UNDERSTANDING PLANET EARTH
LAND, WATER AND AIR
Symbolically, you can say we study our own home and its surroundings, the place where we live as humankind. On the one
hand, we deal with the basic sciences, trying to answer some fundamental questions about all the processes of life on our planet. On
the other hand, we are working on concrete, everyday, practical issues such as fuel and other natural sources of energy. By examining
specific processes, we can determine what can be done to improve
them. One example is research into the Earth’s water resources, including the impact of climate change on them. The same applies
to research on shale gas deposits and the profitability of their potential extraction. Of course, we are less concerned with issues related to economics, and more concerned with those related to the
safety of extracting such deposits. Discussion is in progress today
on whether or not [an extraction method known as] hydrocracking
causes damage to the environment, and whether it impacts the
groundwater and surface water levels, and finally whether contaminated water is dangerous to the environment. Researchers like us
conduct research seeking to answer this question.
Above all, we conduct seismic surveys. A large portion of these
is commissioned by companies engaged in mining work and
those working on issues related to the location of the potential
nuclear plants that will be built in Poland. After several years of
observation we will be able to decide whether or not the sites
selected for the future nuclear power plants are safe seismically.
Can you tell us something about the history of your institute?
Prof. Paweł Rowiński, director of the Polish Academy
of Sciences’ Institute of Geophysics in Warsaw, talks
to Andrzej Jonas.
W
hen we think geophysics, we tend to think of a discipline of science that studies the Earth’s crust. But in
fact your institute studies the land, water and air...
Your definition is accurate. We examine the Earth’s environment
as a whole, which after all is mostly made up of water, not of hard
crust. Of course, the atmosphere, the closest layer surrounding
the Earth, is also the subject of our research. So we are interested
in the atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, and in human activity in all these environments.
S2
It is worth remembering that Poland is where the history of
geophysics as a science began. The first department of geophysics was launched at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow in the
late 19th century. So our geophysical tradition is on a par with
those in countries far more developed than Poland. Our institute
was established in 1953 as one of the first research institutions of
the Polish Academy of Sciences less than a year after the Academy was set up. Initially, before we were authorized, as required
under law, to confer doctoral degrees and acquired a sufficient
number of independent research workers, we were a research facility based at three observatories, located in Warsaw, Świder [near
Warsaw] and [the southern town of ] Racibórz. Those were seismic
and magnetic observatories.
In the early decades of our activities our own design offices
played an important role, in which we designed scientific equipment for use in our own research. But it is necessary to remember
that this was a time when, due to an embargo maintained for political reasons, we could not buy similar equipment in the West.
So we built it in a sense for our own use and for our colleagues in
some other research centers.
Especially important was the 1957-1958 period, when Poland
decided to take part in the International Year of Geophysics, which
brought our discipline of science a lot of funds from the government. We organized two scientific expeditions in those days. The
first was to Vietnam, where we set up another seismic observatory
that continues to operate to this day. The second expedition set
off to polar regions; a decision was made to build an independent
Polish polar research station on Spitsbergen.
Why was the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen chosen?
First, Poland has a polar research tradition dating back to the
days when Polish deportees in Russia’s Siberia region, who included many distinguished scholars, were engaged in such expeditions. The first polar expedition in the period after Poland regained
its independence took place in the 1920s, which means shortly
after Poland reappeared on the map of Europe.
On the other hand, the decision of the communist authorities
in Poland at the time to set up our station on Spitsbergen also
had a political aspect to it—in the form of establishing a research
outpost within the territory of a country that was part of the opposite bloc. Consequently, despite the fact that the early days of
the Polish presence on Spitsbergen were difficult amid efforts to
create decent living and working conditions for scientists, thanks
to the participation of a large group of enthusiasts—some would
even call them adventure seekers—the foundations were laid for
the future station within a short time. Spitsbergen, much as the
entire Arctic region, was an unusually attractive object of study.
Many of the sites there were untouched by man. No wonder then
that the Polish station quickly became an important center of research in that region.
Today, after many years in the global community of geophysicists, Poland is sometimes referred to as an Arctic country, even
though no part of its territory is located within this climatic zone.
This is how we are referred to by the Norwegians and Canadians,
who are aware of the contribution we have made and continue
to make to polar research. Naturally, we are also a member of all
major international organizations and associations dealing with
such research.
Returning to the activities of your institute, how large is
your team, and how are research tasks divided up within it?
We have 200 people and are divided up according to area of interest, without a strict demarcation as to who is engaged in basic
research and who deals with applied research. We conduct both
research and infrastructure projects focusing on issues such as
fuel, water management and pollution. In recent years we’ve been
trying to combine the efforts of our individual teams so that they
can respond to universal questions, without limiting themselves
to the immediate subject of their research.
It should be emphasized that the funds we get, including some
of those that come from the government, grants, and the money
from those placing orders for our services, are primarily intended
for applied research. Inevitably, this affects the focus of our activities, even though we are fully aware of the importance of fundamental sciences.
Geophysics is an expensive discipline. We have to work out in
the field, often in very distant and hostile terrain, and deploy our
equipment there, which often includes expensive research instruments. Typically, geophysical research also requires an extended
period of time, and consequently generates substantial costs.
Recently, we secured a project involving the establishment of
a new research center in the area of induced seismicity, which
means seismicity caused by man, for example as a result of
mining and extraction work, injection of carbon dioxide underground, and so on. The center is being created in Cracow as part
of a major European project for seismic observations. We managed to convince our European partners that Poland will be the
best location for the center. We’ve received 3.5 million euros for
this purpose.
Will the Cracow center provide commercial services—for
instance, for mining and extraction companies from Poland
and abroad?
The Induced Seismicity Research Infrastructure Center under
development will not operate along commercial lines, although
undoubtedly it will also provide services to the kind of companies you mentioned. The center’s task is to collect all available data
and information useful for research on induced seismicity, and to
make this information available in the most convenient form for
this kind of work. An important group of users of the center will
be industrial users as the providers of infrastructure and recipients
of research results. The center will therefore assist in the development of methods and rules to better manage the exploitation of
natural deposits. Thanks to the synergy of science and industry,
science will gain access to induced seismicity data collected in
industrial centers, and industry will gain access to new but welltested solutions.
