Papers by Domenico Di Mauro
Shortly after the introduction of the physical unit for the magnetic field in 1832 and the invent... more Shortly after the introduction of the physical unit for the magnetic field in 1832 and the invention of the bifilar apparatus in 1837, both being extraordinary scientific achievements that took place in Göttingen, the Clementinum observatory in Prague became one of the first places where systematic observations of the geomagnetic field began. Karl Kreil was decisively responsible for this. In this paper, we focus on the very beginnings of geomagnetic observations in Prague, dating from the middle of 1839. We describe what archival materials with data exist from that time, how the main instrument for observing magnetic storms-the bifilar magnetometer-worked, how this instrument was calibrated, and we also describe the first magnetic survey in Bohemia. This study indicates the importance of historical geomagnetic observation materials to modern science, such as the space weather research. 1 Beginnings of the geomagnetic observations in Prague-the merit of Karl Kreil Prague Astronomical Observatory was established at Jesuits Clementinum College (close to Prague Charles Bridge) in 1751. After the dissolution of the Jesuit Order, the college together with the observatory got completely into the state administration of Austria. The observatory director was thus appointed by the Emperor Office. Despite the official name of the observatory, astronomy was not the only subject of its activities and, in most cases, was not even the main subject of observers' interest. Meteorological observations at Clementinum started already in 1752. Uninterrupted series of meteorological observations dates back to 1775 and belongs to the longest climatological time series worldwide. In the 1780s and 1790s the observatory participated in the Societas Meteorologica Palatina (the Mannheim Meteorological Society) that coordinated, conducted and published weather observations of 39 predominantly European observatories. In that time, the Clementinum observatory did not publish its own yearbooks. The results of the meteorological observations were presented in various periodicals of scientific societies. Magnetic or aurora observations were included sporadically. Regular magnetic observations were initiated by Karl Kreil in 1839. Kreil came to the Prague observatory from Milan in 1838. During his stay in Milan, he was visited by Gauss's assistants and got excited by the quickly developing geomagnetism research. He introduced magnetic observations in Milan and became a member of the Göttingen Magnetic Union-the network of magnetic stations around the globe established by Gauss and Weber, having been slightly influenced by Humboldt (Glass-1
Contributions to the knowledge of the Earth’s magnetism from polar regions is extremely important... more Contributions to the knowledge of the Earth’s magnetism from polar regions is extremely important to understand the planetary phenomena which occur both below and above the Earth’s surface. In those areas the Earth’s magnetic field is stronger and the spatial and temporal changes are enhanced. At the same time polar regions are areas scarcely covered by observations for the adverse environmental conditions. We report the experience gained in several years of management and maintenance of permanent stations: MZS Mario Zucchelli Station (formerly TNB), DRV Dumont d’Urville (Victoria Land) and DMC, Concordia stations, Dome C) as well as temporary installations (TLD, Talos Dome) in Antarctica, showing how different acquisition systems, analysis and interpretation of data allow the scientific communities to contribute in originating important theories, models and results.
Annals of Geophysics, 2009
Performing good quality magnetic observations is not an easy task; making them in the extreme mar... more Performing good quality magnetic observations is not an easy task; making them in the extreme marine environment is even more challenging. The European funded GEOSTAR project succeeded in reaching this difficult goal. After the shallow seawater test experiment performed in the Adriatic Sea in 1998, the main aims of the GEOSTAR project were achieved two years later during the six-month deep seafloor mission in the Tyrrhenian Sea at around 2 km depth. Details and results of the shallow seawater mission in the Adriatic Sea were published in previous articles. This paper is concerned with the deep seafloor mission in the Tyrrhenian Sea close to Ustica Island and presents some results related to the geomagnetic recordings.
Concordia is a scientific station located in the inner part of Antarctica (latitude 75° 06' S... more Concordia is a scientific station located in the inner part of Antarctica (latitude 75° 06' S, longitude 123° 23' E, at about 3,200 m above sea level), about 950 km away from the coast. Near by the station a permanent Base is under construction and is expected to open in the year 2004. All this is the result of a
XIIIth IAGA Workshop on …, 2009
An array of vector magnetometers was temporarily installed in the Western sector of the Anti Atla... more An array of vector magnetometers was temporarily installed in the Western sector of the Anti Atlas chain, Morocco in the frame of the Geomagnetic Depth Sounding (GDS) technique. As a fruitful collaboration between Italy and Morocco, the joint project ...
