Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543), brilliant explorer and great scientist, creator of the heliocentric system, was a deeply religious person. He dealt mainly with astronomy. He was a man of science and a faithful son of the Catholic Church. He was not a theologian and did not leave behind theological or ascetical writings. Nevertheless, important theological ideas can be found in his legacy, above all in his life’s work De revolutionibus: theism and creationism. These should be read in the context of the scientist’s astronomical and cosmological research. Observing the beauty, harmony and order of the universe, Copernicus points to its perfect Creator ( Opifex omnium). The cosmos and all created works are an epiphany of God. Copernicus’ God is the Best and Greatest Being ( Optimus Maximus), who manages the ‘divine factory’ of the universe ( Regularissimus). Man is at the centre of creation. Exploring and contemplating the cosmos gives him joy, detaches him from evil, ennobles him and leads him to God. Copernicus’ theological views bear the mark of Renaissance humanism.

Today, there is a growing sense of the need to abandon philosophy or theology in favour of science and the convictions of specialists. The analyses presented by Aristotle and St Thomas in terms of the hierarchy of intellectual virtues allow us to draw attention to the conditions and consequences of these demands. In their view, knowledge grows out of certain principles and presuppositions, the evaluation of which belongs to the virtue of wisdom. The virtue of wisdom has as its object the highest principles, the reaching of which requires special methodological and metaphysical attention. In the case of Christian theology, this wisdom is enriched by faith in what God reveals to man. Faith understood in this way goes beyond natural cognition while at the same time having a strong rational basis of a historical and doctrinal nature. Scientific knowledge devoid of metaphysical reflection, as well as methodically dissociating itself from religious faith, can lead to a lack of awareness of one’s own act of faith in relation to one’s own presuppositions. This can entail unconscious transformations of one’s own scientific assumptions into principles of a universal philosophical nature. This can consequently lead to a misjudgement of all that is beyond the competence and methodology of the sciences.

Benedict XVI, as the Supreme Shepherd of the Church and the head of the Vatican state (Vatican City), maintained contacts with representatives of the authorities of Muslim countries or those dominated by Islamic culture. He supported and built good relations between representatives of different religions, including Islam, through openness and honesty in the interreligious dialogue and bearing witness to the essential values of Christianity and Islam – justice and peace. In the article, we indicated the essence, purpose and challenges of interreligious dialogue, especially dialogue with Islam. People and environments involved in its conduct should be guided by the idea of searching for the true good of man and society. At the same time, it is important to remain faithful to one’s own religious identity, especially on the doctrinal level. Dialogue, in fact, should aim, first of all, at seeking the truth and bearing witness to it. This will only be possible if you respect your own faith and show respect for the identity of the followers of Islam. In the dialogue with Islam, the most important is Almighty God, who must be given his rightful place. For faith in one God obliges His believers to be responsible for peace. Benedict XVI’s theory of dialogue found confirmation in the papal meetings, either with the “world of Islam” or with various bodies (ecclesiastical, political, people involved in the so-called dialogue of specialists). For Benedict XVI, the most important criterion for dialogue was fidelity to Christian identity.

For over two decades, an essential information about global monthly gravity variations is provided by the GRACE mission and its successor, the GRACE Follow-On (GRACE-FO) mission. The temporal variations in gravity field from GRACE/GRACEFO are determined based on the measurement of distance changes between two identical satellites using microwave ranging instruments. This process is carried out by various processing centers, which adopt different processing strategies and background models. This causes discrepancies in the resulting gravity fields.We address this problem by determining a monthly homogenous GRACE-FO gravity field solutions from June 2018 to November 2022 as provided by different processing centers included in the Science Data System (SDS) project, i.e. the Center for Space Research (CSR), the German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). We test three different weighting schemes. We show that for the last 4 years, at least 65% of continental areas are characterized by water decrease. We show that proposed merged solutions contain more signal information than individual ones based on the square root of the degree variance values.We note that the largest signal differences between individual and combined solutions occur for sectoral coefficients up to degree 40, and for zonal coefficients, the signal differences are twice as small.We also present that the differences in the spherical harmonic coefficients cause differences in global and local equivalent water height (EWH) changes. For example, the proposed merged solutions reduce root mean square scatter ofEWHby 5–15% comparing to individual solutions.

This paper summarizes the activity of the chosen Polish geodetic research teams in 2019–2022 in the fields of the Earth rotation and geodynamics. This publication has been prepared for the needs of the presentation of Polish scientists’ activities on the 28th International Union of Geodesy and Geodynamics General Assembly, Berlin, Germany. The part concerning Earth rotation is mostly focused on the estimation of the geophysical excitation of polar motion using data from Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and its follow-on (GRACE-FO) missions, and on the improvement of the determination of Earth rotation parameters based on the Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR), Doppler Orbitography and Radiopositioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS), and Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) satellite techniques. The part concerning geodynamics is focused on geodetic time series analysis for geodynamical purposes and monitoring of the vertical ground movements induced by mass transport within the Earth’s system, monitoring of the crustal movements using GNSS and newly applied Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR), discussing the changes of the landslides and its monitoring using geodetic methods as well as investigations of seismic events and sea-level changes with geodetic methods. Finally, the recent research activities carried out by Polish scientists in the international projects is presented.

