Institute of Geodesy and Cartography (IGiK), Centre of Geodesy and Geodynamics

The Centre of Geodesy and Geodynamics at the IGiK conducts research and implements activities on reference systems, modelling the Earth’ gravity field, terrestrial gravity measurement/survey, monitoring the magnetic field of the Earth’s, geodetic and gravimetric metrology. The most important research activities are related to:

• investigation and assessment of temporal variations of geodetic heights based on various geodetic data,
• monitoring changes in the Earth's gravity field as well as mass transport within the Earth’s system (e.g. tracking hydrological changes) using data from satellite gravity missions and ground-based measurements,
• modelling geoid/quasigeoid as a reference for precise orthometric/normal heights,
• establishment, maintenance and modernisation of gravity control on local and regional (national) scales,
• developing modern technologies for the gravity measurements and gravimetric metrology,
• monitoring the long-term variations of the Earth’s magnetic field in Poland, including regular measurements of the intensity vector of the geomagnetic field at the Polish network of magnetic repeat stations from 1950s,
• determination of magnetic declination for navigation purposes,
• precise horizontal and vertical displacement measurements for monitoring anthropogenic deformation and engineering structures,
• surveying metrology, calibration, checking and testing surveying instruments, calculation of astronomical ephemerides.

Institute of Geodesy and Cartography (IGiK), Remote Sensing Centre

The Remote Sensing Centre has many years of experience in conducting scientific research and research and development in the field of using aerial and satellite images to obtain information about objects, phenomena and processes taking place on the Earth's surface. The Remote Sensing Centre was established in 1976 as the Aerial and Satellite Image Processing Centre (OPOLiS) carrying out unique works with the use of modern remote sensing techniques. Currently, the Remote Sensing Centre carries out various research topics using optical data (visible, thermal) and radar data, we use the latest satellite imagery from the COPERNICUS Program. They concern:

• AGRICULTURE: forecasting yields, detecting and monitoring droughts, identifying crops, estimating the condition of crops;
• SWAMP AREAS (NATURA2000): energy and water balance, carbon cycle between the surface and the atmosphere, estimation of biomass, research on changes in soil moisture, classification of land cover types and temporal changes;
• BIOENERGY: detection and monitoring of energy plantations;
• NATURAL THREATS: droughts, floods, fires, landslides;
• TERRAIN CHANGES in Natura 2000 areas, agricultural areas, grass areas and urban areas.

Maritime University of Szczecin (MUS), Faculty of Navigation

Faculty of Navigation conducts research on hydrography, navigation, geoinformation, spatial data fusion, remote sensing of water areas, unmanned aerial and surface vehicles, offshore measurements, safety of navigation, marine and inland cartography. The most important research activities are related to:

• hydrographic data processing and fusion
• spatial data integration
• anticollision systems
• maritime surveillance
• marine traffic engineering
• pilot navigation,
• ship maneuvering safety,
• vessel traffic services (VTS) systems,
• modern information systems in maritime and inland navigation,
• methods of comparative navigation,
• artificial intelligence methods in maritime navigation,
• decision support processes in ship movement control,
• optimization of ship routing - voyage planning,
• safety of port and offshore structures.

University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn (UWM), Department of Geodesy

The Department of Geodesy at UWM conducts research funded nationally and internationally on GNSS positioning, navigation, and ionosphere and troposphere sounding with GNSS. The most important research activities are related to:

• Global tracking system of seismic ionospheric disturbances over weak zones of the Earth's crust based on Swarm and GNSS satellite data
• Development of algorithms, prototype and geodetic tests of ground based GNSS signal transmitter.
• High-resolution global ionosphere model based on satellite GNSS and DORIS data and ionosonde observations built with integration of deterministic and stochastic modeling techniques.
• Assessment of the potential of GNSS integrated water vapour data for climate monitoring in Europe.
• A new methodology for precise ionosphere modeling based on undifferenced GNSS carrier phase data and radio occultation measurements.
• Application of regional and global ionosphere maps for improving precise single-frequency GPS positioning
• Analysis of the various scale ionospheric disturbances based on multi GNSS observations processing.
• Forecasting Space Weather in the Arctic Region
• Contribution of Swarm data to the prompt detection of tsunamis and other natural hazards
• A tomographic ionospheric corrections testbed for Poland GNSS networks based on Wide Area Real Time Kinematic
• GNSS receiver antenna calibration service for new E-GNSS signals

Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences (WUELS), Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformatics

Research topics:

• positioning and navigation using observations from Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) and other measurement systems; Including: improving the methods of GNSS satellite observation processing in real-time, near-real-time, and post-processing for navigation and geodetic purposes, integration of sensors: GNSS satellite receivers, inertial measurement units, gyroscopes and LIDAR to determine the position and orientation of mobile devices
• atmospheric research and modeling, in particular: modeling the state of the atmosphere based on GNSS satellite, radiometric and meteorological observations. Development and implementation of systems for supplying Numerical weather forecast models with GNSS satellite observations
• developing methods of analysis, modeling, and presentation of spatial data with the use of cartographic, geoinformation, and machine learning tools. Big data processing, including: research and prediction of the flow of people and vehicles using mobile data for the construction of smart-city systems
• development of the Global Geodetic Observation System (GGOS), in particular: determining global geodetic parameters describing the rotation, geometry, and gravity field of the Earth using satellite laser ranging to the Earth's artificial satellites and integrated GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou observations. Improving the methods of determining the local geoid and quasigeoid with the use of integrated gravimetric, leveling and GNSS data
• precise determination of the orbits of the Earth's artificial satellites, taking into account the gravitational and non-gravitational perturbations and the effects of general relativity
• geodetic monitoring of the natural environment, infrastructure, and structures, in particular terrain deformations, with the use of remote sensing, satellite, airborne and terrestrial techniques.