What kind of ties does the institute have with industry at
present?
We carry out joint projects and various kinds of studies for large
companies such as [Polish copper giant] KGHM Polska Miedź S.A.,
[oil and gas company] PGNiG, Kompania W´glowa [coal company], as well as global corporations such as ION and Hutton Energy.
As I have already mentioned, most of the projects concern seismic imaging of the Earth’s crust and the environmental impact
of a specific enterprise. Our hydrologists examine the functioning
of planned hydroelectric power plants from this angle, evaluating for example how far the hot water stream ejected by a power
plant will reach and how much it will affect the environment. Our
evaluations are later used by designers, ecologists, biologists and
chemists examining other risks.
S3
We are interested in the
atmosphere, lithosphere,
hydrosphere, and in human activity
in all these environments.
Much is being said about the need to predict the movements of the Earth’s crust and volcanic eruptions. Does the
institute conduct research in this area as well?
Absolutely. We are talking about the most complex basic research related to the understanding of plate tectonics and processes taking place throughout the Earth’s crust. We have achievements in this field; we define seismic hazard areas and create risk
maps. But no one in the world has so far succeeded in predicting
the exact date or time of an earthquake in a given region or an
explosion of a specific volcano.
Poland is a seismically safe area; when assessing the location of future nuclear power plants, do you nonetheless
analyze the activity of the Earth’s crust?
Of course. In Poland, especially in the Podkarpacie region [in the
south of the country] seismic tremors are regularly recorded. They
are too weak to be felt by people or to be troublesome. During the
construction of a nuclear power plant, assessments are made of
how strong the reinforcements of buildings must be to withstand
the maximum vibrations of the Earth’s surface that occur there. So
it is possible to build such power plants in seismic regions. Even
in the case of the Fukushima nuclear disaster the reactor did not
explode after all, and the damage was the result of a tsunami, not
of the seismic shock itself. That power plant withstood the earthquake, but it had been built too close to the sea, because its designers ignored the danger of a huge wave.
So the studies we conduct in Poland are closely linked to financial issues; the point is to not spend money unnecessarily on excessive reinforcements that do not reflect the potential real level
of the regional seismic hazard.
S4
Does the institute work with foreign partners, especially
when it comes to practical applied research?
We wouldn’t be able to function without permanent international cooperation. We are recognized around the world as an institute and as a GeoPlanet Earth and Planetary Research Center,
comprising five units of the Polish Academy of Sciences. We have
also been invited to join GEO8, the European Earth Sciences Research Alliance, which groups eight research centers considered
the most important in European research in this field. We are one
of the founders of this European group of geophysicists. For now,
we are mainly exchanging information, but I hope that eventually
we will be able to use joint research infrastructure, borrow equipment, carry out joint experiments, etc. For years, we have been at
the forefront internationally when it comes to seismic studies of
the lithosphere, though there were times when we had to borrow equipment, for example from our American colleagues. Fortunately, we have such a reputation that scientific collaboration
with the institute was an obvious decision for American centers.
However, it would certainly be desirable to create a big European
structure coordinating joint research.
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MORE THAN 100 YEARS OF RESEARCH
Prof. Roman Teisseyre, who
was director of the Polish
Academy of Sciences’ Institute
of Geophysics from 1970 to
1972, talks to Witold Żygulski.
What were the beginnings of geophysics in Poland?
Many great Polish scientists studied geophysics at the end of the
19th century. They included Maurycy Pius-Rudzki, a professor at the
geophysics department of the Jagiellonian University in Cracow. The
department was established in 1895 as the first department of geophysics in the world. Poland’s other great geophysicist was Stanisław
Kramsztyk, one of the first people in Europe to popularize exact sciences such as physics, astronomy and geophysics. In 1915, construction began on the first Polish magnetic observatory in Świder near
Warsaw. In 1921, the observatory started regular measurements of
the Earth’s magnetic field and later, it also started monitoring atmospheric electricity, air pollution and background gamma radiation.
The facility became a geophysical observatory in 1928 and has functioned as one ever since.
The Institute of Geophysics started in 1952 as a very small establishment called the Department of Geophysics. Polish geophysics
reached a milestone several years later when the 1957-1958 season
was declared the International Year of Geophysics. That was when our
researchers embarked on two expeditions. One took them to the island of Spitsbergen, where Polish geophysicists had worked before
1939. The other expedition, with me at the helm, went to Vietnam.
The two geophysical stations that we set up in Vietnam are still there,
so you could say we made a major contribution to the development
of geophysics in that region.
In the early 1970s, a part of our institute became the Department
of Oceanography, which later developed into an institute in its own
right. It is now our partner research center whose fields of study include marine geophysics.
Geophysics is a global science and effective geophysical
research requires collaboration with partners abroad. What
major international programs have Polish geophysicists
taken part in and what results have they achieved?
The International Year of Geophysics gave an international angle
to our institute’s projects. We have since had very good contacts with
countries like Japan and Italy. I frequently traveled to Japan for many
years until 2000 and Japanese experts came to visit us in Poland.
My junior colleague, Kacper Rafał Rybicki, traveled to Japan as well.
Young, budding scientists took part in regular exchange programs,
which as the years went by produced a network of international connections around the world. Prof. Adam Dziewoński, whose career began at the Department of Geophysics, settled in the United States
and won international acclaim for his research into the interior of the
Earth. Andrzej Kijko, who started as a seismologist at our institute,
devised algorithms for statistical surveys of different kinds of earthquakes, including intraplate earthquakes. After he left Poland, he became an expert in seismic risks and threats posed by other disasters,
especially those that nuclear power plants, airports, dams and other
such structures are exposed to. Kijko has for years worked in South
Africa and he still works with our researchers.
We were among the pioneers of research into elastic rotational
stress of seismic origin. This is an innovative field of geophysical research. The studies were hard to start, but it had to be done, for a
number of reasons. For many years, stress and deformations of this
kind were never even taken into account in seismology. The common
belief was that they hardly existed and even if there were any, they
were instantly suppressed. Today, dissertations are written around the
world with descriptions of such deformations, analyzing how these
deformations impact seismic fields and, for example, buildings. We
started measuring these deformations at the end of last century and
the first international workshop in this field of research was held in
2007 in California. The fourth workshop is scheduled to take place
next year in Germany.
