To be updated…

1 Nov. 2022 – The Tipping Point lecture
“The science of Astrophysics” by Konstantina Moutsouroufi

On Nov. 1st, Konstantina Moutsouroufi, WP6.5 Task Leader, gave an online lecture for the students of Panormos General Lyceum, Rethymnon, Crete, Greece, via The Tipping Point platform. The discussion was about different aspects of Astrophysics and research related to space.

25 Oct. 2022 – Topical Discussion Meeting
“The Prototype SafeSpace Space Weather Service” at European Space Weather Week 2022

Our team organized a Topical Discussion Meeting dedicated to our prototype space weather service, in the scope of the European Space Weather Week 2022 conference in Zagreb, Croatia. Prof. Ioannis Daglis, Dr. Sebastien Bourdarie, and Dr. Christos Katsavrias chaired the meeting. A presentation about the programme and the service was given to both on site and online participants, who engaged in a fruitful discussion.

23 Oct. 2022 – Exhibition
“Space weather & Earth’s magnetic field” by SafeSpace, at the Athens Science Festival

SafeSpace participated in Athens Science Festival (ASF), on October 21-23, 2022 at Technopolis City of Athens. Our activity, “Space Weather & Earth’s Magnetic Field” was presented in the Interactive Exhibition section of the ASF, in the MECHANICAL WORKSHOP room (Μηχανουργείο/Michanourgeio) on Sunday, from 11:00 am to 6:00pm.  

In the scope of the SafeSpace activity, a scientific magnetometer was exhibited, an instrument used to take measurements of the terrestrial magnetic field. Its fluctuations are affected by space weather phenomena, which can affect life on Earth (communications, navigation, electricity distribution, etc). Additionally, the relation between science and art was highlighted, through the “sounds of space” that are unveiled by a magnetometer. 

The activity was hosted by the National Observatory of Athens, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, as well as by SafeSpace. 

30 Sep. 2022 – Exhibition by SafeSpace, at Researchers’ Night Prague

SafeSpace participated in Researchers’ Night Prague, with several activities. Ivana Kolmasova and Onrej Santolik gave public talks titled “Journey for lightning in the solar system” and “Music of the spheres”, respectively. Additionally, two exhibitions were held, with sounds of space (a big TV screen with interactive on demand sounds and explanation) and the Planeterella, where David Pisa demonstrated the interaction of the solar wind with the Earth’s magnetic field.

30 Sep. 2022 – Exhibition by SafeSpace, at Researchers’ Night Greece

SafeSpace participated in Researchers’ Night Greece, with an exhibition titled “Geomagnetic storms and satellite hazards”, including the presentation of a scientific magnetometer, the sounds of space, and a mock up of the terrestrial magnetosphere. The activity will be hosted by the National Observatory of Athens, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, as well as by SafeSpace. 

27 Sep. 2022 – Hands on Workshop 
Presenting the SafeSpace Service, at the Hellenic Space Center

The SafeSpace Team held a Hands-on Users Workshop on Tuesday, 27 September 2022, on the premises of the Hellenic Space Center in Athens. The Workshop was targeted to our Advisory Panel Members as well as other Users, and was dedicated to the presentation of the SafeSpace service and to discussions on its functionality, content and format.

A collection of moments from the Workshop can be viewed in Youtube.

24-25 Sep. 2022 – Exhibition by SafeSpace, at Open Days “Space for Climate”, Brussels

SafeSpace participated in the Open days “Space for climate”, Brussels, with the educational plasmasphere video, created by BIRA-IASB. Open Days “Space for climate” has been a weekend of fun and games for the youngest, scientific discovery for the whole family and direct interaction with the scientists themselves. Visitors that stepped onto the grounds of the Space Pole in Uccle, had the opportunity to learn about plasmasphere. The plasmasphere is a region of space around Earth where electrically charged particles are trapped by the Earth’s magnetic field. This little known part of our planet’s magnetosphere has very interesting properties, and changes in the plasmasphere can have important consequences for our life on the surface.

20 Jul. 2022 – Public Talk
“Historical Auroral Dislays and Millenial Space Weather History” by Dr. Hishashi Hayakawa

A public outreach talk by Dr. Hishashi Hayawawa (Designated assistant professor, Institute for Advanced Research Nagoya University, Japan) was given in the gardens of the Visitor Center of National Observatory of Athens located on the Hill of the Nymphs, in Athens, Greece.

