Expert Exchange: Visit to the Finnish Meteorological Institute

Europlanet 2024 RI’s Expert Exchange Programme aims to support the planetary community to share expertise and best practice, and to prepare new facilities and services. The programme provides funding for short visits (up to one week). 

Gergely Kobán of HUN-REN Wigner, Hungary, visited Ilja Honkonen of FMI and Esa Kallio of Aalto University, Finland from 5-11 February 2023.

The main aim of the trip was to learn the calculation of Ground Induced Current (GIC) from the output of the GUMICS simulation code. The code was created and is maintained by the Finnish Meteorological Institution. The GIC calculation is needed for a feasibility study of an active protection system against solar storms on Earth.

Visit at the FMI

The first day, we met with Ilja Honkonen and Ari Viljanen from the FMI, and discussed the steps we needed to take in order to produce valid results for our feasibility study. During the week, we obtained codes that do the necessary coordinate transformations, calculates ground magnetic field, and then finally, the electric field. From this step, the GIC can be calculated for a model electric grid for either a part of the old finnish power grid, or for two nodes in the Austrian grid – using the coefficients determined in previous studies. We also discussed properties of the GUMICS code, and what problems might arise from using it like the feasibility study requires.

Visit at Aalto University

We also visited the Aalto University, where we were hosted by Esa Kallio. He gave a tour of the facility, showing us the machinery and facilities where they design, build and test cubesats, and also gave a presentation about the active research projects that they are involved in. He showed us models of the cubesats, of which the Suomi 100 was especially interesting because of its camera. One very interesting common point was about solar wind propagation. They use a hybrid model to propagate radially outwards from the Sun. Our research group, on the other hand, uses ballistic propagation models and actively researching longitudinal and latitudinal variations in solar wind, as well as pressure correction and other improvements for our model. This presents an opportunity for a possible future collaboration.

Expert Exchange Objectives covered by this visit: Training, Early Career Support.

Find out more about the Europlanet Expert Exchange Programme.