Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory acknowledged with a European award for the observatory’s long-term work

European Physical Society (EPS) has awarded Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory with an EPS Historic Site as an acknowledgment of the observatory’s long-term work.

The President of EPS Luc Bergé revealed the Historic Site award in Sodankylä, Finland on 8th December, 2022.

Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory (SGO) was founded in 1913 by The Finnish Academy of Science and Letters to perform long-term geophysical observations, study changing geo- and space environments, and coordinate international space projects in Finland. When the Observatory was established, it was one of the first observatories north of the Arctic circle. The longest data set is over 100 years long (since 1914), including measurements of fluctuations in the geomagnetic field.

Today, SGO is an independent research organization within the University of Oulu having a wide range of national and international duties. These include ongoing geomagnetic observations and world-class space and arctic situational awareness and research capabilities.

“Observatories are a society’s long-term memory and the backbone for national contingency planning. SGO has an important role in observational space- and geoscience, in understanding the reasons for the fast changes of the Arctic polar area and in the long-term monitoring of natural hazards of the space- and geoenvironments” says the Director of the observatory, Professor Eija Tanskanen.

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Last updated: 8.12.2022