Solar eruption occasionally launch geo-effective interplanetary coronal mass ejections and cause geomagnetic storms and low-latitude aurorae. Such sequence has been occasionally called space storms or space weather events. It is important to research these storms, as they can seriously affect our modern technological infrastructure in their extreme cases. However, their analyses are challenging, as these extreme storms break out only infrequently and the modern scientific datasets do not have enough chronological coverages. Here, historical aurorae provide valuable insights on such investigations, as the equatorward boundaries of the auroral oval have empirically good correlation with the intensity of the associated geomagnetic storms. This talk will visualise recent archival investigations for such historical auroral records from the early modern observations to the ancient period. Special emphases are placed on some cases with Greek observations too. These investigations allow us to extend our space-weather chronology for three millennia and access a number of extreme storms in this interval.

14-15 Jul. 2022 – SafeSpace PB and PTC Meetings in Athens

The 5th SafeSpace Project Board Meeting and the 26th Technical Committee Meeting of SafeSpace were held at the Athens University History Museum, in Plaka, Athens (Greece), on July 14 and 15, 2022. 

The agenda included a coffee break with Greek songs by the band “Χαρταετοί” and Konstantina Moutsouroufi, and an invited talk on “The extreme solar and geomagnetic storms in January 1938” by Dr. Hishashi Hayakawa, Nagoya University (Japan).

Furthermore, a joint dinner at GH Attikos Restaurant was organized, as well as a visit to the Acropolis and to the Acropolis Museum.

13 Jul. 2022 – Public Talk
“Space Weather Impacts on Spacecraft” by Dr. Sébastien Bourdarie

Dr. Sébastien Bourdarie, researcher at Office National d’Etudes et de Recherches Aérospatiales (ONERA), France, gave a public outreach talk about space weather impacts on spacecraft, in the gardens of the Visitor Center of National Observatory of Athens located on the Hill of the Nymphs, in Athens, Greece.

Our star, the Sun, is very dynamic ranging from very quiet to extremely active times. In this last case, intense solar emissions, mainly photons and plasma, may be emitted toward the Earth orbit. From space missions dedicated to Sun’s observation one can observe high speed solar wind streams, coronal mass ejection or very energetic solar particles. Most of these events are geoeffective when reaching the Earth, meaning they modify properties of our space environment. While the first two induce magnetic storms in space, the third one is seen like a shower of energetic particles flying through our space environment and leaving away. This relationship from the Sun to the Earth space environment is known under space weather. Depending on the strength of the event and on the design of space vehicles, the impact on spacecraft may range from transient service disruption to complete loss of spacecraft. Along this talk, a review of space weather events from the Sun to the Earth space environment and their potential impacts on space vehicle will be given. Examples of spacecraft anomalies/effects attributed to space weather will illustrate real life in space.

24 May 2022 – Dedicated splinter session at EGU 2022
“Advancing our forecasting capabilities for electron enhancements in the outer Van Allen belt”

Our team organized a splinter session dedicated to our programme, in the scope of the EGU General Assembly 2022 in Vienna, Austria. Prof. Ioannis Daglis chaired the meeting, which was aimed at presenting and discussing the progress of our efforts to achieve more accurate predictions of electron enhancements in the outer Van Allen belt, pursued in the framework of the EU H2020 SafeSpace project.

15 Apr. 2022 – Educational video by BIRA-IASB

What is the Earth’s plasmasphere and how do we study it in Belgium? The plasmasphere is a region of space around Earth where electrically charged particles are trapped by the Earth’s magnetic field. This little known part of our planet’s magnetosphere has very interesting properties, and changes in the plasmasphere can have important consequences for out life on the surface. In this video, three scientists of the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy explain in further detail what the term “plasmasphere” means, how they study it and why.

The video is available on YouTube.

18 Feb. 2022 – Music Concert and Public Talks
“Detecting and feeling the sounds of space” by Lina Tonia, opening talk by Ioannis A. Daglis

The SafeSpace Scientific Research Programme organised a musical event titled “Detecting and feeling the sounds of space”, on Friday, February 18, 2022, at 21:00. The event was hosted at the Theoharakis Foundation, under the auspices of the Hellenic Space Center, and it premiered the works called “Electron Emissions” and “Radiation Belts”, of award-winning composer Lina Tonia, played by violins and cello. Prof. Ioannis Daglis and composer Lina Tonia opened the event giving talks about the sounds of space and the musical compositions that were presented.

