Mirko PiersantiUniversità degli Studi dell'Aquila | Università dell'Aquila · Department of Physical and Chemical Sciences
Mirko Piersanti
PHD
Space weather in terms of GIC and magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling. Modelling of the lithosphere-ionosphere coupling
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186
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Introduction
I am a Researcher of the University of L'Aquila. I worked for over 13 years in international collaborations in the field of Space Weather, in terms of Magnetospheric – Ionospheric coupling process during solar active conditions.
From 2018 I am the Italian scientific responsible of the electric and magnetic field instruments (EFD and HPM) on-board the CSES satellites.
Additional affiliations
December 2017 - February 2018
Education
September 2005 - September 2008
September 1994 - December 2004
Publications
Publications (186)
Interplanetary (IP) shocks are perturbations observed in the solar wind. IP shocks correlate well with solar activity, being more numerous during times of high sunspot numbers. Earth‐bound IP shocks cause many space weather effects that are promptly observed in geospace and on the ground. Such effects can pose considerable threats to human assets i...
The Electric Field Detector (EFD-02) on board the second China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES-02) will measure the electric field components at a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) over a wide frequency band (DC – 3.5 MHz) and with 1 μV/m sensitivity in the Low Frequency band. EFD-02 will measure the voltage differences between pairs of probes installed...
The importance of ElectroMagnetic Ion Cyclotron (EMIC) ultra-low-frequency (ULF) waves (and their Pc1 counterparts) is connected to their critical role in triggering energetic particle precipitation from the magnetosphere to the conjugated ionosphere via pitch angle scattering. In addition, as a prominent element of the ULF zoo, EMIC/Pc1 waves can...
In this paper we report the detection of five strong gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) by the High-Energy Particle Detector (HEPD-01) mounted on board the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite, operational since 2018 on a Sun-synchronous polar orbit at a ∼507 km altitude and 97° inclination. HEPD-01 was designed to detect high-energy electrons in the energy...
Earth’s atmosphere, whose ionization stability plays a fundamental role for the evolution and endurance of life, is exposed to the effect of cosmic explosions producing high energy Gamma-ray-bursts. Being able to abruptly increase the atmospheric ionization, they might deplete stratospheric ozone on a global scale. During the last decades, an avera...
A new correlation between strong earthquakes (EQs) and high-energy electron bursts (EBs) has been recently presented (Fidani, 2022). The peak of correlation appeared when considering shallow EQs with hypocentre depth lower than 200 km, located in a large portion of the Earth’s crust in the Eastern Pacific, with a minimum magnitude of 6. It evidence...
High-latitude ionospheric plasma constitutes a very complex environment, which is characterized by turbulent dynamics in the presence of different ion species. The turbulent plasma motion produces statistical features of both electromagnetic and velocity fields, which have been broadly studied over the years. In this work, we use electric field hig...
The upper portions of the Earth's atmospheric layer, e.g., the ionospheric plasma layer, can be significantly affected by perturbations generated in the lower layers. In fact, all perturbations formed within the troposphere can easily propagate, not only horizontally within the layer but also vertically reaching the highest regions of the atmospher...
GRB 221009A is a long gamma-ray burst among the most energetic and nearest (z = 0.151) detected so far. The energy fluence of the burst was so large to cause ionization of the upper layers of Earth's atmosphere and also observable signals in satellite-borne particle detectors. Electron signals, with the same GRB time development, can arise from the...
Presentation given at the 28th IUGG General Assembly in Berlin (Germany), session A04c - Advances in Mid-Latitude, Low-Latitude and Equatorial Aeronomy
In this work, we aim to characterize the effective scale height at the ionosphere F2-layer peak (H_0) by using in situ electron density (N_e) observations by Langmuir Probes (LPs) onboard the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES-01). CSES-01 is a sun-synchronous satellite orbiting at an altitude of~500 km, with descending and ascending node...
High-energy, long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) can be generated by the core collapse of massive stars at the end of their lives. When they happen in the close-by universe they can be exceptionally bright, as seen from the Earth in the case of the recent, giant, long-lasting GRB221009A. GRB221009A was produced by a collapsing star with a redshift of 0.15...
Ionospheric disturbances (such as electromagnetic emissions) in connection to strong earthquakes have been reported in literature for over two decades. In order to be reliable, the identification of such disturbances requires a preliminary robust definition of the ionospheric background in the absence of both seismic activity and any other possible...
