Expert Exchange: Visit to Slovakia, Hungary & Romania

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).

Marcelo de Cicco of INMETRO/LAORT (Brazil) attended the Europlanet Research Infrastructure Meeting (ERIM) 2023 and visited Dr Tibor Hegedüs of the Baja Observatory of the Szeged University in Hungary, Dr Mirel Birlan of the Astronomical Institute of Romanian Academy in Bucharest and Dr Iharka Csillik of the Romanian Academy of Sciences in Cluj-Napoca, Romania from 19 June – 13 July 2023.

The aim of this expert exchange was to share knowledge and views on the theme Brazilian meteors network EXOSS and deliver lectures on Meteor grazing types and Numerical investigation of an Earth-grazing fireball’s Close approach under the Europlanet Mentorship programme.

I had the opportunity to participate in the ERIM and EPEC Annual Week 2023 event held in Bratislava, Slovakia, June 19-23, where I engaged in fruitful discussions and exchanged experiences with numerous researchers in the planetary and meteor observation fields. As part of my contributions, I prepared a presentation titled “Studying Meteors: The Experience of Studying and Recording Meteors in Brazil,” which was intended for secondary school students. However, due to scheduling constraints imposed by the event organisers, my presentation unfortunately could not be delivered.

After the conclusion of ERIM 2023, I proceeded to Hungary on June 23, where I spent three days in the city of Baja, undertaking a technical visit to explore the projects at the Baja Observatory. Dr. Tibor Hegedüs, director of the Baja Observatory of the Szeged University, extended a gracious invitation and introduced me to the facility’s infrastructure, along with insights into their satellite and NEOs monitoring projects. Moreover, I was deeply engaged with their commitment to protecting the night sky planning.

Subsequently, I journeyed to Bucharest – Romania on June 27, invited by Dr Mirel Birlan the director of the Astronomical Institute of Romanian Academy, who offered me to stay and work there, and ask me to have the presentation at Aira Seminar, titled “A Brief Overview of Earth-grazing Fireballs” to a specialised audience at the observatory, as well for the whole Romanian researchers in astronomy. Besides,I actively volunteered for the “Asteroid Day” event. During my stay in Romania I worked on 3 main topics: coding python and matlab algorithms for a specific project about numerical integration modeling for grazing meteors analyses using a 4th order sympletic integrator with 9 stages SER3BP. At each day of the week, many activities were done in order to fulfill and implement many tasks involving coding, bibliographic revision, discussions and conference attendance.

My mentor, Dr. Iharka Csillik, led me a study reviewing the Matlab code for numerical integration backward and forward using a new approach of the symplectic 4th order integrator with 9 stages SER3BP and a study of integrator Rebound python package and its application to that grazing meteor case, making runs and comparing results with the analog Matlab script, also it was possible to improve the graphs and outputs, comparing them with Rebound and Matlab algorithms. So it was possible to accelerate the integration and get better quality results.

The main goal was to test a sympletic 4th order algorithm based on Neri numerical integration (Neri, 1987) SER3BP supposed to be a fine solution for celestial bodies close encounters. In fact the Neri approach is able o reproduce before /after orbits of the grazing meteor case, taking in account minimum distance between bodies. Those results were compared to that python package Rebound and they both showed good agreement. Also I attended to the 7th International Conference in Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space and Planetary Sciences, Cluj-Napoca, July 10-12, 2023 (ZAC 2023) presenting a lecture: “Numerical investigation of an Earth-grazing Fireball’s close approach”, about meteor study topics, its physical parameters, image processing and video registering instruments, updating Exoss project, and talking about the published paper of De Cicco and Szucs-Csillik in Romanian Astron. J. , Vol. 32, No. 3, p. 175–194, Bucharest, 2022 -”Earth-grazing fireball’s recurrence“ also discussing some preliminary results, that were produced using matlab and python codes, as mentioned above.

A very new topic has been added to my presentation in Cluj-Napoca, related to space debris, featuring a discussion of a concrete case that occurred on June 19th in the southeastern region of Brazil. This addition sparked extensive debate during the lecture, with many questions and inquiries concerning satellite reentry. This trip was a tremendous learning experience, and I am grateful for the invaluable opportunities to interact with esteemed professionals and explore the forefront of astronomical research and observations.

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

Find out more about the Europlanet Expert Exchange Programme.