Oleg Cheremnykh is a world-renowned researcher, a well-known specialist in the field of Space Information Technology and Near-Space Physics, Deputy Director of Space Research Institute (SRI) under the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and State Space Agency of Ukraine, a Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The war caught Oleg and his entire family in Bucha.
We asked the researcher what were the first weeks of the war like in the town and how did they manage to get out?
Professor Cheremnykh said that the house in which he lives is located very close to Vokzalna Street, where a huge column of enemy military equipment was destroyed. Footage with this equipment has flown around the world! Battles took place near his house. Shells hit the building and completely destroyed three apartments on the eighth and ninth floors. Many other apartments were also damaged. The ground near the house was covered with glass and stones. From the windows of the researcher’s apartment, he could clearly see the military vehicles of the invaders driving near the house and shooting. And on the opposite side, in the yard, there was a fight, and cars were on fire. A neighboring five-story building burst into flames because of the shelling…
In the first days, water, electricity and gas supply was suspended. Water (for technical needs) was brought from the fire station and boiled in the yard on a bonfire. There was no way of communication, the news spread by word of mouth. Residents of neighboring villages that were occupied by the enemy were fleeing through Bucha. Women from the village of Yablunka, for example, said that the occupies are stripped of the men in their village and, if find a tattoo, taken them away…
The cannonade did not subside day or night, two weeks passed like one terrible day.
On March 9, when information appeared that it would be possible to leave the town via the ‘green corridor’, the family took two cats, some clothes and went towards the buses. Despite the severe frost, snow and wind, people with children waited for transport for a long time, but the ‘green corridor’ was never given that day. They left the town the following day. On the way they saw destroyed vehicles and shot cars on the roadsides. Many of those who had left earlier in their own cars were killed…
Today, the researcher continues to work. “The main thing is that the SRI does not stop working,” he says.
We also ask the researcher about the project “Theoretical and experimental studies of global perturbations of natural and man-made origin in the Earth-Atmosphere-Ionosphere system” which his team carried out with the help of the NRFU grant funding and about the team itself. Are the researchers safe? Do they have the opportunity to continue research?
“The team did not fall apart”, answered the scientist. “Its composition is very successful: three early-career researchers working in the project together with well-known scientists, as well as assistants who help process data and conduct experimental research. But we understand that our subcontractors from V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University (they are managed by a specialist in disturbances in Near-Earth Space, a world-renowned scientist Professor Leonid Chornohor) are in a city that is under intense shelling…
The PI considers the topic of the project extremely important. Humanity already knows that volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, and nuclear explosions cause disturbances on Earth, in the atmosphere, and the space environment (ionosphere). Disturbances are also caused by launches, flights and landings of large spacecraft.
“The number of natural disasters and man-made pressure on the Earth-Atmosphere-Ionosphere system is increasing with the development of civilization, accordingly, the problems of the ecology of the Earth’s space are growing more acute”, said Oleg Cheremnykh. “Disturbances in near space significantly affect the operation of telecommunications, power systems, radio engineering systems, as well as people’s health.”
That is why Ukrainian researchers decided to investigate (theoretically and experimentally) global disturbances of natural and man-made origin in the Earth-Atmosphere-Ionosphere system and answer the questions: “How and why do disturbances spread on the global scale?”, “What are the ecological consequences of these phenomena?”, “What can become a ‘trigger’ for a global catastrophe?”, “How to learn to predict catastrophic events on Earth?” etc.
The research is based on a systemic paradigm which was formulated and substantiated by Professor Leonid Chornohor. The essence of the paradigm is that the Earth-Atmosphere-Ionosphere-magnetosphere is a single system. This system is open, dynamic and most importantly, non-linear. There are direct and reverse, positive and negative connections between the subsystems. Both chaotic and self-organization processes can occur in the system, as well as trigger mechanisms for energy release.
The project was to have been finalized in 2022, but the war interrupted these studies.
“During 2020-2021, most of the planned tasks of the project were completed,” mentioned Professor Cheremnykh. “The mechanisms of interaction of subsystems in the Earth-Atmosphere-Ionosphere system during the action of high-energy sources of natural and man-made origin (geospace storms, weather fronts, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, explosions, military operations etc.) were studied. The necessary data for the construction of empirical models of such interaction were obtained. Unfortunately, today it is impossible to carry out radiophysical and magnetometric measurements in Kharkiv (the city is bombarded with rockets and artillery every day), but we managed to create a database necessary to achieve the main goal of the project – the construction of empirical models of the interaction of subsystems in the Earth-Atmosphere-Ionosphere system and their experimental verification.
The PI said that the research did not stop even after February 24, 2022, as the researchers prepared a number of scientific articles and monograph manuscripts. However, funding is still needed to complete the work, and researchers hope that it will be restored.
“Understanding the interaction of subsystems in the Earth-Atmosphere-Ionosphere system will allow predicting changes in atmospheric and space weather at a qualitatively new level,” emphasized the interlocutor. “And, accordingly, this will add to understanding how the space and ground means of telecommunication, radio navigation, radar, remote sensing, transmission of extremely large volumes of information will function. And this will also help to solve military-applied problems. This knowledge is extremely necessary for both humanity and our country which is fighting the enemy!”