On 4 November 2021 it was detected the most intense geomagnetic storm that occurred so far during... more On 4 November 2021 it was detected the most intense geomagnetic storm that occurred so far during the rising phase of solar cycle 25 (Kp=8-). This work summarizes the state of the solar wind before and during the geomagnetic storm, the response of the plasmasphere-ionosphere-thermosphere system in the European sector and, for a comparison, the ionosphere-thermosphere response of the American sector. The plasmasphere dynamics was investigated through field line resonances detected at the European quasi-Meridional Magnetometer Array. The ionosphere was investigated through the combined use of ionospheric parameters (foF2, hmF2) from ionosondes and Total Electron Content (TEC) obtained from Global Navigation Satellite System receivers at four locations in the European sector and three locations in the American sectors. Aeronomic parameters were retrieved by using an original method based on the observed electron concentration in the ionospheric F region. The behavior of foF2 and TEC da...
Three earthquakes of comparable magnitude and in different tectonic contexts occurred on 15 June ... more Three earthquakes of comparable magnitude and in different tectonic contexts occurred on 15 June 2019 (M7.2) in New Zealand (Kermadec Islands), on 6 July 2019 (M7.1) in California (Ridgecrest) and on 21 May 2021 (M7.3) in China (Maduo) (dates in UT). We applied a multiparameter - multilayer approach to lithospheric, atmospheric and ionospheric data, the latter taken from CSES and Swarm satellites, before the mentioned large earthquakes to detect potential pre-earthquake anomalies. In all case studies, we note the following: a) similar precursor times of occurrences, confirming the Rikitake law for which the larger the earthquake magnitude the longer the anticipation time of the precursor and b) a clear acceleration of the possible precursory anomalies before each mainshock, as typical of critical systems approaching a critical state. We propose an interpretative model to take into account the chain of detected phenomena.
Optics and Photonics for Advanced Dimensional Metrology
The accurate determination of the azimuth of a given direction, e.g., the true (geographic) North... more The accurate determination of the azimuth of a given direction, e.g., the true (geographic) North, is of fundamental importance in many fields. Just as few examples, it guides buildings construction in civil engineering, supports environmental and cartographic surveys, allows the correct positioning and stability control of concentrating solar power plants, as well as of airport installations, provides the geographic North reference for geomagnetic measurements, contributes to the interpretation of the orientation choices of ancient constructions in archeoastronomy, can be the primary benchmark to calibrate other compasses or gyroscopes. When aiming at reaching azimuth measurements with accuracies well below 1°, magnetic compasses are unreliable: firstly, they indicate the magnetic North rather than the geographic one; secondly, they are heavily influenced by possible surrounding ferromagnetic items.
Remote Sensing
Nowadays, the possibility that medium-large earthquakes could produce some electromagnetic ionosp... more Nowadays, the possibility that medium-large earthquakes could produce some electromagnetic ionospheric disturbances during their preparatory phase is controversial in the scientific community. Some previous works using satellite data from DEMETER, Swarm and, recently, CSES provided several pieces of evidence supporting the existence of such precursory phenomena in terms of single case studies and statical analyses. In this work, we applied a Worldwide Statistical Correlation approach to M5.5+ shallow earthquakes using the first 8 years of Swarm (i.e., from November 2013 to November 2021) magnetic field and electron density signals in order to improve the significance of previous statistical studies and provide some new results on how earthquake features could influence ionospheric electromagnetic disturbances. We implemented new methodologies based on the hypothesis that the anticipation time of anomalies of larger earthquakes is usually longer than that of anomalies of smaller magn...
