Physics and Earth monitoring

 

The Earth is constantly monitored from space to the ocean floor, through different mssions, like SAFE, SwArm For Earthquake study,which is a project coordinated by the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) and funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), to investigate, by means of data collected from satellites and from ground-based instruments, the phase preceding the great earthquakes. To do this, INGV experts on seismology, physics of the upper atmosphere, geomagnetism and satellite data processing will jointly work on the research, supported by Planetek Italia.

 

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In Italy we studied in depth some missions :

 

-  CSES MISSION is a project to study phenomena of an electromagnetic nature and their correlation with the geophysical activity, because correlation between the electromagnetic emissions related to the seismic activity of the Earth and the occurrence of disturbances in ion-magnetospheric plasma.  See more

 

 

 

-  RADIO INTERFEROMETRY

The Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) provides important geodetic, geophysical, and astrometric information : VLBI measurements have been used to determine the sizes, shapes, rotations, flexures and tectonic deformations of networks of observing stations and have attained a level of accuracy and stability that is unmatched by any other observing technique.  See more

 

 

 

-  GINGER EXPERIMENT

 

GINGER (Gyroscopes In GEneral Relativity) is an experiment aimed to verify the deformation of the time-space metrics due to the Earth spinning  motion (Lense-Thirring effect).

Three mutually orthogonal laser gyroscopes in a octahedral frame will measure Earth rotation rate with a relative inaccuracy lower than 10^-9. The comparison of this measurement on the rotating Earth with the sidereal time given by the Very Large Base Interferometer array will give the measure of the effect. The experiment need to be located in an underground laboratory (Gran Sasso INFN National Laboratory), in order to reduce the noise induced by atmospheric and hydrologic perturbations.  See more

 

-  SEISMO-ELECTROMAGNETIC

 

Seismo-electromagnetic effects refer to electromagnetic (EM) signals generated by fault failure processes in the Earth's crust. These may occur slowly (when associated with plate tectonic loading, slow earthquakes, postseismic slip, etc.) or rapidly preceding, during and following earthquakes.

 

Earthquakes can be preceded by electrical waves so there is the possibility of predicting earthquakes and thereby saving countless lives.  See more

 

-  NEMO-SN1

 

The NEutrino Mediterranean Observatory-Submarine Network 1 (NEMO-SN1) seafloor observatory is located in the central Mediterranean Sea, Western Ionian Sea, off Eastern Sicily (Southern Italy) at 2100-m water depth. It is a prototype of a cabled deep-sea multiparameter observatory and the first one operating with real-time data transmission in Europe .

NEMO-SN1 is performing geophysical and environmental long-term monitoring by acquiring seismological, geomagnetic, gravimetric, accelerometric, physico-oceanographic, hydroacoustic, and bioacoustic measurements. See more