The article presents the reviewed and summarised research activities of Polish research groups on reference frames and reference networks in a period of 2019–2022. It contains the results on the implementation of latest resolutions on reference systems of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics and the International Astronomical Union focusing on changes in the consecutive issues of the Astronomical Almanac of the Institute of Geodesy and Cartography, Warsaw. It further presents the status of the implementation of the European Terrestrial Reference System 1989 (ETRS89) in Poland, monitoring the terrestrial reference frame, including research on global terrestrial reference frames, GNSS data analysis within the EUREF Permanent Network, research on GNSS receiver antenna phase centres, research on impact of non-tidal loading effects on position solutions, and on station velocities. Then the activities concerning the realization of ITRS and ETRS89 in Poland are discussed, including operational work of GNSS IGS/EPN stations as well as operational work of the laser ranging station of the International Laser Ranging Service, with special emphasis on the Polish active GNSS network for the realization of ETRS89 and maintenance of the vertical control network. Extensive research activities are observed in the field of implementation of the International Terrestrial Gravity Reference Frame in Poland, maintenance and modernization of gravity control network in Poland but also in Sweden, establishment of gravity control network in Ireland based on absolute gravity survey as well as maintenance of the national magnetic control network in Poland which is traditionally performed on a regular basis.

This paper reviews the key studies concerning GNSS positioning and applications conducted at leading Polish research institutions from 2019 until 2022. The review also constitutes a contribution to the national report of Poland for the International Union of Geodesy and Geodynamics (IUGG) presented at the 28th General Assembly of IUGG held in 2023 in Berlin, Germany. In particular, we discuss the advances in theory and applications of relative and absolute positioning, troposphere and ionosphere sounding, smartphone and low-cost GNSS data processing, and other specific studies such as those on satellite antenna calibration and clock stability. In light of these recent advances by the Polish scientific community, continuous progress in GNSS theory and processing algorithms is thought to be maintained in the future, and GNSS applications are expected to continue to proliferate.

The article presents the reviewed and summarised research activities of the Polish research groups on gravimetry and gravity field modelling in the period of 2019–2022. It contains the results of absolute gravity surveys for the maintenance of the international gravity reference level in Poland and Europe, and for geodynamic research with an emphasis on metrological aspects. It also contains relative gravimetry issues as well as the results of marine gravity surveys in the southern Baltic Sea. Non-tidal gravity changes were extensively investigated. Long-term gravity variations were monitored at the Borowa Gora Geodetic-Geophysical Observatory and in a few other locations in Poland. The contribution of gravimetric records to seismic studies was investigated. Temporal variations of the gravity field from GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) and GRACE-FO (GRACE Follow-On) data, in particular, deformations of the Earth’s surface as well as temporal variations of heights, total water storage and groundwater storage were investigated. Moreover, GRACE-based products and the performance of monthly Global Geopotential Models (GGMs) were a subject of research. GGMs developed in last years were evaluated. The research on developing new approaches in geoid modelling and their validation was conducted. New regional and local geoid models were determined for Poland and Ethiopia. The use of different techniques for estimating the absolute sea level at sites of the selected network in the Baltic Sea was investigated.

In this paper, the climate and environmental datasets were processed by the scripts of Generic Mapping Tools (GMT) and R to evaluate changes in climate parameters, vegetation patters and land cover types in Burkina Faso. Located in the southern Sahel zone, Burkina Faso experiences one of the most extreme climatic hazards in sub-saharan Africa varying from the extreme floods in Volta River Basin, to desertification and recurrent droughts.. The data include the TerraClimate dataset and satellite images Landsat 8-9 Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Thermal Infrared (TIRS) C2 L1. The dynamics of target climate characteristics of Burkina Faso was visualised for 2013-2022 using remote sensing data. To evaluate the environmental dynamics the TerraClimate data were used for visualizing key climate parameter: extreme temperatures, precipitation, soil moisture, downward surface shortwave radiation, vapour pressure deficit and anomaly. The Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) was modelled over the study area to estimate soil water balance related to the soil moisture conditions as a prerequisites for vegetation growth. The land cover types were mapped using the k-means clustering by R. Two vegetation indices were computed to evaluate the changes in vegetation patterns over recent decade. These included the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI) The scripts used for cartographic workflow are presented and discussed. This study contributes to the environmental mapping of Burkina Faso with aim to highlight the links between the climate processes and vegetation dynamics in West Africa.

Walter Charleton, a physician and a Christian believer, was on the first advocates of physico-theology that started on a large scale at the end of the 17 ^th century and flourished in the 18th century. In his battle with the English deism and atheism, he used the arguments of the orderliness of nature to prove the existence of God. He was one of few authors trying to reconcile atomism with Christian theology. He also grappled with the problem of the immortality of the soul supporting at one point Gassendi’s idea that humans have two souls, sensitive and rational.