Annals of Geophysics
During 1997, within the framework of an Italian-funded scientific cooperation between Italy and t... more During 1997, within the framework of an Italian-funded scientific cooperation between Italy and the Czech Republic, a series of magnetotelluric (MT) soundings was carried out in the region of Northwest Bohemia (Czech Republic). This is one of the most seismically active areas in Central Europe, where micro-earthquake swarms frequently occur during the apparently quiescent intervals between large macro-seismic swarms. Fifteen MT stations were installed in an area of about 15 ´ 20 km2 where 80% of the seismicity of the entire region has been recorded since 1986. The area showed a high electromagnetic noise, possibly of high cultural origin from the nearby industrial zone of the Sokolov basin, which affected both the electric and the magnetic signals. The final data, carefully selected, were modeled by 2D and 3D techniques. The results show an extensive conductive structure in the depth range from 0.5 to 3 km. This structure could be connected with the locally buried granitic massif in...
<p>The geomagnetic observatories managed by INGV (Istituto Nazionale di Geo... more <p>The geomagnetic observatories managed by INGV (Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia), both in Italy and Antarctica, send data to a server and the data are collected and stored in a MySQL database. The database has been operating for almost two decades and it is implemented on a local server which serves also as a web portal for the data display and distribution. By analyzing the data of all the INGV geomagnetic observatories at middle and polar latitudes, i.e. the values of the H, D and Z components, the F module and the K indices, the algorithm aims to distinguish the activity of the Earth's magnetic field in the following categories: “Quiet Period”, “Local disturbance” and “Magnetic Activity”, possibly distinguishing, within the latter, the level and the kind of event (sudden impulse, sudden ionospheric and magnetic disturbance driven by solar flare, magnetic storm or substorm). A preliminary automatic procedure allows to detect possible instrumental failure from a comparison between the vector components and the total field intensity in each observatory. A second level of check allows to discriminate local or regional against global features with the final goal to reject local noise, possibly of anthropic nature, eventually present in a single observatory through a majority logic based procedure. After these first filtering steps an automatic software procedure provides an empirical estimation of the current  Magnetic Activity (nowcasting) organized according to the above three possible categories. The embedded algorithm in the procedure operates on the geomagnetic field element (H, D, Z and F) and the local K indices of all observatories. The operations that the algorithm performs are aimed to identify the impulsive components in the signal, which are caused by external events. The quiet field component is removed from the signal, leaving the impulsive components present in the signal almost unaltered. If in the residual field is present a significant activity (with respect to an appropriate threshold) a procedure is performed that distinguishes between an isolated impulse or a cluster of impulses, by using time windows of different sizes. The whole procedure allows us to generate two different geomagnetic activity indices, one at low and the other at high latitude. In a final step we compute a cross correlated geomagnetic index comparing processed data at low and high latitude to retrieve a large spatial scale index.</p>
<p>The M7.2 Kermadec Islands (New Zealand) large earthquake occurred on Jun... more <p>The M7.2 Kermadec Islands (New Zealand) large earthquake occurred on June 15, 2019 as the result of shallow reverse faulting within the Tonga-Kermadec subduction zone. This work deals with the study of the earthquake-related processes that occurred during the preparation phase of this earthquake. We focused our analyses on seismic (earthquake catalogues), atmospheric (climatological archives) and ionospheric data (from ground to space, mainly satellite) in order to disclose the possible Lithosphere-Atmosphere-Ionosphere Coupling (LAIC). For what concern the ionospheric investigations, we analysed and compared the observations from the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver network and those from satellites in space. Specifically, the data from the European Space Agency (ESA) Swarm satellite constellation and from the China National Space Administration (CNSA, in partnership with Italian Space Agency, ASI) China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES-01) are used in this study. An interesting comparison is made with another subsequent earthquake with comparable magnitude (M7.1) that occurred in Ridgecrest, California (USA) on July 6 of the same year. Both earthquakes showed several multiparametric anomalies that occurred at almost the same times from each earthquake occurrence, evidencing a chain of processes that point to the moment of the corresponding mainshock. In both cases, it is demonstrated that a multiparametric and multilayer analysis is fundamental to better understand the LAIC in complex phenomena such as the earthquakes.</p>
Nel 2012, a seguito della sequenza sismica in Emilia Romagna, l'INGV decise di migliorare la ... more Nel 2012, a seguito della sequenza sismica in Emilia Romagna, l'INGV decise di migliorare la sua comunicazione sulla sismicità in corso creando un blog di informazione sui terremoti. L'esigenza di avere un prodotto di immediato utilizzo orientò la scelta sulla piattaforma Wordpress, così da poter sfruttare i vantaggi del cloud e di un hosting affidabile. In effetti, nei primi giorni di pubblicazione, il blog "INGVterremoti" (Figura 1) ebbe milioni di visualizzazioni di pagina senza nessuna interruzione del servizio. Negli anni successivi il blog si è consolidato come punto di riferimento della comunicazione della ricerca sui terremoti e dell'informazione in emergenza sismica, arrivando a superare ventuno milioni di visualizzazioni di pagina con una media annua di oltre un milione di visualizzazioni. Sulla scia del successo di INGVterremoti, nel 2018 sono stati aperti altri due blog, uno per ciascun Dipartimento, sulla stessa piattaforma: "INGVambiente"...