We have also worked for many years with the Czech Republic (and
Czechoslovakia before that), mainly in the area of mining geophysics.
With these partners we have held international symposiums on mining geophysics and, more recently, environmental geophysics.
Our institute conducted research into the electrical resistance of
soil and rocks. Part of the research took place inside a copper mine
and attempts were made to incorporate the research into the mine’s
risk assessment system. While conducting such research, we worked
with the former Soviet republics of Russia and Georgia.
One of the greatest achievements of the Institute of Geophysics
staff is the network of seismological, magnetic and geophysical observatories we have created, maintained and regularly modernized. We
have made them part of the global observation and data exchange
system. Important here is the ability of our researchers to establish
good contacts, while our partners abroad proved happy to collaborate. These partners mainly come from Western and Northern Europe.
One of the key moments in the institute’s history was the launch of
the Central Geophysical Observatory in Belsk, central Poland.
Research into the deep structure of the lithosphere, which the institute mainly conducts in Europe, has been made possible by the
enormous support we have received from abroad, the United States
in particular. Also of key importance is the determination, imagination and perseverance of our researchers, who are headed by Prof.
Aleksander Guterch.
S5
PEERING DEEP UNDER
THE EARTH’S CRUST
Researchers from the Department of Lithospheric
Research, part of the Polish Academy of Sciences’
Institute of Geophysics, can be regarded as historians
specializing in the evolution of the Earth; seismic
phenomena in the planet’s lithosphere speak volumes
about the past 3.5 billion years.
T
he lithosphere, the outer layer of the Earth, comprises the crust
and upper mantle. This is where all available mineral resources
are located. Research into what lies deep under the surface of the
Earth allows scientists to determine the structure and physical
state of the planet and understand how it has evolved. Such studies are based on geophysical research, especially on methods that
analyze the propagation of seismic waves generated in the Earth’s
crust by natural earthquakes and manmade vibrations such as explosions.
The Department of Lithospheric Research uses active seismic
methods that penetrate the lithosphere up to a depth of 100 kilometers. The most important body of research concerns crust
that is 30-40 km thick on continents and a dozen or so kilometers
S6
under the oceans. The researchers are mostly interested in Central Europe, as the area between
the Baltic, Adriatic and Black Seas
has an extremely complicated
geological structure and tectonic
history. Geological maps of this
part of Europe show that Poland
has the most complex mix of
geological structures in the region. Northeastern Poland sits on
the Eastern European craton—an
Prof. Tomasz Janik
old and stable part of the continental lithosphere—which is up
to 3.5 billion years old, while the west of the country is formed by
the tip of the paleozoic platform of Central and Western Europe,
which is 300-400 million years old. Pushing in from the south is the
Alpide orogenic (mountain-forming) belt, whose Polish section is
part of the Carpathian mountains. These three immense tectonic
formations converge in southeastern Poland, making the region a
crucial source of information on geodynamic processes that have
taken place in Europe. In order to understand these processes, the
Department of Lithospheric Research has for many years worked
closely with partners in Western
and Southern Europe as well as in
Ukraine and Belarus. Their joint efforts include a host of large-scale
active seismic experiments. These
have employed state-of-the-art
seismic stations brought in from
many European countries, the
United States and Canada. In recent years, much of this research
Prof. Aleksander Guterch
has been focused on Ukraine.
After 2007, a lot of research
projects were carried out on six fault lines, aiming to identify the
structure of the ridge of the Eastern European craton and the
Southeastern European extension of the Teisseyre-Tornquist fault
zone that cuts through Poland. Prof. Tomasz Janik, who heads the
Department of Lithospheric Research, says his team led all these
projects. “This was because of our experience and know-how in
preparing experiments and then gathering and interpreting data,”
says Janik. “We are one of the world’s leading research centers.”
Problems that geophysicists encounter in their work are often of
a completely non-scientific nature. Prof. Aleksander Guterch, who
has worked at the Department of Lithospheric Research the longest and who used to head the department, says that national borders constitute a major hindrance to geodynamic studies. “Coping
with regulations and restrictions is nothing short of a nightmare,
as is trying to obtain permission for specific research projects,” says
Guterch. “Americans are surprised to see that despite so many political borders, geodynamic research is nevertheless conducted
in Europe.” It was not until European integration happened that a
radical change took place and expensive seismic equipment could
finally be shipped across borders without complications.
Active seismic research uses seismic waves set off by explosions. Explosive charges used in such experiments range from
several hundred kilograms of TNT to over a metric ton. “I started
such experiments in Poland in the late 1960s,” says Guterch. After communism fell, researchers from the Department of Lithospheric Research initiated four major international seismic experiments in Central and Southern Europe. The projects were called
Polonaise ’97, Celebration 2000, ALP 2002, and Sudetes 2003, and
were carried out in 1997-2003. New-generation seismic data obtained from the experiments will be used by researchers for many
years to come. Some of the data is so complicated that the Department of Lithospheric Research is still working to interpret it.
So far, findings from the experiments have been cited in around
100 publications, including international science magazines and
prestigious monographs. The four research projects were carried
out as a joint international effort by 35 research and industry organizations from 17 European countries, the United States and Canada. The experiments were conducted on seismic profiles with a
total length of over 20,000 km.
Celebration 2000 (short for Central European Lithospheric Experiment Based on Refraction) was the largest of the four projects,
with experiments conducted in western Russia, Belarus, Poland,
Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary and Germany.
Seismic waves were generated at 147 so-called shot points and
recorded by 2,340 cutting-edge seismic stations brought from
European countries and the United States. It is estimated that at
the time of the experiment, the expensive seismic stations used
in it accounted for 70 percent of all of the world’s equipment of
this kind. In order to prepare the shot points, a huge number of
holes were bored in the ground, each around 30 meters deep and
packed with 50 kilograms of TNT.
The seismic waves generated by the explosions penetrated up
to 100 km into the lithosphere. They were registered along specified profile lines by stations placed every 2 km. This dense array of
seismic stations and lines enabled the researchers to record seismic waves from all shot points and coming from different directions. The data obtained was subsequently used to identify the
spatial structure of the Earth’s crust in the studied areas.
