is a study based on the estimation of real travel time of High speed streams (HSS) and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) from the recent observations from STEREO and SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) by comparing them with in-situ observations such as those taken by ACE (Advanced Composition Explorer), WIND , SOHO and STEREO spacecraft. The ultimate aim of these two project aspects is to explore the possibility of introducing additional information in existing forecasting models to enhance their capability to approximate ionospheric variability under geomagnetically disturbed conditions.

Partners

• Frederick Research Center

  

• Institute of Geodynamics of the Romanian Academy

  

Researchers

• Dr. Haris Haralambous / Frederick Research Center

• Dr. Theodoros Leontiou / Frederick University
• Dr. Photos Vryonides / Frederick University
• Dr. Christina Oikonomou / Frederick Research Center

• Dr. Crisan Demetrescu / Institute of Geodynamics of the Romanian Academy
• Dr. Venera Dobrica / Institute of Geodynamics of the Romanian Academy
• Marilena Mierla / Institute of Geodynamics of the Romanian Academy