RESEARCH PROGRAM “KALPAKI/PARNON”

INTRODUCTION: This program started in 2015 thanks to the generous funding by the Mariolopoulos-Kanaginis Foundation for the Environmental Sciences (hereafter MKF) and is continued with additional funding by the Empirikion Foundation and the Research Committee of the Academy of Athens.

The program is carried out with the active participation of members of the MKF Board (Repapis, Tritakis), of the University of Ioannina (Kostarakis, Christofilakis, Tatsis), of the Astronomy and Applied Mathematics Research Center of the Academy of Athens (hereafter AAMRCAA) (Kontopoulos, Oikonomou) as well as members of the Polish University of Krakow (Janusz Mlynarczyk, Zenon Nieckarz).

The aim of the program to observe/record, process, store and utilize atmospheric electromagnetic waves of very low frequency (ELF) in the Schumann frequency range (2-50 Hz). For this purpose, two systems consisting of special receiving coils and recording devices (loggers) were constructed, the former of which was installed in a rural chapel in the area of Kalpaki/Doliana in Ioannina and the latter in a forest reserve at the top of Mount Parnon in Laconia. The Schumann resonance waves under study (Schumann΄s Resonances, hereafter SR)   are extremely sensitive to external anthropogenic noises (cars, hustle, mobile phones, electrical appliances, etc.), which is why the observation systems are installed in desolate remote locations with difficult human access and far from HPPC networks, mobile telecommunications networks, wind generators, photovoltaic units, etc.  The reason why the observation and study of the SR waves is sought is that these waves are associated with many atmospheric/geophysical phenomena, such as atmospheric electricity (lightning), ionospheric disturbances, the potential prediction of earthquakes, the change in global temperature, as well as a multitude of other phenomena. In general, these waves are dynamically involved in the entire circuit of interactions of the Lithosphere-Atmosphere-Ionosphere system. A particularly interesting field is the potential involvement of SR in biological processes as the basic Schumann frequency of 7,8Hz and its harmonics of 14,21,28,35 ΗΖ are almost identical to human brain emissions. This is a huge research subject that awaits the interest of the research community.

Current situation. The first SR system in Kalpaki/Doliana, Ioannina, (hereafter North) started its operation in 2016 and is still running, with some scheduled disconnections to this day, and accumulates a large volume of data, approximately 2Τb. The second system on Parnon, Laconia (hereafter South) started to operate in 2020 and it takes excellent quality measurements. At the same time, the Polish measurement system has been in operation in the same place since 2020, which also records exceptional observations.

All the observations have been stored in external discs and are about to be organized in the form of a database in a server that will be installed in the Academy of Athens. The creation of the database and the organization of the data for their quick uploading to the server have already begun.

Publications. Details, information and research results can be sought in the following publications made by the members of the research team.

Publications in International Journals:

  1. «A prototype data acquisition and processing system for Schumann resonance measurements» Tatsis, G., Votis, G., Christofilakis, V., Kostarakis, P., Tritakis, V. and Repapis, C. 2015. Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 135, p. 152-160
  2. «Preliminary Measurements of Schumann’s Resonances (SR) in the Greek Area» Tatsis, G. ,Votis, C. , Christofilakis V., Kostarakis, P., Tritakis V., Repapis, C. and Kalavrezos, P. 2016. Journal of Engineering Science and Technology Review 9 (4), p. 61-64
  3. «A new portable ELF Schumann resonance receiver: design and detailed analysis of the antenna and the analog frontend». Votis, C., Tatsis, G., Christofilakis, V., Chronopoulos, S., Kostarakis, P., Tritakis, V. ,Repapis, C., 2018EURASIP J. Wire Commun. Netw (Open Access). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13638-018-1157-7
  4. «Significant ELF perturbations in the Schumann Resonance band before and during a shallow mid-magnitude seismic activity in the Greek area (Kalpaki)».
    Vasilis Christofilakis, Giorgos Tatsis, Constantinos Votis, Ioannis Contopoulos, Christos Repapis and Vasilis Tritakis, 2019, Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 182, p. 138–146
  5. «Analog front end of the Extremely low frequency station at Ioannina in Greece for the measurement of Schumann resonances». Votis, C., Tatsis, G., Christofilakis, V., Chronopoulos, S., Kostarakis, P., Tritakis, V., C.,Repapis, C., 2018, IEEE Xplore Digital Library DOI: 1109/PACET.2017.8259989
  6. «Pre-seismic Electromagnetic Perturbations in two Earthquakes in Northern Greece». Florios, I. Contopoulos, V. Christofilakis, G. Tatsis, S, Chronopoulos, C, Repapis, and V. Tritakis, Pure and Applied Geophysics
  7. «Possible Earthquake Forecasting in a narrow Space-Time-Magnitude Window». Florios, I. Contopoulos, G. Tatsis , V. Christofilakis , S. Chronopoulos, C. Repapis and V. Tritakis, Journal of Earth Science Informatic
  8. «Design and implementation of a test fixture for ELF Schumann resonance antenna receiver and magnetic permeability measurements». Giorgos Tatsis , Vasilis Christofilakis, Spyridon K. Chronopoulos, Panos Kostarakis, Hector E. Nistazakis,, C. Repapis and Tritakis, Electronics 2010, 9, p 71
  9. « Study of the variations in the Schumann resonances parameters measured in a southern Mediterranean environment». Tatsis , V. Christofilakis  , S.K. Chronopoulos a, G. Baldoumas  , A. Sakkas  , A.K. Paschalidou  , P. Kassomenos ,  I. Petrou  , P. Kostarakis  , C. Repapis , V. Tritakis, Science of The Total Environment, Volume 715, 1 May 2020, 136926
  10. «Anthropogenic Noise and Its Footprint on ELF Schumann Resonance Recordings». Tritakis, I. Contopoulos, C. Florios, G. Tatsis, V. Christofilakis, G. Baldoumas and C. Repapis, «Frontiers in Earth Science» | www.frontiersin.org ,| Volume 9 | Article 646277
  11. «How Effective and Prerequisite Are Electromagnetic Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) Recordings in the Schumann Resonances Band to Function as Seismic Activity Precursors». Vasilis Tritakis, Ioannis Contopoulos, Janusz Mlynarczyk , Vasilis Christofilakis , Giorgos Tatsis and Christos Repapis Atmosphere 2022, 13, 185. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13020185
  12. “Anthropogenic Sources of Electromagnetic Interferences in the Lowest ELF Band Recordings (Schumann Resonances)”. Janusz Mlynarczyk , Vasilis Tritakis , Ioannis Contopoulos , Zenon Nieckarz , Vasilis Christofilakis , Georgios Tatsis  and Christos Repapis .Magnetism

Publications in Conferences:

  1. «Quasi- Preseismic Elecromagnetic Perturbations Before two Earthquakes in North Greece». Florios and V. Tritakis, COMECAP Alexandroupolis, October 15-17, 2018
  2. «Footprints (Strays) of External Anthropogenic “Noises” on the Raw ELF (Schumann Resonance) Recordings». Tritakis, V., Contopoulos, Ι., COST-Electronet. Santander–Spain, 2020
  3. «Anthropogenic “Noises” and their footprints on the Raw ELF (Schumann Resonance) Recordings». Tritakis, V., Contopoulos, Ι., COST-Electronet. Santander–Spain, 2020

Publications in Greek:

  1. “Possibility of safe prediction of geophysical phenomena with advanced statistical methods. The case of predicting upcoming seismic activity”. Costas Florios and Vassilios Tritakis. New Developments in Astronomy. Research Findings of Published by the Academy of Athens, 2019
  2. “Empirical-statistical way of predicting earthquakes of a limited spatial-temporal window in the Greek Region based on electromagnetic disturbances of low frequency (ELF)”. Vassilios Tritakis and Costas Florios. New Developments in Astronomy. Research Findings of Published by the Academy of Athens, 2020

Participation in Conferences with presentations:

  1. 3rd Panhellenic Conference on Electronics and Telecommunications (PACET 15), 8-9 May, 2015, Ioannina
  2. 4th Panhellenic Conference on Electronics and Telecommunications (PACET 17), November 17-18, 2017, Xanthi
  3. 14th International Conference on Meteorology, Climatology and Atmospheric Physics COMECAP 2018, Alexandroupolis, October15-17, 2018
  4. COST-Electronet. Cyprusς—Limassol, September 25-29, 2018
  5. COST-Electronet. Sopron—Hungary, 2019
  6. COST-Electronet. Santander—Spain, February 2020

Thesis:

  1. “Study of the characteristics, possible applications and measurement method of Schumann resonances”, UOA – Department of Physics, 2014, Pantelis Kalavresos, Supervision: Dr. Vassilios Tritakis

Participation in European Programs:

  1. COST Action CA15211 ELECTRONET.