The Celebration 2000 experiment covered an area of around
500,000 square kilometers and involved around 800 technical
staff and several dozen researchers. It lasted 30 days and nights. In
S7
INDUCED
SEISMICITY
a special report, the European Foundation for Science described
Celebration 2000 as the largest research project of this kind in the
history of world geophysics. The Oxford Guide to Modern Science
(2003), a special publication of the University of Oxford, named
Celebration 2000 as one of the experiments that brought science
into the 21st century.
According to Guterch, technological barriers encountered during research into what is hiding inside the Earth are incomparably
harder to overcome than in space exploration. Boreholes reaching
just 3-4 km under the Earth’s surface cost around zl.30 million. The
deepest holes that the Americans have bored in the Gulf of Mexico
reach 12 km inside the crust. “Consequently, geophysical methods
are the only efficient way to study the interior of the Earth and
seismic methods are the most important of them,” says Guterch.
Active seismic methods employing explosives have also been
used in large-scale explorations of the deep structure of the crust
in polar regions, the Western Antarctic and the Svalbard Archipelago in the Arctic. In 1976-2010, experts from the Department of
Lithospheric Research organized seven expeditions to the Arctic
and five to the Antarctic. The areas selected for research in the two
regions are of key importance to the geodynamics of the Earth. A
large amount of the research was carried out as part of international projects. Before the Polish researchers arrived in the Antarctic,
nobody had carried out such a systematic series of experiments
and Antarctic research is considered a “Polish specialty” to this day.
In recent years, a new kind of broadband seafloor seismic station has been introduced. These devices can stay submerged up
to 6 km underwater for around one year. After they are recovered,
data analysis begins, presenting new opportunities for researchers in polar regions. Economic issues have recently boosted the
importance of seismic research in these areas. Guterch says that
crude oil deposits in the Arctic are estimated at around 20 percent
of total global resources and deposits of natural gas at 30 percent.
Highlighting how important scientific research has become to
industry and the economy, the researchers from Department of
Lithospheric Research work closely with Poland’s Environment
Ministry and Polish natural gas giant PGNiG. “We have been persuading young oil industry experts that in order to make progress
in the search for energy resources these days, you need to precisely identify the deep structure of the Earth’s crust,” says Guterch.
S8
Polish scientists will soon manage an integrated
European database of induced seismicity and
coordinate the work of researchers from 16 countries
taking part in the European Plate Observing System
(EPOS), Europe’s biggest infrastructure project in
Earth sciences. The management center will be set up
in Cracow.
“T
his is the first time ever
that a country from the
new Europe—the countries
that joined the European Union
just under 11 years ago—has
been appointed a leader of
a large European research
project of this kind,” says Prof.
Stanisław Lasocki, head of the
Department of Seismology of
the Cracow-based Institute of
Geophysics, part of the Polish
Academy of Sciences. The EPOS
Prof. Stanisław Lasocki
program, launched in 2010, will
continue until 2040.
The Department of Seismology deals with observational
seismology in two different areas: earthquakes (natural seismic
events) and induced (anthropogenic) seismicity. The latter is
seismic activity caused by humans, chiefly the mining of natural resources. It is caused by underground mines, geothermal
energy facilities, both conventional and unconventional extraction of hydrocarbons (crude oil and natural gas), underground storage of liquids or gases and other technological
activities. Filling tanks linked to hydroelectric power plants or
water dams can also cause effects that trigger the natural tendency of rock to crack. Sequestration of carbon dioxide looks
set to be another major problem in the future.
The first case that can be described as induced seismicity
dates back to the 18th century. The case in question was described in English historical records and concerned a mine.
Sometimes human activity is only the trigger, initiating a process that could have eventually occurred naturally in a rock formation over dozens or hundreds of thousands of years.
“We don’t accept invitations
regarding very short-term projects
or those not requiring expertise; we
aim to operate on a higher level,
where strictly scientific work is
required,” Lasocki says.
The scale of induced seismic events ranges from very small
incidents to the force of natural earthquakes. A tragedy in China in 2008 when at least 70,000 people were killed after an
earthquake of a magnitude of 7 on the Richter scale may have
been—the debate here is still ongoing—triggered by human
activity. Earthquakes in Italy in the Emilia Romagna region in
2012, the most costly ever in Europe, were likely triggered by
oil and gas mining.
Natural earthquakes are disasters stemming from the nature
of the dynamics of the Earth’s interior and humans have no
influence over them. They can only try to predict them (still
a rather distant prospect) and use construction methods in
endangered regions that prevent the destruction of buildings.
Induced seismicity, on the other hand, is caused by human
activity and here—at least theoretically—the danger can be
reduced.
“A sensible compromise is needed between essential human industrial activity and environmental protection,” says Lasocki. “Induced seismicity is a field of conflict. On one side you
have those who focus on the economy, on production, while
on the other you have those who want things to stay calm. Between them are we, the scientists, whose task is to bring about
accord,” he adds.
According to Lasocki, Europeans have become a little oversensitive regarding the impact of industrial activity on people
and the environment. One prominent example was a small
tremor in the northern Swiss city of Basel in 2006 that caused
little damage but immediately resulted in a local geothermal
well being shut down. The project had cost 50 million euros.
The tremor put in question the entire future of geothermal
energy in Europe. Germany also started closing down geothermal wells. A tremor of a magnitude of 2.3 that occurred in
Blackpool, northeast England, put in question shale gas extraction in Europe.
“It’s become popular to scare people. That’s why our role is
to offer reliable information on possible dangers while monitoring industry so that it does not try risky projects using hazardous technologies in a given area,” says Lasocki.
One type of work carried out by the Department of Seismology is research. Experts observe different phenomena of
interest to them without any interference from possible customers expecting simple answers. Such research is financed
with public funds.
Another area of work involves studies and projects for
commercial customers. One example is a project that has
been conducted for 12 years for the Hydrotechnical Unit of
copper giant KGHM Polska Miedź. The project involves periodical studies of seismic hazards in Europe’s biggest postflotation mineral waste repository, Żelazny Most, in southern
Poland. If its embankment were damaged as a result of a
seismic tremor, an environmental disaster of an unbelievable
scale would ensue.
“We don’t accept invitations regarding very short-term
projects or those not requiring expertise; we aim to operate
on a higher level, where strictly scientific work is required,”
Lasocki says.
