International scientific contracts of collaboration:

2010-2015: responsible for 9 international scientific contracts of collaboration between the Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radiowave Propagation of Moscow (Russia) and INGV (7 contracts), between the Radio Wave Propagation Center of the Science and Technology Park of Olsztyn (Poland) (1 contract), and between the Space Research Centre of Warsaw (Poland) and INGV (1 contract), for installing the “Autoscala” algorithm, whose I am one of the inventors, on the corresponding ionosondes. Within these contracts of collaboration nine licenses of Autoscala have been sold by INGV for a total amount of about 180000,00 euro.

 

Participation to relevant national and international projects:

2022-in progress: CAESAR (Comprehensive spAce wEather Studies for the ASPIS prototype Realization), project funded by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to set up a Space Weather portal for the Italian community that will serve as a data archive and a supplier of tools and products.

 

2022-in progress: iFURTHER (high FreqUency oveR The Horizon sensors’ cognitivE netwoRk), funded by the European Community, to perform a feasibility study of an OTH (Over the Horizon) radar over Europe.

 

2022-in progress: T-FORS (Travelling Ionospheric Disturbances Forecasting System), funded by the European Community, aimed at developing a prototype system for Travelling Ionospheric Disturbances (Medium and Large scale) forecasting.

 

2021-in progress: LIMADOU SCIENZA+, project funded by the Italian ASI agency in the framework of the CSES satellite mission, to foster the scientific use of data measured by instruments on board CSES, launched on 2 February 2018, to perform studies related to the magnetosphere and the ionosphere.

 

2020-in progress: TROPOMAG (Influence of geomagnetic storms on the TROPOsphere dynamics. Can the Earth’s MAGnetic field be considered a proxy of climate changes?), an institutional project of the Environment Department of INGV, which aims at investigating, for the first time, the connection between Space Weather and Climate with a multidisciplinary and multi-instrument approach.

 

2021-in progress: ATTEMPT (integrATed sysTEm for Multi-hazard from sPace over mediTerranean), a project funded by INGV which aims at realizing a demonstrator of an integrated system able to monitor different natural hazards on the base of a multi-parametric data archiving system.

 

2021-2022: SINFONIA (Attività atmosferiche e ionosferiche in relazione a forti fenomeni energetici naturali), Task A1 of Pianeta Dinamico, an institutional project through which among other things they want to characterize better and better the ionospheric dynamics for quiet and disturbed geomagnetic conditions.

 

2019-2022: CEI6 (Circumterrestrial Environment: Impact of Sun-Earth Interaction), PRIN project funded by MIUR, aimed at investigating the physical processes occurring in Earth's magnetosphere, ionosphere and down to the ground, in response to the solar activity forcing, with the goal of significantly advancing the scientific knowledge on these topics. This advancement of scientific knowledge is a necessary step forward to provide new tools for Space Weather event forecasting, and thus help keeping people and infrastructures on Earth and in the Geospace safe.

 

2019-2021: SPIRIT (Space weather in Polar Ionosphere: the Role of Turbulence), funded by PNRA, aimed at characterizing the ionospheric turbulence at polar latitudes in both hemispheres.

 

2018-2021: INTENS (characterization of IoNospheric TurbulENce level by Swarm constellation), funded by ESA, aimed at characterizing the ionospheric turbulence by means of magnetic field and plasma measurements carried out by Swarm satellites.

 

2015-2019: Upper atmosphere observations and Space Weather, funded by PNRA, aimed at improving the network of instruments, installed at the Mario Zucchelli station in Antarctica, used to sound the various features of the polar ionospheric plasma.

 

2016-2017: ESA-IBISCO (Ionospheric environment characterization for Biomass Calibration over South East Asia), funded by ESA in the Alcantara framework, aimed to the study of the ionospheric morphology at low latitudes in the South East Asian sector as a support to the satellite mission BIOMASS.

