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MOMENTUM OF INNOVATION

7.2. ENVIRONMENT

GEOSPHERE RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE GROUP

Presentation of the RI group
Geosphere research is performed in three MTA CSFK institutes, namely the Geodetic and Geophysical Institute, the
Institute for Geological and Geochemical Research and the Geographical Institute, in certain domains in collaboration
with the Konkoly Observatory. From the institutes of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, MTA Atomki and MTA
Wigner FK also play a major role in geo-environmental research.
Among universities, geosphere research is significant at the ELTE Faculty of Science and ME Faculty of Earth Science and
Engineering, but BME Faculty of Civil Engineering and Óbuda University Alba Regia Technical Faculty should also be
noticed. The major infrastructures of public geological research are owned by the Hungarian Mining and Geological Service
(MBFSZ) and the Department of Remote Sensing and Land Administration of Budapest Metropolitan Government Office.
NATURAL RESOURCES: Modern society is increasingly dependent on mineral and energy resources. The basic in-
frastructure of MBFSZ: the core sample base and the mineral resources databases are dominant in this field. From uni-
versities, the ME Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Natural Resource Management (the geology testing laboratory,
the geology database development and management laboratory, the fluid mining educational and research laboratory,
and the educational, research and innovation centre for technology, geoscience and environmental science) is notable.
CLIMATE CHANGE: Biosphere-lithosphere interactions (e.g. soil-stored organic carbon as one of the most significant
easily mobilising elements of the exogenous biogeochemical carbon cycle), quaternary and surface evolution, paleoclima-
tology, recent climate change and natural phenomena related to its potential causes (e.g. solar wind-magnetosphere energy
coupling) are the main areas of research. Two global geophysical station chains have been created on a Hungarian initiative
to investigate the field around the Earth: one is measuring the Earth’s ionospheric cavity resonator (the so-called Schumann
resonance) and the other one the changes in the planet’s plasma environment as a function of space and time.
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION: In addition to the listed research sites, a multitude of SMEs have substantial
infrastructures in the field of geosphere-environmental protection.

National coordinator of the RI group: Background information
MTA Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sci- EPOS (European Plate Observing System) is an ESFRI ENVIRONMENT geosphere re-
ences search initiative aimed at building a continental-scale earth observation system. Out of the
10 EPOS thematic cores, the EPOS Hungary consortium, which was established in 2015
Contact: László Szarka and led by MTA CSFK, primarily focuses on seismology, GNSS observations, volcanism,
Email: Szarka.Laszlo@csfk.mta.hu satellite radar interferometry and magnetic observatories, based on the existing infrastruc-
Website: http://csfk.mta.hu/ tures. The background infrastructure is provided by the national seismological network op-
erated by MTA CSFK GGI Kövesligethy Radó Seismological Observatory, the István
Partners: MTA CSFK GGI; MTA CSFK FGI; Széchenyi Geophysical Observatory, the Sopronbánfalva Geodynamics Observatory and the
MTA CSFK FTI; MTA CSFK CSI; MTA Atomki; geophysical observatories and national geophysical (field) databases of the active GNSS net-
MTA Wigner FK; MTA-ELTE Geological, Geo- work belonging to Budapest Metropolitan Government Office. Hungarian institutions and
physical and Space Sciences Research Group; MTA- research teams are also involved in other EPOS themes (monitoring of active fault lines,
MTM-ELTE Paleontological Research Group; human activity risks, geological data systems, analogue modelling laboratories, geothermics).
MTA-ELTE Volcanology Research Group; MTA-
ME Technical Geoscience Research Group; MTA- Aim of the RI group
PE Air Chemistry Research Group; PTE; Hungarian The infrastructure group aims to ensure the infrastructural conditions of multifaceted
Mining and Geological Service; Budapest Metropol- research: on the one hand, by combining the shared environmental infrastructures of
itan Government Office, Department of Remote domestic partners (observatories, measurement networks) and strengthening coopera-
Sensing and Land Administration tion between partners, and on the other hand, by involving laboratories established for
non-environmental purposes. Particular attention should be paid to the countryside-
ESFRI connection: EPOS Budapest relation (e.g. use of research infrastructures developed in the countryside by
researchers in Budapest). EPOS requires administrative engagement on the basis of do-
Status of the RI group: under implementation mestic professional competence and international justification.researchers in Budapest).
EPOS requires administrative engagement on the basis of domestic professional com-
petence and international justification.

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