ANNUAL REPORT 1998

Introduction

The Space Research Centre (SRC) is the sole research institution in Poland whose activity is focu-sed entirely on space research carried out in broad international cooperation. In 1998, the formal status of the Space Research Centre was raised to full institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The institute was given right to promote scientists to Ph.D. degree in physics with the speciality of geophysics.

In 1998, new data from the CORONAS and INTERBALL space experiments were obtained; pieces of hardware manufactured by SRC under contract with DLR were launched onboard of three Indian sounding rockets in a joint German - Indian ionospheric research campaign; development of hardware for the INTEGRAL and ROSETTA missions was advanced. The heliogeophysical prediction service and permanent observing service at the SRC Laser Station and IGS Station at the Astrogeodynamical Observatory in Borowiec were maintained. New results in theoretical studies and from interpretation of earlier space experiments were obtained in the fields of heliospheric, ionospheric and magnetosphe-ric research, dynamics of small bodies of the Solar System, and Earth rotation studies.

The highlights of the institute's activity in 1998 include:

• Observation of wide-band bursts of Auroral Kilometric Radiation (AKR) in the Earth's magneto-sphere by the POLRAD experiment aboard the Interball-2 satellite. The bursts arise abruptly (wi-thin ~1 minute) in the frequency range from 30 to 900 kHz and fade out slowly (~15 minutes). Lo-cal electric currents along the magnetic field lines are correlated with the bursts, as well as plasma turbulence and intense particle beams. It has been suggested that the disturbance responsible for the burst radiation can propagate in the auroral magnetosphere as kinetic waves, capable of accele-rating particles along the magnetic field lines (J. Hanasz).

• Completion of analysis of fluctuations of the solar wind velocity from Helios 1 and 2 data. The results obtained with the use of topological embedding method suggest that the system evolution can be approximately described by a low-dimensional attractor in an inertial manifold of the phase space. This conclusion was verified for low-speed streams of the solar wind. Decisive tests for nonlinearity and existence of chaotic attractor were devised. The research suggests that fluctuations in the solar wind are more likely a result of internal nonlinear dynamics than of external stochastic disturbances (W.M. Macek).

• The Astrogeodynamical Observatory as the third laser station in the world initiated measurements of signals from GLONASS satellites with the use of a multichannel receiver. The measurements make possible to verify of atomic clocks with accuracy better than 1 ns and to perform of geodetic observations similarly as with the GPS system. The Borowiec station is the only station in Poland that carries out geodetic observations using three systems: laser, GPS and GLONASS. The station participated the first IGEX campaign (International GLONASS Experiment), managed by IGS (International GPS Service for Geodynamics), where all three systems were used. (J. Nawrocki).

At the end of 1998, the SRC staff consisted of 136 full-time and 15 part-time employees, including 46 scientists, 20 of them being professors or holding habilitated doctor degree. The activities of the institute were financed from funds granted by the State Committee for Scientific Research (SCSR) as basic allocation (33%), form national and international grants and contracts (50%), and from other sources (17%). In 1998, SRC scientists were carrying out 40 SCSR-sponsored grants (including one solicited project); 6 grants sponsored by international institutions; and 16 national and international contracts. The institute has been participating in 6 major international space projects.

During the report year, SRC scientists published 113 publications, including 94 scientific papers in refereed international journals, and submitted for publication 75 papers. They also delivered 145 talks at international scientific conferences, including 12 invited. The institute organised 2 international con-ferences and its scientists applied to SCSR for 22 research grants.
Six SRC scientists worked as elected officers and four as official Polish representatives in interna-tional scientific organisations. The institute was visited in 1998 by 115 scientists from abroad (including 7 visits exceeding 1 month) and its employees paid 229 visits to international scientific institu-tions. The international cooperation of the institute was carried out within the framework of agre-ements with 36 institutions from 16 countries.

In 1998, the institute was ranked as category A by the State Committee for Scientific Research.