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Hungary and Poland have seen the most widespread erosion of democracy in the European Union since Fidesz and Law and Justice started their authoritarian remaking in 2010 and 2015, respectively. Despite the EU's introduction of various doctrinal innovations, it could not force these regimes to comply with the core values of the EU. While the literature has focused on the formal violation of the rule of law, the links between informal power and the limited constraining role of the EU have remained undertheorized. This article aims to fill the gap by studying the informal exercise power of the Fidesz and PiS governments that helped them to create an uneven political playing field. Connecting the literature on hybrid authoritarian regimes and informality, it will be shown through three main domains how the Hungarian and Polish governments (1) distributed informal political-economic decision-making power informally throughout clientelist corruption, (2) captured the media through loyal oligarchs/allies, and (3) employed electoral clientelism to tilt the electoral playing field in their favor. While the study proposes a theoretical framework related to the Hungarian and Polish examples, it is also a warning for the EU to take the informal exercise of power seriously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to extreme weather, occasionally Hungary’s main rivers and lakes grow an ice cover causing severe damage to infrastructure and increased flood hazard. During cold periods in 2017 and 2022, a dangerous layer of ice developed on the main rivers in the country. Since river ice is rare in this region, no permanent ice monitoring system is in operation. Due to their all weather capabilities, active remote sensing instruments provide a good opportunity to monitor ice coverage. ESA’s Sentinel-1 radar satellites acquire data with a relatively high spatial and temporal resolution. A method was developed to provide ice coverage information at a regular interval; depending on the satellite revisit, at least once every 5 days, but often also on a daily basis. In 2017, maps were created for sections along the Danube and in 2022 for another section of the Tisza river. The ice coverage was calculated with a spatial resolution of 10 metre and visualised with a spatial density of 100 metre along the rivers. The mapping procedure provides visual information to give a fast overview of the spatial extent of ice coverage and quantitative, tabular information for operational activities to mitigate the damage due to ice packs and ice jams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: On 29 June 2006 two Mesoscale Convective Systems (MCS) crossed Hungary causing severe weather, heavy precipitation, hail and strong wind. The first MCS transformed to a Mesoscale Convective Vortex (MCV) in its dissipating phase. The case was analyzed using different remote sensing devices: satellites, radars and a lightning detection system. Visible images from the METEOSAT-8 satellite were used to discriminate thin and thick parts of the anvil and to identify the overshooting tops. Structures like cold rings and cold-U/V shapes detected from infrared imagery indicate possible penetration of the storm top into the tropopause or lower stratosphere. The near and medium infrared solar channels (and some thermal IR channel differences) provide information on cloud top microphysics. The spatial distribution of the cloud top ice crystal size was investigated with the use of the so called “convective storms” composite imagery obtained from brightness temperature and reflectivity differences of water vapor, infrared and short-wave channels. The MODIS band 1 (0.645 µm) image of the TERRA satellite shows gravity wave generation at the top of the thunderstorm cloud, which could be connected to the strength and pulsations of the updraft. Satellite images were overlaid with radar reflectivities, which are characterized by an asymmetric bow echo. It is concluded that composites of satellite, radar and lightning data help to assess relative locations of main up- and downdrafts and important features of the severe storm. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Space-borne radar interferometry (InSAR) is an excellent tool for measuring surface displacements. Using the phase information stored in the SAR images it is possible to calculate the phase difference due to surface movements between two acquisitions and from the differential phase, calculate the surface displacements.This method can be used reliably to create surface deformation time-series for mapping large areas and monitoring single reflecting targets. Some areas, however, are not suitable for InSAR analysis due to heavy vegetation or other factors that decrease phase coherence. In such cases, it is possible to install artificial reflecting objects (radar reflectors) that provide a stable phase over a long period of time.The MTA CSFK Geodetic and Geophysical Institute in collaboration with the Department of Broadband Infocommunications and Electromagnetic Theory of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics under ESA PECS project (project ID: 4000118850/16/NL/SC) developed such artificial reflectors.To overcome the other limitation of InSAR, namely that only deformation that is parallel to the satellite line-of-sight (LOS) can be measured, we have also carried out GNSS measurements at our reflector benchmarks.Three reflector networks were deployed in Hungary, two along the loess banks of River Danube, where landslide activity is frequent and one near Lake Balaton in an area affected by landslides as well.We used Sentinel-1 A and B satellite data between two GNSS campaign measurements (from July of 2016 to March of 2017) to calculate ascending and descending LOS displacements at our reflector benchmarks and through a technique called Kalman-filtering we fused data from ascending and descending satellite passes and the GNSS measurements to calculate the 3D displacements of our reflector networks, relative to a single reference reflector for each network.We present the 3D movements we have calculated with the previously described method at the three reflector networks and comment on the potential error sources and the possible improvements to our methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]