The time span of hazard assessments is usually determined by the period over which industrial activity will be
conducted in a given area. This can vary from months in
the case of a local seismic process, to a dozen or more years
when the overall induced seismicity in a particular region
is to be taken into account. Seismic events that are not induced but triggered by human activity are a completely
different matter: studies of this phenomenon have to cover
entire geological eras and natural processes that have to be
investigated in order to assess to what extent human activity can change them, speeding up the occurrence of a possible disaster.
S9
EYE ON THE ATMOSPHERE
The Department of Atmospheric Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Geophysics conducts
research into ozone, ultraviolet solar radiation, air pollutants and electric processes in the atmosphere.
As
part of its two flagship
research projects, the
department measures solar
ultraviolet (UV) radiation near
the Earth’s surface and the total content of ozone in the atmosphere. The department’s
research into ozone began in
the early 1960s while studies
focusing on ultraviolet radiation started in the 1970s. The
projects are some of the world’s
Janusz Jarosławski
longest-running in this field of
research.
The term atmospheric ozone has a broader meaning than
just the ozone layer that surrounds the Earth 22 kilometers
above the planet, protecting life from the harmful effects of
solar ultraviolet radiation. Certain amounts of ozone are also
found elsewhere in the atmosphere. Near ground level, ozone
can be harmful to people, animals and plants when it becomes a component of smog. Janusz Jarosławski, Ph.D. who
heads the atmospheric ozone and solar radiation division of
the Department of Atmospheric Physics, says ozone is a product of natural photochemical processes in the atmosphere.
While people do not directly produce ozone, natural processes
can be intensified by air pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and
hydrocarbons. “Thankfully, ground-level ozone concentrations
have started to decline in recent years as a result of cuts in
emissions of ozone precursors, including strict regulations on
exhaust gases from cars,” says Jarosławski. Ozone is classified
as a greenhouse gas, but its impact on the temperature of the
atmosphere is not as strong as that of carbon dioxide. It does,
however, have a significant impact on the stratosphere, whose
temperature is naturally raised due to the presence of ozone.
“The measurements we have conducted for over 50 years at
the Central Geophysical Laboratory in Belsk [south of Warsaw]
have since the beginning been part of a global atmospheric
ozone measurement network,” says Jarosławski. “The network’s
database is located in Canada. We send our results there on a
daily basis, helping to create a global picture of the ozone layer.
This data, presented as a global ozone map, is available online
at http://exp-studies.tor.ec.gc.ca/e/ozone/Curr_allmap_n.htm.”
The Department of Atmospheric Physics is also involved in
a European project called COST that aims to establish an au-
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tomated ozone measurement network for Europe within the
global network.
“The term ozone hole is used with reference to the Antarctic,” says Jarosławski. “Every spring (autumn in Poland), ozone
vanishes at a certain altitude over the Antarctic, reducing the
ozone layer to just a third of its normal thickness.” That triggers
an increase in the amount of UV rays that reach the Earth. In
the 1990s, a similar process took place over Europe, but to a
much lesser extent. Excessive ultraviolet radiation leads to cancer, skin lesions and eye problems. Our bodies need UV rays,
however, to synthesize vitamin D. At the geographical latitude
where Poland is located, the production of vitamin D stops
in humans in winter, resulting in vitamin D deficiencies. This
problem is studied at the Department of Atmospheric Physics as well. The department’s researchers have teamed up with
dermatologists to seek ways to use ultraviolet radiation in the
treatment of skin diseases such as psoriasis.
Another major field of research at the Department of Atmospheric Physics is the electricity of atmospheric phenomena.
Jarosławski compares the Earth’s atmosphere to a global electric circuit. “We try to measure the currents that flow through
this circuit,” says Jarosławski. “Everything that happens above
us, in the ionosphere, for instance, affects our lives and things
such as radio communications.” Electric phenomena include
thunderstorms, making them a natural subject of interest for
the Department of Atmospheric Physics. The researchers have
a system to detect atmospheric discharges that allows them to
determine where and what kind of lightning struck at a given
time. This data finds practical application in the design of lightning protection systems.
The research on electric processes in the atmosphere is conducted at the department’s observatory in Świder near Warsaw . Established before World War II, this is one of the oldest
facilities of its kind in Poland.
The department also pursues theoretical research on the
boundary layer of the atmosphere that in summer stretches
from the ground to a height of 2-3 km.
In the early 1990s, the Department of Atmospheric Physics
began research on the properties of atmospheric aerosols—
solid but very small particles and droplets of liquids (with the
exception of droplets of water in clouds) that are suspended
in the air.
In the lowest layers of the atmosphere, such particles and
droplets are inhaled by people. Atmospheric aerosols miti-
gate the greenhouse effect by facilitating cloud
formation and directly
reducing the amount of
sunlight that penetrates
the atmosphere. Atmospheric aerosol measurements employ Lidar
devices that combine
laser and radar technology to determine the
vertical distribution of
aerosols. The Department of Atmospheric
Physics is a member of
the European Aerosol Research Lidar Network (Earlinet).
The department uses similar methods to monitor the amount
of pollutants in the air, including ground-level ozone. The department’s measuring station is part of Poland’s air pollution
monitoring network. Apart from monitoring the amount of
pollutants, the network issues warnings about temporary declines in air quality. Pollutants monitored and researched by the
Department of Atmospheric Physics include ozone, suspended
dust, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide.
In 2010, the Department of Atmospheric
Physics studied the impact of the Eyjafjallajökull
volcano eruptions in Iceland. “We tried to see if
dust from the eruptions
appeared over Poland,”
says Jarosławski. “The ash
cloud turned out to be
much smaller than feared.”
The Institute of Geophysics has for many
years worked with the
Chief Inspectorate of Environmental Protection. Polish government agencies tasked
the institute with monitoring the ozone layer when, in 1987, a
group of countries signed the Montreal Protocol and committed themselves to taking action to prevent ozone layer depletion. After joining the EU, Poland has been faced with tougher
requirements concerning air quality control. Air quality monitoring stations in Polish provinces have since been modernized. EU regulations require that Poland meet new air quality
standards over the next several years.
