On April 9, 2026, the First Vice-President of the NAS of Ukraine, Head of the Section of Physical-Technical and Mathematical Sciences of the NAS of Ukraine, NAS of Ukraine Academician Vyacheslav Bohdanov, Academician-Secretary of the Department of Informatics of the NAS of Ukraine, NAS of Ukraine Academician Oleksandr Khimich, Scientific Secretary of the Section of Physical-Technical and Mathematical Sciences of the NAS of Ukraine, Doctor of Technical Sciences Serhiy Bespalov, and Scientific Secretary of the Department of Informatics of the NAS of Ukraine, Candidate of Historical Sciences Olha Horokhovatska, made a working visit to the Institute of Space Research of the NAS of Ukraine.
The Institute is a leading institution within the structure of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, combining a complex of relevant research, coordination of cooperation between scientists and enterprises of the space industry, preparation of promising research programs, active international cooperation, and also represents Ukraine in a number of international organizations on space research. The research is focused on studying problems of solar-terrestrial connections and space weather, the development of space information systems and technologies, theory and methods of control of complex dynamic space systems.
The Director of the Institute, Corresponding Member of the NAS of Ukraine Oleh Fedorov, informed the delegation members about the institution’s activities, its structure, staff composition, and research priorities, cooperation of scientists with government authorities, organizations, and industrial enterprises of the space sector, work on strategic and program documents in the field of space activities, and new steps in cooperation with the European Space Agency. The focus of current work on solving problems of Ukraine’s reconstruction and security was also noted.
The heads of scientific departments informed the Academy leadership about the main achievements and prospects for the near future.
The Head of the Department of Space Information Systems and Technologies, Candidate of Technical Sciences Bohdan Yaylymov, highlighted the specialists’ achievements in developing methods for satellite monitoring of land cover and natural ecosystems – forests, agricultural lands, disturbed and degraded territories. The research is based on proprietary machine learning methods applied to optical and radar satellite data. The department actively participates in national and international competitive projects, including grants from the National Research Foundation of Ukraine and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, Horizon Europe program projects, and also prepares applications to the European Space Agency. Within these projects, the team develops technologies for monitoring forest ecosystems, assessing land cover status from retrospective analysis to current maps, methods for calculating Sustainable Development Goal indicators for Ukraine, and also monitors the ecological condition of occupied territories – recording the consequences of the war in areas inaccessible physically. The results of these studies are cartographic products of European and national scale – in particular, a forest type map of all Europe with 10-meter resolution, used by scientists worldwide, land cover maps of Ukraine, soil moisture assessments, and ecological condition evaluations of affected territories. The department’s achievements are reflected in publications in first quartile journals and presented at leading international conferences.
The Head of the Department of Dynamic Systems Control, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Mykola Salnikov, spoke about the development of methods and algorithms for controlling an autonomous service spacecraft (SSC) during the phases of approach and capture of space debris objects in Earth orbit, modeling and graphical 3D simulation of the operation of relative position measurement systems of spacecraft, relative navigation and control systems. This work is related to solving the problem of near-Earth space pollution, which becomes increasingly acute each year. One way to address the problem is to use SSCs for approaching and capturing such objects for satellite repair, equipment replacement, refueling, or transferring such objects to a graveyard orbit. Mathematical modeling allows very realistic simulation of tests of the developed methods and algorithms. This work is also related to the development of interception systems (disabling) of enemy satellites in orbit. Additionally, the developed computational modeling complex, with minor modifications, can be used to simulate any moving dynamic objects, including the movement of combat unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), both in groups and when intercepting moving targets on the ground or in the air, taking into account their features and movement constraints, as well as various disturbances.
The Head of the Department of Space Plasma, Corresponding Member of the NAS of Ukraine Oleh Cheremnykh, spoke about modeling processes in near space, which largely rely on processing and analyzing measurement data from spacecraft. He noted that in recent years the department has developed new methods that allow determining spectral, energy characteristics, and propagation directions of waves based on satellite measurements. A method has also been developed that allows determining characteristics of wave atmospheric disturbances based on measurements from the global VLF radio signal network. Based on this, a number of scientific problems regarding the distribution of wave activity at ionospheric altitudes inaccessible to satellite measurements have been solved. The development and improvement of experimental data processing methods allow more efficient use of existing databases to obtain scientific information, build empirical models, and verify mathematical models. Department staff develop models of collective processes in the atmosphere-ionosphere-magnetosphere system of the Earth, as well as in the Sun’s atmosphere. The models use methods and approaches of system analysis, the mathematical apparatus of classical mechanics, ordinary and magnetic hydrodynamics, plasma physics, as well as linear algebra, mathematical and nonlinear physics. Verification of developed models is carried out based on observation results. Significant results have been obtained in the theory of acoustic-gravity waves and nonlinear processes in the Earth’s atmosphere and near-space plasma. These results have been published in leading foreign journals and have received recognition from the international scientific community.
The Head of the Laboratory of Satellite Studies of Near Space, Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Heorhiy Lizunov, spoke about the contribution of the Institute’s specialists to the first scientific experiment in the history of independent Ukraine, "Variant," on the Sich-1M satellite, and the coordination of the scientific program of the "Potential" experiment on the Sich-2 satellite. The laboratory scientists developed an original method for selecting waveforms and analyzing the spectral composition of atmospheric gravity waves based on contact satellite measurements. On this basis, a systematic study of the wave field of the upper atmosphere was conducted, its global morphological structure was determined, the connection of atmospheric disturbances with space and ground sources of energy release was studied, and the generation of atmospheric oscillations by the movement of the solar terminator was identified and investigated. A cycle of theoretical studies of the properties of atmospheric gravity waves at ionospheric altitudes was carried out. Analytical criteria and predictive diagrams were obtained that determine the possibility of energy transfer between different atmospheric altitude layers. Based on ground observations at the Ukrainian Antarctic station "Akademik Vernadsky," the phenomenon of Earth's magnetic field disturbance by meteorological processes was studied. Cooperation with the National Antarctic Center is currently actively developing.
Information provided by the Institute of Space Research of the NAS of Ukraine
Photo: Press Service of the NAS of Ukraine
