Members of the Group
Anna Belehaki is research director and head of the Ionospheric Group of the Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications and Remote Sensing (IAASARS). She has served as member of the Scientific Advisory Board of IAASARS for eight years, and NOA delegate in the General Assembly of the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation. Anna received a Ph.D. in Space Physics in 1992 from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and immediately after, she joined the Canadian Network for Space Research of the University of Alberta in Canada as post-doctoral fellow. In 1995 she was elected in a research position in the National Observatory of Athens where she continues to serve. She is the Principle Investigator of the Athens Digisonde and of the DIAS project and coordinator of many European Commission, ESA and NATO SPS research and innovation projects with European and international partners. Anna coordinates the European Commission Horizon 2020 TechTIDE project (2017 – 2020) and the PITHIA-NRF Research Infrastructure project (2021 – 2024). She is the Principle Investigator of the European Ionosonde Service (EIS) which is integrated in the Space Weather Network of the European Space Agency. Anna was the chair of the Management Committee of the pan-European COST Action ES0803 for Space Weather (2008 – 2012) and scientific manager of the ESPAS FP7 Research Infrastructure Project. She served as member of the Strategic Advisory Board of the ReSoLVE Center of Excellence of the Academy of Finland, member of the Strategic Advisory Board of the LOFRA4SW Research Infrastructure project, and member of the evaluation committee of the Royal Observatory of Belgium. Since 2011 she is Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate.
Anna Belehaki has expertise in conducting ionospheric experiments and setting up monitoring techniques, in the investigation of solar wind – magnetospheric- ionospheric interactions, in the development of empirical models for ionospheric and plasmaspheric predictions, and in the development of operational space weather services. She is the author or co-author of over 100 papers published in peer review journals and participated to more than 145 conferences where she gave 32 invited talks. Anna received a large number of Grant Awards from the US Air Force Laboratory to support research and development projects implemented in the National Observatory of Athens. She acts regularly as evaluator for proposals submitted in the European Commission Programmes, in NERC UK, in BESPO and in other European funding agencies, while she serves as evaluator and monitor for projects implemented with funding by the European Commission.
Contact info: +30 2108109192 | belehaki(at)noa.gr
Dr. Ioanna Tsagouri received her BSc in Physics in 1994, her MSc in Nuclear and Particle Physics in 1998 and her PhD in Space Physics in 2003 from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. From 2001 until 2006 she worked as scientific staff at NOA. In 2006 she was elected as Assistant Researcher at the Institute for Space Applications and Remote Sensing of NOA and since 2017 she is Senior Researcher at the Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications and Remote Sensing (IAASARS) of NOA.
Ioanna Tsagouri is a key member of the Ionospheric Physics Group of NOA since 2000. Her research activities are based on the systematic analysis of ground- and space-based observations with the focus in the dynamics of the Earth’s ionosphere during disturbed geophysical conditions and the ionospheric modeling and forecasting, including the development and validation of ionospheric prediction models, the transition of research models to operational systems and the development of products and services that meet operational requirements. She has participated in a large number of research projects funded by EC and other national and international organizations. She has published more than 60 papers in peer review international scientific journals and she has participated in more than 90 scientific conferences and meetings, with 140 contributions and seventeen invited talks. She acts as reviewer for most well known scientific journals in her field of expertise and as Associate Editor for the Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate.
Contact info: +30 2108109104-193 | tsagouri(at)noa.gr
Panagiotis Elias has belonged to the scientific staff of NOA since 2005 and he is the administrator of the DIAS system in NOA. He received his BSc in Electronic Engineering from the Technological Educational Institute of Piraeus, his MSc in Signal Processing for Telecommunications and Multimedia from the National and Kapodestrian University of Athens in 2007, and his PhD in Geosciences from the Ecole Normale Superieure de Paris, France and the University of Patras, Greece in 2013. His skill set includes data processing techniques and in the development of web applications.