ALL ABOUT WATER
Floods and droughts, river flow and the spread of pollution are some of the topics studied by the Department of Hydrology
and Hydrodynamics of the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Geophysics. The department also studies the impact
of climate change on hydrological processes and works to ensure more reliable forecasts of hydrological events.
T
he department is headed by
Prof. Jarosław Napiórkowski.
“In a nutshell, what we do is
study how water circulates
in nature,” says Napiórkowski.
“There is a very practical aspect
to our research, as it enables
forecasts of hydrological processes that affect the lives of
people who populate different
areas,” says Napiórkowski.
Research by the department,
Prof. Jarosław Napiórkowski
which began in the 1970s, includes water management.
After a disastrous flood that hit southwestern Poland in 1997,
experts from the Department of Hydrology and Hydrodynamics carefully studied how the flood developed on the Nysa
Kłodzka River, a major tributary of the Oder, the second longest river in Poland. The findings allowed the researchers to
propose a decison support system to assist local authorities
in decisions regarding the Nysa Kłodzka River’s catchment in
order to reduce flood risks on the Oder River.
The Department of Hydrology and Hydrodynamics has for
years studied the Narew River catchment in eastern Poland, between the river’s headwaters and the border of the Narew River
National Park. During the communist era, a reservoir called Siemianówka was created in that area to supply drinking water to
the nearby city of Białystok. According to Napiórkowski, it is debatable whether the reservoir is still needed. “As far as the Narew River is concerned, floods are actually an advantage. They
help preserve the region’s natural assets,” says Napiórkowski.
“Flood waters in springtime do not cause any major financial
damage and they are extremely beneficial to nature. We have
researched the reservoir’s impact on water flows in the upper
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Narew River valley as well as on the quality of the water itself.
We used an experimental method to investigate the transport of pollutant. We put a harmless dye into the water just
downstream of the bridge at Suraż (eastern Poland) and then
analyzed how it propagates down the river, tracing changes in
concentration levels. Our observations continued for 48 hours
on a 20-kilometer section of the river.” In another experiment,
the researchers put a larger amount of the dye in a section right
below the Siemianówka reservoir. Over the following week,
they collected water samples on a 90-kilometer stretch of the
Narew River at five-minute intervals. It was the largest such experimental project in this part of Europe, resulting in a number
of publications, some of which were presented at international
conferences in Venice and Vancouver.
The Department of Hydrology and Hydrodynamics also
works to refine methods to assess maximum annual flows,
using state-of-the-art statistical techniques such as extreme
value analysis. The results are used to optimize construction
parameters for new hydraulic structures, including river embankments, bridges and dams.
The department has recently been researching flood wave
transformations on the Vistula River between the town of Sandomierz and Warsaw. To this end, the researchers have used
two of the most popular simulation models, one developed
in the Netherlands and one in the United States. The models
help them assess flood risks in individual areas, but to do that,
the researchers need to analyze the shape of the river bed and
other features, such as the bed’s roughness on each section
of the river. The bed changes each time the river swells, which
is why measurements need to be performed practically every
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year so that digital maps of the area can be kept up to date.
Modern equipment makes forecasts much easier to draw up
than several decades ago.
Other research in the Vistula River catchment concerns
thermal discharges from power plants and their impact on
water quality. The team at the Department of Hydrology and
Hydrodynamics also pursue purely experimental research
into water flow in rivers to develop models of river bed transformation. Such studies take place in many countries around
the world, but they are expensive and time-consuming. They
require the involvement of many people, because expensive
equipment used in the research cannot be left unattended.
The most basic measuring devices, called divers, are submerged in water for up to a year to collect and record data
every 15 minutes.
The Department of Hydrology
and Hydrodynamics takes part in
various international projects and
has for many years worked closely
with the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate in Oslo,
Norway. Projects funded under the
Norwegian Financial Mechanism
include research on the impact of
climate change on extreme hydrological events. The project team, led
by Prof. Renata Romanowicz, has
been recently joined by two Ethiopian researchers. Napiórkowski says
the project team has been gathering data and comparing a range of
parameters to identify the common
features of drainage basins in Poland
and Norway. “We study phenomena
that occur in both countries and
predict those that might occur as a
result of projected climate change
over a time span of approximately 80 years,” says Napiórkowski.
“We try to estimate the increase of temperature, changes in
precipitation and so on. We use the findings and estimates to
compile information for policy makers.”
The Department of Hydrology and Hydrodynamics works
with three similar institutes in Britain, focusing on water quality research. Experts from Britain took part in experiments that
the Polish researchers conducted in the upper Narew River
catchment. Since the 1980s, the Department of Hydrology and
Hydrodynamics has also worked closely with researchers in
Ireland. The department’s members have spent many years in
Ireland on internships that have led to a number of frequently
quoted articles.
The department has 19 staff members, including 14 researchers, four postgraduate students and one maintenance
worker.
KEY ROLE FOR POLES IN POLAR
RESEARCH
The Hornsund Polish Polar Station on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen is the flagship facility of the Department
of Polar and Marine Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Geophysics.
S
cientists working there carry
out research into glaciology,
hydrology, seismology, changes in
the atmosphere, and even space
research.
“Our research focuses chiefly
on Spitsbergen,” says Prof. Piotr
Głowacki, head of the polar and
marine research department. “We
are starting to expand our research
program to incorporate projects in
the Antarctic, including a second
station that was in operation in the
Prof. Piotr Głowacki
1970s but has since been closed.”
The department oversees the
Stanisław Siedlecki Polar Station on Spitsbergen and the Antoni B.
Dobrowolski Polar Station in the Antarctic, in the Bunger Oasis. Both
were set up in 1957 to mark the international year of geophysics.
The department also works with the Polish Academy of Sciences’
Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, which is responsible for
the Henryk Arctowski Station, also in the Antarctic. All the polar
stations are carrying out a program of geophysical research with
a special focus on glaciological research. Scientists are studying
hydrological phenomena, glacierized catchments, permafrost and
processes occurring at sea in a changing climate.
“One special aspect of our work involves adjusting new geophysical methods to polar conditions,” Głowacki says. “Very often they
have to be adapted to extreme conditions and our Hornsund station serves as a testing ground.” Among other things, Polish specialists are taking part in developing a method for interpreting radar
images of glaciers and interpreting phenomena occurring inside
glaciers. Also garnering growing interest around the world is an
acoustic method for assessing the amount of glacier “calving,” or the
process of chunks of ice breaking off glaciers.