Free entrance, with vaccination or recovery certificate.
Tickets only available by pre-registration at Eventbrite. 

Press Release (in greek)   [Facebook Event]

Watch the recording of “Electron Emissions”.

10 Feb. 2022 – Seminar
“Acceleration and loss of relativistic electrons in the outer radiation belt: recent scientific insights and prediction efforts” by Christos Katsavrias 

The seminar was given by Dr Christos Katsavrias, Post-doctoral researcher at National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. It is organized by the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, via teleconference. 

The dynamics of the outer radiation belt are driven by a complex interplay between acceleration and loss mechanisms leading to a broad energy range of energetic electrons. In addition, these physical mechanisms depend on the electron energy, the timescale, and the various types of geospace disturbances. Electric fields and plasma waves are the main factors regulating the electron transport, acceleration and loss, yet both of them are driven directly or indirectly by disturbances originating in the Sun, propagating through interplanetary space and impacting the Earth. Here we discuss our current understanding of the response of the outer Van Allen belt electrons to various types of solar wind and internal magnetospheric forcing, to geospace magnetic storms of different intensities and to intense magnetospheric substorms using electron phase space density calculations as well as concurrent Pc5 and chorus wave activity observations during the Van Allen Probes era. Furthermore, we discuss recent efforts for the nowcasting/forecasting of the response of the outer belt electron population using physics-based or data-driven model and we emphasize the importance of Machine Learning methods in improving the current models.

27-28 Jan. 2022 – Project Meetings in Spain, visit at Thales Alenia Space España

The 4th Project Board Meeting and the 23th Technical Commitee Meeting of SafeSpace were both held at Eurostars Madrid Foro Hotel in Tres Cantos, Madrid, Spain. Additionally, a WP4/WP5 Technical Meeting was held, on January 27 and 28, 2022. 

The SafeSpace Team also visited the Thales Alenia Space España facilities at Tres Cantos, Madrid, Spain. TAS-E was the host of our recent meetings. Its a Spanish company founded in 1988, devoted to the development and supply of Space systems and equipment with application in telecommunications, navigation, Earth observation, science, exploration, space transportation and infrastructure.

26 Oct. 2021 – Topical Discussion Meeting
“Improving our Sun-to-Belts nowcasting and forecasting capabilities” at European Space Weather Week 2021

Our team organized a Topical Discussion Meeting in the scope of the European Space Weather Week 2021 conference in Glasgow, UK. Prof. Ioannis Daglis, Prof. Stefaan Poedts and Prof. Yuri Shprits chaired the meeting. A presentation about three space weather projects (EUHFORIA 2.0, PAGER and SafeSpace) selected for funding in 2019 by the European Commission was given, considering their concept, objectives, achievements and challenges. The TDM included both on site and online participants, who engaged in a fruitful discussion.

You can view the TDM report here.

17 Aug. 2021 – Public Talk
“Space Sonatas” by Ioannis A. Daglis 

The public talk “Space Sonatas” was given by Prof. Ioannis Daglis, Professor of Space Physics at National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, SafeSpace Project Coordinator, on August 17th.

The talk was given during the Iraia-Pythagoria Festival, at the Town Hall Square of Samos island, Greece.

Samos island is the birth place of Pythagoras, a greek philosopher, mathematician, and founder of the Pythagorean brotherhood that, although religious in nature, formulated principles that influenced the thought of Plato and Aristotle and contributed to the development of mathematics and Western rational philosophy. 

23 Jul. 2021 – Public Talk
“The Sounds of Space” by Ioannis A. Daglis and Fiori Metallinou

The public talk “The Sounds of Space” took place in the context of the communication actions of the research program “SafeSpace” funded by the European Commission and implemented by eight European agencies, coordinated by the National and Kapodistrian University Athens. http://www.space.phys.uoa.gr/safespace.html 

Speakers are the Professor of Space Physics of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and President of the Hellenic Space Center, Ioannis Α. Daglis, and the astrophysicist, head of Astronomy Communication at the Thissio Visitor Center of the National Observatory of Athens, Fiori Metallinou.