We present the results of a systematic study of the ionospheric electric field in the Auroral Oval (AO) region in the southern hemisphere. We exploit one year of electric field measurements taken by the Electric Field Detector (EFD) on board the Chinese Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite-01 (CSES-01), flying at around 500 km altitude in a sun-synchro...
This paper reports a large‐scale magnetospheric line radiation (MLR) event during a moderate geomagnetic storm on 11 September 2018, which was well recorded by the China‐Seismo‐Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES) in the upper ionosphere. The event shows a symmetrical propagation feature at the conjugated locations between the two hemispheres, exhibiti...
In this work we present the HEPD-01 observations of proton fluxes from space during
the October 28, 2021 solar energetic particle event, which produced a ground level enhancement on Earth. The event was associated with the major, long-duration X1-class
flare and the concomitant coronal mass ejection that erupted from the Active Region 12887. This i...
This paper presents the project Comprehensive spAce wEather Studies for the ASPIS prototype Realization (CAESAR), which aims to tackle the relevant aspects of Space Weather (SWE) science and develop a prototype of the scientific data centre for Space Weather of the Italian Space Remote Sens. 2023, 15, 346. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15020346 https:/...
In the last few decades, the efforts of the scientific community to search earthquake signatures in the atmospheric, ionospheric and magnetospheric media have grown rapidly. The increasing amount of good quality data from both ground stations and satellites has allowed for the detections of anomalies with high statistical significance such as ionos...
The China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES-01) provides in situ electron density (Ne) observations through Langmuir probes (LPs) in the topside ionosphere since February 2018. CSES-01 is a sun-synchronous satellite probing the ionosphere around two fixed local times (LTs), 14 LT in the daytime sector and 02 LT in the night-time sector, at an...
The China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES-01) provides in situ electron density (Ne)
observations through Langmuir probes (LPs) in the topside ionosphere since February 2018. CSES-01 is a sun-synchronous satellite probing the ionosphere around two fixed local times (LTs), 14 LT in the daytime sector and 02 LT in the night-time sector, at an...
Poster given at the 44th COSPAR General Assembly in Athens
On May 12, 2021 the interplanetary doppelgaenger of the May 9, 2021 coronal mass ejection impacted the Earth’s magnetosphere, giving rise to a strong geomagnetic storm. This paper discusses the evolution of the various events linking the solar activity to the Earth’s ionosphere with special focus on the effects observed in the circumterrestrial env...
The second China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES-02) will be equipped with the new electric field detector (EFD-02), to measure the ionospheric electric field components at a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) over a wide frequency band (DC - 3.5 MHz) and with a high sensitivity (~ 1μV /m). EFD-02 will measure the voltages between different pairs of prob...
The direct interaction between large-scale interplanetary disturbances emitted from the Sun and the Earth's magnetosphere can lead to geomagnetic storms representing the most severe space weather events. In general, the geomagnetic activity is measured by the Dst index. Consequently, its accurate prediction represents one of the main subjects in sp...
In this study, we perform the first comprehensive comparison of ion density (Ni) in the topside ionosphere measured by the Langmuir probe (LP) and faceplate (FP) of the thermal ion imager on board Swarm satellites. Our results show a systematic difference between the LP and FP derived Ni values, and the systematic difference shows prominent depende...
The recent Chinese Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES-01) provides a good opportunity to investigate some features of plasma properties and its motion in the topside ionosphere. Using simultaneous measurements from the electric field detector and the magnetometers onboard CSES-01, we investigate some properties of the plasma E × B drift velocit...
We have analyzed a highly monochromatic (f = 1.67 mHz) and large‐amplitude Ultra Low Frequency (ULF) wave event observed at satellites and ground observatories on 23 June 2020 during super solar quiet geomagnetic conditions. The train wave was detected between 6:22 and 7:55 UT across a wide longitudinal range of ground stations from low to high lat...
Deep learning algorithms have gained importance in particle physics in the last few years. They have been shown to outperform traditional strategies in particle identification, tracking and energy reconstruction in the most modern high-energy physics experiments. The attractive feature of these techniques is their ability to model large dimensional...