Whereas the part of a glacier that is above water is easy to monitor, the much bigger underwater part is not; an acoustic method
using geophones developed by one of the department’s Ph.D. students enables scientists to assess how much ice is breaking away or
dropping into the sea.
There are many areas in which the Department of Polar Research works with the best scientific research centers in Poland and
around the world. Examples include NASA’s proposal for the Polish
polar station to be used for testing robots that will later be used in
space, studying the ice caps of Jupiter’s moon Europa, for example.
In all, 28 Polish and 32 foreign scientific institutions are involved in
such joint projects.
The department’s specialists have spent many years studying the
56-sq-km Hans glacier on Spitsbergen, one of the world’s benchmark glaciers, meaning that it is continually monitored. This monitoring enables detailed data to be gathered on the dynamics of
glacier reaction to climate change—change to which glaciers are
very sensitive.
“Over the past 20 years we have focused the attention of leading
world glaciology experts on this glacier,” Głowacki says. “You could
say that it is the glacier providing the greatest amount of data for
interdisciplinary research and analyses.”
The Spitsbergen station is a European Research Platform where
international research projects are carried out. It fulfills the highest environmental standards. Every year about 70 scientists pass
through the station, around 80 percent of them Poles. Another 50
specialists make use of a Polish expedition ship that sails to Spitsbergen twice in the summer season. In exchange, the department’s
young scientists can undertake traineeships at the world’s leading
research centers.
In a recently completed European research project called Ice2Sea, scientists calculated the current rate at which the sea is rising
as a result of global warming and glacier melting. The European
Commission recognized it as one of the three best Earth science
projects of the European Union’s 7th Framework Program. The department’s scientists are also involved in building the SIOS monitoring system for the European sector of the Arctic, in the Svalbard
archipelago. In addition, seismological observations are conducted
all the time—the area near which the Polish station is located is
where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates are drifting
apart. The processes occurring there, including those taking place
on the sea bottom, are still poorly researched, making them a focus
of interest for scientists. Finally, Polish specialists also monitor the
spreading of air pollution, sending regular reports to the world’s
leading institutions.
The only facility of its kind in the European sector of the Arctic,
the Polish station hourly sends out a package of meteorological
data that is used by weather forecasters around the world.
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TRACING
CONTINENTAL
DRIFT
Paleomagnetism is a relatively new field in Earth
sciences that offers a unique insight into how continents
were formed and how they have drifted over hundreds
of millions of years.
The Hornsund Station (pictured above) and the presence of Polish scientists in the Arctic are also useful to other institutions, especially the Polish Foreign Ministry and the Environment Ministry.
According to Prof. Głowacki, predicting changes and human
adaptation to new conditions will become a fundamental task for
polar researchers in the coming decades. “We are unable to counteract most processes occurring in nature,” he says, “and therefore
the ability to adjust quickly to inevitable changes is becoming of
key importance.” Symptoms of these changes are most observable
in the far North.
One area that is likely to grow in importance is research conducted in the Earth’s ionosphere to monitor the activity of the sun.
When solar activity increases, this could pose a threat to spacebased technologies, especially satellites, which could be damaged
by plasma emitted by the Sun (solar wind).
Another vital research area is the ice “plug” separating the Barents
Sea, and its cold current, from the Greenland Sea and its warm current—part of the Gulf Stream. Over the past 110 years this plug
has shrunk by 17 kilometers and currently measures just 5 km and
is less than 200 meters thick. When it cracks, which scientists say
could happen by 2030, local circulation of sea currents could be
activated, which in turn could cause serious weather changes in
almost all of Europe. Sea currents generate low air pressure systems
and consequently cyclones or hurricanes.
“If a new area of low pressure center formation emerges near
Spitsbergen, like the one existing near Iceland today, the effects of
these changes could be felt not just in Scandinavia but even in Poland,” Głowacki says.
Forecasting “space weather” and its impact on weather and climate change is another completely new research area. This issue
is related to the changing behavior of the polar vortices above the
Earth’s poles, which sometimes carry very cold masses of air into
middle latitudes. The Department of Polar and Marine Research
will conduct such research in cooperation with Poland’s Space Research Center.
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T
he principles and methods
of paleomagnetic research
are based on analyzing the
natural magnetic orientation
of rocks, both sedimentary and
igneous. Such analysis is aimed
at identifying primary magnetization—the magnetization of
rock when it was formed. All
rock contains magnetically active materials. When rock forms,
these arrange themselves according to geomagnetic field
Prof. Marek Lewandowski
lines, the same field that affects
a compass needle, for example.
Minerals behave exactly the same: they arrange themselves
towards the Earth’s magnetic pole.
When rock changes its location due to continental drift,
for example, the paleomagnetic direction fixed within it also
changes its location.
“Many millions of years later, when we identify the rock’s
fixed magnetization direction, it is completely different and no
longer indicates the direction of today’s magnetic poles,” says
Prof. Marek Lewandowski from the Paleomagnetic Laboratory
at the Institute of Geophysics of the Polish Academy of Sciences. “The difference between the primary and present direction
is a measure of the path traveled by a continent or a piece of
continental or oceanic crust,” he adds.
Step by step, by studying the natural magnetization of increasingly older rocks, scientists can trace how the magnetization direction has changed and on this basis calculate the
pole’s coordinates in different geological eras. The result is a
map charting the movement of the Earth’s magnetic poles.
Such maps are drawn for different continents.
This is the first step to reproducing the paleogeographic
situation in early geological eras.
“That is the essence of the method and also its most classic
and spectacular application. It was the basis for proving that
continental drift, as posited by German geophysicist Alfred
Wegener in the early 20th century, did actually take place,” Lewandowski explains.
Such studies brought evidence that the Atlantic is a relatively young ocean as far as geological history goes: it was
formed about 200 million years ago. That was the beginning
of the disintegration of Pangea, a super-continent that still existed in the early Jurassic period. With the help of the paleomagnetic method, it is possible to trace step by step how the
Atlantic opened up, and also the changing configuration not
only of America in relation to Europe but also Africa in relation
to South America and other continents. That is how the paleogeographic history of the Earth’s surface is re-created.