 

2016-2017: ESA-IRIS (Ionospheric Research for Biomass in South America), funded by ESA in the Alcantara framework, aimed to the study of the ionospheric morphology at low latitudes in the South America sector as a support to the satellite mission BIOMASS.

 

2015-2016: Oblique Ionograms and ionospheric models, funded by INGV, aimed at improving an ionospheric ray-tracing algorithm.

 

2015-2016: Long-term trend of the ionospheric parameters recorded at the Rome ionospheric station, funded by INGV, aimed at verifying the hypothesis of the geomagnetic control on ionospheric long-term trends, by exploiting ionospheric data recorded at the ionospheric station of Rome.

 

2015-2016: IONORING, funded by INGV, aimed at developing a tool to real-time monitor TEC over Italy by exploiting the RING (Rete Integrata Nazionale GPS) network.

 

2014-2016: MISW (Mitigation of space weather threats to GNSS services - FP7-SPACE-2013-1) tackled the research challenges associated with GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) and Space Weather to bring practical solutions right into the forefront of European Industry.

 

2014-2016: AUSPICIO (AUtomatic Scaling of Polar Ionograms and Cooperative Ionospheric Observations), funded by PNRA, aimed at developing a reliable version of the “Autoscala” algorithm able to automatically scale polar ionograms.

 

2013-2016: ARGOSA (Automated Remote Geophysical Observatory at Spanish Antarctic station Juan Carlos I), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economics and Competitiveness, aimed at improving the automation of the geophysical measurements at the Spanish Antarctic base and the models to predict the ionospheric characteristics.

 

2014-2015: ESA-ERICA (EquatoRial Ionosphere Characterization in Asia). Funded by ESA, aimed to characterize the variability of the equatorial ionospheric anomaly in the South East Asian sector, specifically the plasma variability at the anomaly crests and at the dip equator.

 

2011-2016: ESPAS (near-Earth SPAce data infrastructure for e-Science, FP7-INFRASTRUCTURES-2011/2012), aimed to the implementation of an e-Infrastructure necessary to support the access to observations, the modeling and prediction of the Near-Earth Space environment.

 

2012-2014: CIFS (Cyprus Ionospheric Forecasting Service), co-funded by the Cypriot Defense Ministry and the European fund for the regional development, aimed to the implementation of a High Frequency (HF) operational service for a real-time specification (now-casting) and a short-term forecasting of the state of the ionosphere over the eastern Mediterranean region.

 

2008-2011: LOTHAR project (Lpi Over The Horizon Adaptive Radar), funded by the Italian Defense Ministry, aimed to a feasibility study of a HF radar for the Mediterranean surveillance.

 

2005-2010: project MIUR-FIRB Development of new technologies for protecting and defending territory form natural hazards (UR b7 Environmental Monitoring), funded by the Italian Minister of the University and Research.

 

2008-2009: project of Scientific and Technolgical Cooperation between the governments of the Italian and Argentinian Republic aimed at the development of an ionospheric station at Tucuman, approved and funded by corresponding Ministers of Foreign Affairs.

 

2008-2009: project of Scientific and Technolgical Cooperation between the governments of the Italian and Argentinian Republic aimed at the development of models to real-time monitoring the ionosphere, approved and funded by corresponding Ministers of Foreign Affairs.

 

2004-2006: DIAS project (european DIgital upper Atmosphere Server, http://www.iono.noa.gr/DIAS/), funded by the European Community, aimed to the development of an ionospheric monitoring of the European area.

 

2005-2006: GIFINT (Geomagnetic Indices Forecasting Ionospheric Nowcasting Tool; http://swe.ssa.esa.int/TECEES/sda/gifint/index.html), a pilot project funded by the European Space Agency, aimed to the development of an ionospheric and geomagnetic monitoring of the Central Mediterranean.

 

2004-2005: CVS project (Center for the study of the Variability of the Sun) funded by the Italian government and based on a scientific collaboration among the Astronomical Observatory of Rome, the University “Tor Vergata” of Rome, and the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia of Rome.