University of Oulu

The work at the University of Oulu (UOULU) related to the SPEARHEAD will be performed by the Cosmic-ray research group led by prof. Ilya Usoskin. The UOULU group will participate in WP 2, 3, 5 and 6. The group has led several national and international research projects, including the ReSoLVE Centre of Excellence of the Academy of Finland (2014–2020, I. Usoskin as the vice-director). The group has top-level experience and leads research in ground-based measurements of GCRs and SEPs; reconstruction of spectral and angular parameters of strong SEP events; terrestrial and atmospheric effects of SEPs. Prof. Usoskin is the head of the Oulu Cosmic Ray station since 2000 and possesses expertise in ground-based cosmic-ray measurements, particularly in relation to SEPs and their magnetospheric and atmospheric transport. He also manages the International GLE database and a mirror of the NMDB database. His group has discovered a new class of SEP events, called subGLE events. Prof. Usoskin is a team leader in the AMS02 collaboration. He is also involved in top-level theoretical research including solar and heliospheric physics, modulation of GCRs, SEP events and their terrestrial effects, Space Climate and extreme solar events. Prof. Usoskin actively serves the research community, e.g., as a Vice-President of the IAU, a member of the C4 (Astroparticle Physics) commission of IUPAP, an evaluator and a reviewer. He has strong experience with large-scale research projects, in both participating and leading. This includes, e.g., the National Centre of Excellence ReSoLVE, several focused projects of the Academy of Finland, and collaborative EU projects in the FP6, FP7, and Horizon Europe frameworks. Dr Alexandar Mishev is a senior researcher at the cosmic-ray research group and a top-class expert in the field of atmospheric effects of cosmic rays and SEPs, including atmospheric ionisation and radiation doses. He has developed the presently most accurate NM yield function and a robust method to reconstruct spectra of SEPs from the ground-based NM datasets for GLE events. He has also developed a new open-source code to trace energetic particles in the Earth’s magnetosphere in realistic conditions, called OTSO (Open-source Geomagnetosphere Propagation Tool). His expertise will be necessary for the Project to relate data from the ground-based NMs to the in-situ parameters, and to assess the atmospheric/dosimetric effects. Dr Sergey Koldobskiy is a postdoctoral researcher. He was a member of the PAMELA collaboration until its end and has in-hand experience with PAMELA data. His expertise will be necessary for the Project to carefully analyse the space-borne data and to compare those to the data from low-orbiting spectrometers PAMELA and AMS02.