That is not all, though: the continental drift that scientists
discover is always a result of the convection of rocks, which
slowly migrate, drifting from deep in the Earth’s mantle all the
way to the surface. Continental drift does not happen because
continents wander of their own accord; it reflects what is going on inside the Earth. Paleomagnetic records also reflect the
state of the Earth’s magnetic field which today protects people from solar wind and high-energy ionized particles and is
formed in the Earth’s liquid core.
“Paleomagnetism enables us to trace the movement of continents, the dynamics of the Earth’s interior and the history of
its core. That’s what is unique about this method: it was the
cause of a revolution that took place in Earth sciences in the
mid-20th century,” Lewandowski says. “When we found out
that the continents were drifting and in addition that the geomagnetic field can switch its polarity and the poles can trade
places, it opened our eyes to the fact that the Earth is an extremely dynamic planet,” he adds.
Paleomagnetic research uses two kinds of methods: physical
and chemical. The former consist of placing a rock sample in
a magnetometer in a zero geomagnetic field. Next, extremely
sensitive sensors pick up the natural remnant magnetization.
The piece of rock is treated like a very weak magnet—its direction of magnetization is identified.
Using chemical methods, on the other hand, scientists treat
a rock sample with different substances, which enables them
to find out what materials are magnetization carriers in the
rock. On this basis they learn about the rock’s history, for example if it was ever subjected to high temperature.
For many years the Institute of Geophysics’ Paleomagnetic
Laboratory has been studying rocks from the Apennines,
through the Dinaric Mountains (Croatia), the Ardennes and
Vosges, the Carpathians, all the way to Norway and Spitsbergen, in research conducted in collaboration with local scientific partner institutions. “Without international cooperation
we would have nothing to do. For paleomagnetic research
to make sense it has to be conducted globally,” Lewandowski
says.
Research is also being conducted in environmental paleomagnetism. This largely involves linking the amount of magnetically active materials to changes in the natural environment. For example, scientists study changes in the number
of magnetically active molecules in very fine dust that forms
pollution in the Earth’s atmosphere.
“This is fundamental research, but it has a practical aspect
to it,” according to Lewandowski. “If we didn’t know the history
of continental drift, if we didn’t understand the Earth’s history,
practical commercial operations, such as mining and oil and
gas exploration and extraction, would be much less effective,”
he adds. An example is the drilling for shale gas that is being
conducted at many sites around the world. This prospecting is
often carried out on a wild-guess basis—as a result of insufficient knowledge of deep geological structures and insufficient
understanding of geological processes that have continued
in a given area for hundreds of millions of years. And this is
the kind of knowledge that paleomagnetic research provides,
along with other geophysical methods.
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SCIENCE CAN BE FUN
Justyna Buczyńska
The Eduscience nationwide educational project run by the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Geophysics in
Warsaw is an innovative undertaking targeted at elementary and high school students that demonstrates that science
can be fun and fascinating.
C
overing more than 1,700 schools throughout the country,
Eduscience is the country’s largest education project designed
to promote science. While the Institute of Geophysics is the main
organizer, the project also involves the Edukacja Pro Futuro company, which runs private schools and has coordinated a variety
of education projects. Other partners include software company
American Systems, which designs customized school management applications and interactive teaching aids, and Accelerated
Learning Systems Ltd., a British company that designs systems to
support active learning.
Eduscience was launched in 2011 and has been co-funded by the
European Union under its European Social Fund (ESF). According to
Agata Goździk, the project’s manager at the Institute of Geophysics,
the main idea behind Eduscience is to combine education, science
and technology.
Before it got under way in earnest, Eduscience was pilot-tested in
250 schools nationwide between September 2012 and June 2014.
Instead of extracurricular activities and science clubs, Eduscience activities took place during regular mathematics, geography, chemistry, physics and biology classes from the early grades of elementary
school to the final years of high school and technical college. The test
phase ran for two years and then Eduscience was launched in full.
“We could see a pressing need to promote mathematical and life
sciences,” said Goździk. “That took a departure from textbook-based
curricula. We needed to show children and adolescents things they
would find fascinating, something that would make them keen to
learn. Science still has enough secrets left to keep many generations
busy discovering and exploring them.”
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One of the project’s key objectives is to get students actively involved in the learning process. To this end, teaching methods have
been adapted specifically to take into account the students’ personal
capabilities and preferences. Innovative in terms of the Polish education
system, this methodology is a tool intended for use by both teachers
and students, so that students can, for example, fill out self-assessment
questionnaires. Other professional surveys based on intelligence type
tests, neuropsychology and neurology have been used to determine
learning styles that best suit different students, identifying those who
are visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners, for example.
Researchers from the Institute of Geophysics have organized a
range of science fairs to bring their Eduscience presentations to the
most remote corners of Poland. Such one-day events often attract
up to 3,000 students. The young participants have been able to take
part in a variety of fun experiments, using liquid nitrogen and dry ice,
for example. Science has also been promoted at special science picnics in schools. “We wanted this to be something completely different
from an ordinary day at school,” said Goździk.
The project has also introduced students to Polish geophysical observatories. Students can come to an observatory for a day and are
free to walk around and explore the facility, watch researchers at work
and ask them about anything they find interesting. The researchers
have been particularly surprised to find that elementary school students, including those in the youngest grades, are often the most active and curious group of visitors.
One of the strongest benefits of Eduscience is that it has provided
young people with an opportunity to interact with scientists working
at the Hornsund Polish Polar Station. Eduscience students can watch
live satellite feeds from Hornsund, teleconference with Hornsund
researchers, and ask them questions. Six students who won science
contests have been even invited to join an expedition to Spitsbergen.
The Eduscience website and a special website on life sciences are
an integral part of the Eduscience project. Visitors to the websites can
find a wealth of information on Eduscience projects and activities, get
in touch with researchers, watch science classes, and listen to lectures
on a range of topics.
After the Eduscience project comes to an end, its online database
will still be available on the Eduscience website, and Institute of Geophysics observatories will remain open to visitors. The Eduscience
team is also looking forward to the launch of funds available under
the EU’s Knowledge-Education-Development operational program.
“All we can do now is keep our fingers crossed for new programs to
which we could submit our projects and keep on working full swing,”
Goździk said.