L'INGV è Centro di Competenza per i fenomeni sismici, vulcanici e i maremoti per il Dipartime... more L'INGV è Centro di Competenza per i fenomeni sismici, vulcanici e i maremoti per il Dipartimento di Protezione Civile Nazionale (DPC). Nell'ambito delle attività previste dall'Accordo Quadro DPC-INGV 2012-2021 (AQ vigente), l'INGV svolge attività di sorveglianza tecnico-scientifica sulla sismicità del territorio nazionale, sui fenomeni vulcanici e sui maremoti, finalizzata ai compiti di protezione civile, in modo ininterrotto (H24 per 365 giorni l'anno). Tale attività viene realizzata con uno specifico assetto organizzativo, che consente la trasmissione in tempo reale verso il DPC di tutte le informazioni riguardanti eventi e rischi sismici, vulcanici e da maremoto di interesse per il Dipartimento stesso. La sorveglianza sismica del territorio nazionale e delle aree limitrofe è in carico all'Osservatorio Nazionale Terremoti (ONT), insieme alle comunicazioni relative agli eventi in area mediterranea e nel mondo. La sorveglianza delle aree vulcaniche campane (C...
geophysical methods for solid buried waste detection: a case study
Annals of Geophysics, 2009
Annals of Geophysics, 1998
The analysis of geomagnetic field variations is a useful tool to detect electrical conductivity c... more The analysis of geomagnetic field variations is a useful tool to detect electrical conductivity contrasts within the Earth. Lateral resolution of outlined patterns depends on the array dimensions and density of measurement sites over the investigated area. The inspection depth is constrained by the period of geomagnetic variations considered in data processing. Regions with significant geological features such as boundaries of continental plates, marginal areas of contact between tectonic units or other geodynamical processes, are of primary interest for the application of the MagnetoVariational (MV) method. In the last ten years, in the frame of the ElectroMagnetic (EM) sounding techniques in applied geophysics, this method has been applied in Italy by researchers of the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica, Rome, the Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Universitá di Genova and the Czech Science Academy of Prague. The Ivrea body in the Northwestern Alps and their junction with the Apen...
Annals of Geophysics, Jan 30, 2019
We used ULF geomagnetic field measurements in the Pc5 frequency range (1.7−7 mHz) at two Antarcti... more We used ULF geomagnetic field measurements in the Pc5 frequency range (1.7−7 mHz) at two Antarctic stations to statistically investigate the longitudinal location of the polar cusp. The two stations are located at the same geomagnetic latitude, ~80° S (just poleward of the cusp), and are separated by one hour in magnetic local time. Since at each station the Pc5 power maximizes when the station approaches the cusp, the comparison between their Pc5 power allows to estimate the longitudinal position of the cusp and to examine its movements. We found that there is a displacement of the cusp depending on interplanetary conditions; in particular, the cusp shifts to later hours for negative values of the interplanetary magnetic field and solar wind velocity east−west components (B y and V y), while moves to earlier hours for positive values of V y. Conversely, no dependence of the cusp longitudinal position on positive B y values nor on the interplanetary magnetic field north−south component (B z) emerges.
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Papers by Domenico Di Mauro