Significant evidence of ionosphere and magnetosphere disturbance in connection to intense seismic events have been detected since two decades. It is generally believed that the energy transfer can be due to Acoustic Gravity Waves (AGW) excited at ground level by the earthquakes. In spite of the statistical evidence of the detected perturbations, th...
We examine the characteristics of ULF waves observed in the magnetosphere and at ground on June 23, 2020 during super solar quiet geomagnetic conditions. A highly monochromatic and large-amplitude wave at f = 1.67 mHz was observed between 6:10 and 7:00 UT at CSES LEO satellite orbit and across a wide longitudinal range of ground stations from low t...
Equatorial Plasma Bubbles (EPBs) are plasma density depletions observed in the equatorial ionosphere. The correct understanding of the EPBs dynamics and formation has a key role in the space weather context. This work reports the analysis of a nightside EPB detected in the African sector during a solar quiet period on August 14, 2018. The principal...
Ionospheric medium fluctuations are detected at various spatial and temporal scales. Plasma irregularities encountered crossing high latitude current systems can be extremely thin and therefore, unlikely to identify with standard detectors. This work aims to show plasma layer features obtained by electric field instrument on-board the Chinese Seism...
Spatiotemporal properties of two-dimensional (2D) Hall-magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence at intermediate plasma β = 2 are studied by means of Fast Iterative Filtering (FIF), a new technique for the decomposition of nonstationary nonlinear signals. Results show that the magnetic energy at sub-ion scales is concentrated in perturbations with frequ...
In this paper, we report high statistical evidence for a seismo–ionosphere effects occurring in conjunction with an earthquake. This finding supports a lithosphere-magnetosphere coupling mechanism producing a plasma density variation along the magnetic field lines, mechanically produced by atmospheric acoustic gravity waves (AGWs) impinging the ion...
Spatiotemporal properties of two-dimensional (2D) Hall-magnetohydrodynamic turbulence at intermediate plasma $\beta=2$ are studied by means of Fast Iterative Filtering, a new technique for the decomposition of nonstationary nonlinear signals. Results show that the magnetic energy at sub-ion scales is concentrated in perturbations with frequencies s...
CSES (China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite) is a Chinese-Italian scientific space mission dedicated to monitor the variations of the main parameters of the topside ionosphere (electric and magnetic fields, plasma parameters, charge
particles fluxes) caused by either natural emitters - especially earthquakes - or artificial ones.
The CSES satellit...
The storm onset on 7 September 2017, triggered several variations in the ionospheric electron density, causing severe phase fluctuations at polar latitudes in both hemispheres. In addition, although quite rare at high latitudes, clear amplitude scintillations were recorded by two Global Navigation Satellite System receivers during the main phase of...
On 25 August 2018, a G3-class geomagnetic storm reached the Earth’s magnetosphere,
causing a transient rearrangement of the charged particle environment around the planet, which was detected by the High-Energy Particle Detector (HEPD) on board the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES-01). We found that the count rates of electrons in the Me...
The China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES) space mission - also known as
Limadou in Italian - is a scientific collaboration between China and Italy that aims to
investigate the structure and dynamics of the iono/magnetosphere, and in particular
to study the possible correlation of perturbations to the occurrence of high-magnitude
seismic eve...
In the polar ionosphere, the electric field is characterized by broadband and power law
spectral densities at small/short spatio-temporal scales, which support a possible turbulent nature
of the electric field fluctuations. Here, we investigate the multifractal character of the full threedimensional
electric field in the polar ionosphere as recorde...
The short-term prediction of earthquakes is an essential issue connected with human life
protection and related social and economics matter. Recent papers have provided some evidence of the link between the lithosphere, lower atmosphere, and ionosphere, even though with marginal statistical evidence. The basic coupling hypothesized being via atmosp...
We present the results from a spacetime study of Hall-MHD and Hybrid-kinetic numerical simulations of decaying turbulence. By combining Fourier analysis and Multivariate Iterative Filtering (a new technique developed for the analysis of nonstationary nonlinear signals) we calculate the kω-power spectrum of magnetic, velocity, and density fluctuatio...
Still today vaguely de�ned, the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) is the vast
geographic region where the Earth's magnetic �eld is weakest relative to an
ideal Earth-centered dipole �eld, and the inner radiation belt comes closest
to the planet. Nonetheless it represents a major concern to the space science
community, since the local reduced magnetic in...