Contact info: +30 2108109184 | pelias(at)noa.gr
Dr Kostas Tziotziou obtained his B.Sc. in Physics from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece in 1992 and his PhD in Astrophysics from the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands, in 1997. He has worked as an undergraduate student (Erasmus Fellow) at the Astronomical Institute of Amsterdam University, The Netherlands (1990-1991), and as a post-doctoral fellow at Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, France (1999-2002), ISARS/National Observatory of Athens, Greece (2002-2003) and the Astronomical Institute of Utrecht, The Netherlands (2003-2005). Since 2005 he has initially worked as a Marie Curie fellow at IAASARS/NOA (2005-2006) and then until 2019 as a research associate and post-doctoral fellow. He has also served as a research associate at IERSED/NOA (2007-2017) and RCAAM, Academy of Athens (2011-2015). He has been a visiting solar observer at Observatorio del Teide in Tenerife and Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos in La Palma (Canary Islands, Spain) and a visitor researcher at Sterrekundig Instituut Utrecht (The Netherlands), Observatoire de Paris-Meudon (France), St-Andrews University (UK), Solar Physics Department of Ondřejov Observatory (Czech Republic), Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (Canary Islands, Spain), Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics (Oslo, Norway) and International Space Science Institute (bern, Switzerland). Since August 2019 he serves as Director Scientist at IAASARS/NOA.
Contact info: +30 2108109191 | kostas(at)noa.gr
Mr Themistocles Herekakis graduated in 2003 from the Technological Educational Institution of Athens, with a degree in Electronic Engineering. In July 2010 he got a MSc degree in "Advanced Informatics Computing Systems" at the University of Piraeus. Since 2004, he has worked at IAASARS/NOA as Senior Expert in operational system design, software application development and implementation, having a full time professional experience in design and operational implementation of remote sensing related information systems and scientific modelling software. He has actively participated and coordinated the Software Development over numerous European Commission and European Space Agency Research Programmes (PITHIA-NRF, SST, TechTIDE, EFFIS, Copernicus EMS, BEYOND, EVITA, LIVAS, TELEIOS, MASSIVE, GMES-SAFER, TaD, DIAS).
His main interests involve Intelligent Technologies in Man Computer Communications, Software Development of automated procedures, oriented in the process of real-time and archived data, Integrated Web GIS applications and relational databases, to provide remote access and visualization facilities for value added products, and Analysis of High Spatial and Temporal Resolution Sensor data. He is coauthor of 10 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals, 17 in conference proceedings, various scientific and technical reports. He was awarded for his significant contribution to the development of the FireHub EO based fire management service umbrella software with the Best Service Challenge at the Copernicus-Masters Competition 2014. He owns a patent (Hellenic Industrial Property Organization, 20150100061/ IPC G08B 17/00) for the FireHub Service Application.
Contact info: therekak(at)noa.gr
Michael Seintanis is member of the Ionospheric Group in the Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications and Remote Sensing (IAASARS) of NOA. He received his Dipl., MEng on Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2005 from the University of Patras, Greece and his MSc in Aerospace Communications Systems in 2006 from the École Nationale Supérieure des Telecommunications, Paris, France and the École Nationale Supérieure de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace, Toulouse, France. Before the finalisation of the Master's Programme, he joined ESA as a Satellite Communications Engineer. From 2007 to 2009, he worked for EADS Astrium, UK, as an RF Payload System Engineer for the development of the Astra 3B satellite payload. Since 2011, he is employed by OTE, Greece, as a Ground Station Engineer in Nemea Teleport. Since 2019, he is supporting the Digisonde ionospheric station opperation of NOA and contributing in the development of computational algorithms for ionospheric modeling. He is also a chartered engineer, registered with the Technical Chamber of Greece.
Michael has a long demonstrated professional experience on satellite communications, both on space and ground segment, with expertise on RF systems.
Contact info: mike_seidanis(at)yahoo.gr
Mrs Angeliki Thanasou graduated in 2000 from the National Technical University of Athens, with a MEng degree in Civil Engineering. In 2012 she got a MSc degree in "Environmental Design of Infrastructure Works" at the Hellenic Open University. She is a registered member of the Technical Chamber of Greece and of the Designers Registry of the Hellenic Ministry of Infrastructure and Transportation.
Since 2001, she works on the administration and management of European and Greek Development Programmes. She has expertise in the management and supervision of public procurements and EU funded projects. She has excellent knowledge on the contracting and implementation procedures of public works, designs and services, and a significant experience after 20 years of occupation with the tender, supervision, design and/or construction of related EU and Greek funded projects. She has excellent knowledge of EU and Greek legislation on public procurements and relevant prejudicial protection.
Since 2021, she is member of the Ionospheric Group in the Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications and Remote Sensing (IAASARS) of NOA. Currently she is the coordinator assistant of the EU Horizon 2020 funded PITHIA-NRF project and she actively participates in the ESA funded SWESNET/NOA-EIS project.
Contact info: athanasou(at)noa.gr