Date: Friday, July 23, at 21:00
Place: In the courtyard of the Ecclesiastical Museum of Milos, in the center of Adamas, in Milos Island, Greece.
Audience: adults and children from 7 years and over.
Language: Greek

21-23 Jul. 2021 – “Sun-to-Belts Workshop”
Island of Milos, Greece

The SafeSpace Project team held the “Sun-to-Belts Workshop: nowcasting, forecasting, hindcasting”, in “Georgios Eliopoulos” Conference Center of Milos, Greece. This targeted workshop comprised of an extended participant list, giving talks of interest to the SafeSpace Project and to the greater scientific community.

The Workshop Programme can be found here or viewed in the Image Gallery on the right.

11 Jul. 2021 – Public Talks
“The National Observatory of Athens, in Samos”
by Fiori Anastasia Metallinou

A series of public talks and presentations about the Sun, Space Weather, stars and constellations, space exploration and misisons, for children over 7 years old, by astrophysicist and SafeSpace researcher Dr. Metallinou.

The talks were given during the Iraia-Pythagoria Festival, at the Ancient Theatre of Pythagorion, on Samos island, Greece.

Samos island is the birth place of Pythagoras, a greek philosopher, mathematician, and founder of the Pythagorean brotherhood that, although religious in nature, formulated principles that influenced the thought of Plato and Aristotle and contributed to the development of mathematics and Western rational philosophy. 

3 Apr. 2021 – Public Talk
“The Earth’s Magnetosphere” by George Balasis

The third public Talk, titled “The Earth’s Magnetosphere” was given by Dr. George Balasis, Research Director of the Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications and Remote Sensing (IAASARS) at the National Observatory of Athens (NOA), Greece, on April 3rd.

[Facebook Post]

3 Dec. 2020 – The Tipping Point lecture
“Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Physics” by Ioannis Daglis

On Dec. 3rd, Prof. Ioannis Daglis, SafeSpace coordinator, gave an online lecture for the students of the 4th High School of Chios, Greece, via The Tipping Point platform. The discussion was about different aspects of Astrophysics, technology spin offs, research and careers related to space.

10 Sept. 2020 – Documentary
“Higher than the sky”, on Greek National TV

The Space Physics Group of the Department of Physics of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, led by Prof. I. A. Daglis, participated in a documentary for the Greek National TV, directed by Stavros Kostopoulos. Members of the group are also SafeSpace team members, and talked about the Programme and its aims. 

The documentary is avalable on ERTFLIX (in greek, no subtitles available yet).

4 Sept. 2020 – Public Talk
“Music of Space Plasmas” by Ontrej Santolik

The second public Talk, titled “Music of Space Plasmas” was given by Prof. Ondrej Santolik, head of the Department of Space Physics at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences and professor at the Charles University in Prague, on September 4th.

The talk was given in the gardens of the Visitor Center of National Observatory of Athens located on the Hill of the Nymphs, in Athens, Greece.
The talk was filmed by the Bodossaki Cultural Foundation and may be found in Bodossaki Lectures on Demand (BLOD) platform.

[Facebook Event]

15 Jul. 2020 – Public Talk
“Space Sonatas” by Ioannis Daglis

The first public Talk, titled “Space Sonatas” was given by Prof. Ioannis Daglis, Professor of Space Physics at National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, SafeSpace Project Coordinator, on July the 15th.

The talk was given in the gardens of the Visitor Center of National Observatory of Athens located on the Hill of the Nymphs, in Athens, Greece. The site is situated across from the Parthenon and just to the north of the hill of Pnyx, where Meton built his heliotrope in the 5th century BC to perform the first astronomical observations of the classical Greek period.

[Facebook Event]

21 Jan 2020 – SafeSpace Kick-Off Meeting

The SafeSpace Kick-off Meeting (KOM) took place in Athens, on January 21, 2020. The KOM was hosted in the historic neoclassical building “Kostis Palamas”, which was erected in 1857 and serves as Cultural Centre and Lounge of the University of Athens.

At the KOM opening the Rector of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Prof. Meletios Athanasios Dimopoulos expressed his support towards research and welcomed the leading scientists coming from high-profile universities, research institutes as well as specialized companies active in space, across Europe.

During the KOM, 32 participants from all consortium partners, the Project Officer Andrej Rožkov (European Commission) and representatives of the Galileo Control Centre and of OHB Hellas, had the chance to meet in person for the first time and commence a very productive collaboration in light of the upcoming demanding project’s tasks. All work package leaders presented their 3-year action plan and shared ideas and valuable experience on how to best serve the project’s aims.