The short-term prediction of earthquakes is an essential issue connected with human life protection and related social and economics matter. Recent papers have provided some evidence of the link between the lithosphere, lower atmosphere, and ionosphere, even though with marginal statistical evidence. The basic coupling hypothesized being via atmosp...
Significant evidence of ionosphere disturbance in connection to intense seismic events have been detected since two decades. It is generally believed that the energy transfer can be due to Acoustic Gravity Waves (AGW) excited at ground level by the earthquakes. In spite of the statistical evidence of the detected perturbations, the coupling between...
The radiation belts in the Earth’s magnetosphere pose a hazard to satellite systems
and spacecraft missions (both manned and unmanned), heavily affecting payload design and resources, thus resulting in an impact on the overall mission performance and final costs. The NASA AE9/AP9/SPM radiation models for energetic electrons, protons, and plasma pro...
This study reports the temporal and spatial distributions of the extremely/very low
frequency (ELF/VLF) wave activities, as well as the energetic electron fluxes in the ionosphere during an intense storm (Dst ~ -174 nT) occurred on Aug. 26, 2018, based on the observations by a set of detectors onboard the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSE...
On August 25, 2018 the interplanetary counterpart of the August 20, 2018 Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) hit the Earth, giving rise to a strong geomagnetic storm. We present a description of the whole sequence of events from the Sun to the ground as well as a detailed analysis of the observed effects on the Earth's environment by using a multi instrume...
Video of the relative 2020 COSPAR presentation.
The aim of this work is to validate the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite 01 (CSES-01)
Electric Field Detector (EFD) measurements through the analysis of the instrument response to
various inputs: (a) geomagnetic field variations, (b) plasma density depletions, and (c) electromagnetic
signals from natural and artificial sources such as Schuman...
The abnormal electromagnetic emissions recorded by DEMETER (the Detection of Electro-Magnetic Emissions Transmitted from Earthquake Regions) satellite associated with the April 6, 2010 Mw 7.8 northern Sumatra earthquake are examined in this study. The variations of wave intensities recorded through revisiting orbits from August 2009 to May 2010 ind...
Turbulent space and astrophysical plasmas exhibit a complex dynamics, which involves nonlinear coupling across different temporal and spatial scales. There is growing evidence that impulsive events, such as magnetic reconnection instabilities, lead to a spatially localized enhancement of energy dissipation, thus speeding up the energy transfer at s...
The short-term prediction of earthquakes is an essential issue connected with human life protection and related social and economic matters. Recent papers have provided some evidence of the link between the lithosphere, lower atmosphere, and ionosphere, even though with marginal statistical evidence. The basic coupling is hypothesized as being via...
The identification of the temporal scales related to market activities is crucial for understanding the dynamics of international crude oil prices. Standard analysis techniques fail in producing consistently good results due to the non-linear behaviour of the oil market. In this paper we propose an innovative approach based on the concurring applic...
The equivalent source method of Spherical Elementary Current Systems (SECS) has contributed valuable results for spatial magnetic interpolation purposes where no observations are available, as well as for modeling equivalent currents both in the ionosphere and in the subsurface, thus providing a separation between external and internal sources. It...
Mercury's environment is characterized by a high variability and strength of the solar forcing. Its magnetosphere is completely reconfigured even for small changes in the interplanetary magnetic field and the solar wind (SW) dynamic pressure. Different configurations are due to occurrence of different structures in the SW. Among them, high speed st...
Plasma density depletions, observed in the equatorial ionosphere, at different spatial (50-1000 km) and temporal scales are called Equatorial Plasma Bubbles (EPBs). Understanding the influence of geomagnetic storms on plasma bubbles dynamics and formation is an important space weather topic. This work reports on the first observations of nightside...
Ionospheric medium fluctuations are detected at various spatial and temporal scales. Plasma irregularities encountered crossing high latitude current systems can be extremely thin and, therefore, unlikely to identify with standard detectors. In fact, Langmuir probes (Lp) on board LEO satellites usually need some seconds to collect currents from pla...
The High-energy Particle Detector (HEPD) on board the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES-01) — launched on 2018 February 2 — is a light and compact payload suitable for measuring electrons (3–100 MeV), protons (30–250 MeV), and light nuclei (up to a few hundreds of MeV). The Sun-synchronous orbit and large acceptance allow HEPD to measure...