National Institute for Astrophysics

The team at the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) in SPEARHEAD is based in the Institute for Space Astrophysics and Planetology of Rome. INAF will lead the WP7 and participate in WP5. In SPEARHEAD the INAF team is led by Dr. Monica Laurenza. She has a long-lasting experience in the study of cosmic ray modulation, SEP acceleration, SEP forecasting and radiation assessment studies. She is the Principal Investigator (PI) of the SVIRCO Observatory (the Rome neutron monitor) and of the project of the project “Comprehensive spAce wEather Studies for the ASPIS (ASI Space weather InfraStructure) prototype Realization” (CAESAR). She is deputy scientific PI of the HENON mission, Co-Investigator (Co-I) of the SIXS (Solar Intensity X-ray and particle Spectrometer) experiment aboard the ESA-BepiColombo and SWA (Solar Wind Analyzer) plasma suite aboard the ESA-Solar Orbiter. She was “Scientist on L1/L2 particle environment” of the H2020 project “integrated Activities in the High Energy Astrophysics Domain (AHEAD)”.

Other team members at INAF include: Dr. Federica Marcucci, who is an expert in space data of interplanetary perturbations and space missions. She is the scientific PI of the HENON mission, currently in Phase B, and Lead Scientist of the Plasma Observatory M7 candidate mission currently in competitive Phase 0. She will participate in the activities of WP7; Dr. Rossana De Marco, who is an expert in solar wind analysis, numerical simulations, data compression and machine learning techniques and will participate in the scientific data analysis (WP5).