NATIONAL REPORT FOR GREECE I A Daglis National

NATIONAL REPORT FOR GREECE I. A. Daglis National Observatory of Athens, Institute for Space Applications and Remote Sensing

National Observatory of Athens (NOA) Institute for Space Applications and Remote Sensing (ISARS) Research at NOA/ISARS is focused on the study of the development and decay of geospace storms through ground magnetic disturbances, as well as of intense geospace storms by solar/interplanetary drivers and internal magnetospheric properties. Particle acceleration by substorm-induced electric fields and interaction of Mercury’s magnetosphere with the solar wind are also studied. Theoretical work is carried out on the energy release process during solar flares, solar energetic particle acceleration, transport and radiation during solar flares, modeling and numerical simulations. Another research subject is the study of magnetic flux emergence in active regions, sunspot oscillations and fine structure of the solar chromosphere, with observations from SOHO and TRACE, as well as from ground based instruments (e. g. THEMIS, DOT). More information can be found at http: //www. space. noa. gr.

ISARS operates an automatic ionospheric station in Penteli, from September 2000. The station (http: //www. iono. noa. gr) operates with a Digisonde Portable Sounder-4 (DPS-4) sounding system, with a transmitting power of 300 W. It covers the frequency range from 1 – 40 MHz and has two crossed delta transmit antennas on a 30 m tower. The ionospheric station provides real time on-line ionograms to the World Data Centers and to individual users via FTP. ISARS is currently setting up a magnetometer array in Greece (http: //zitis. space. noa. gr/geomag). The array is expected to eventually consist of four low-latitude ground-based observation sites of the Earth’s magnetic field (planned for August 2008). These stations will be latitudinally equi-spaced between 30Α and 36Α corrected geomagnetic latitude. One of the primary research objectives assigned to this project will be the study of geomagnetic field line resonances-FLRs.

Academy of Athens Office for Space Research and Technology The Office's activities cover research in the fields of Space and Magnetospheric Physics, Planetary Physics, and Plasma Physics, with emphasis in the analysis of data provided by ongoing space missions, in which the Office of Space Research actively participates and also collaborates with other institutions such as the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) of the Johns Hopkins University in the U. S. A. , the Max Planck Institut fur Sonnensystemforschung in Germany, and the Centre d' Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements in France. Data analysis is currently performed on the following missions: Voyager, Ulysses, ACE, Cassini, MESSENGER, New Horizons ? ? ? ?

National Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA) The Cosmic ray group of NKUA focuses on the topics of Galactic Cosmic rays, Solar, Interplanetary and Magnetospheric Physics, as well as on the study of the solar flare associated phenomena at the Earth’s orbit. They studied the long-term modulation of the coronal index, in relation to the interplanetary magnetic field, and a series of intense cosmic ray and solar effects, while a close collaboration with the group of ARTEMIS IV spectrograph has started. Athens Neutron Monitor Station is recording galactic cosmic ray intensity, while its temporal resolution is about to increase to less than 1 sec (http: //cosray. phys. uoa. gr). A Neutron Monitor Network in real-time has been established, in collaboration with other countries, in order to detect the onset of Ground Level Enhancement (GLE) that will give information for the arrival of the interplanetary disturbance at the Earth.

Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki (AUTH) The research group at AUTH continues developing statistical models for coronal heating and “flares”, assuming that the magnetic fields in active regions are close to the self organized critical state and they use techniques borrowed from complex systems dynamics, to study the global explosive properties of active regions. They consider “flares” as symptoms of the evolution of active regions. Magnetic energy release, particle acceleration and radiation processes of evolving active regions are studied using the above models.

Democretian University of Thrace (DUTH) The space physics group of DUTH continues the study of interplanetary energetic particle phenomena in the ecliptic (ACE, Ulysses s/c) and out of the ecliptic (Ulysses s/c). Energetic particle characteristics, dynamics and acceleration in Earth’s magnetosphere, magnetosheath, as well as upstream from the bow shock (Geotail, Imp-8, Interball, ACE and Wind s/c) are also studied. Moreover, they continue their research on energetic particle phenomenology (periodicities, bursts etc), dynamics and acceleration in the Jovian magnetosphere (with Ulysses and Voyager-1 / 2 s/c).