IHY Newsroom - Apr 2008 Newsletter






	IHY Newsletter - Apr 2008 About: Posting to, subscribing to, and unsubscribing from IHY Newsletters IHY Newsletter Apr 2008 David F. Webb Editor david.webb {at} hanscom.af.mil For future newsletters, please send any news of important activities that have recently or are scheduled to take place in your country or region, and that have not previously been listed, to the newsletter editor. Please refer to the IHY Newsroom site at http://ihy2007.org/newsroom/newsroom.shtml for the latest IHY News and archived Newsletters. -------------------------- Headlines -------------------------- IHY Chapman Conf. on Universal Heliophysical Processes, Savannah, Georgia, 10 -14 November 2008 News of IHY EPO Activities in Bulgaria Goddard Space Flight Center's Sunworks is on Tour! More on the Sunworks Visit to the USAF Academy Walt Steiger's Role in the IGY To the SEVAN network members African Regional IHY School: November 10 - 22, 1008 Whole Heliosphere Interval: Call for Participation About This Newsletter Chapman Conference on Universal Heliophysical Processes, Savannah, Georgia, 10 -14 November 2008 *************************************************** Mark you calendars for the AGU-IHY Chapman Conference on Universal Heliophysical Processes, to be held at the Mulberry Inn in Savannah, Georgia, during the week of 10 - 14 November 2008. Conveners: Nancy Crooker, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA Marina Galand, Imperial College, London, England, UK Program Committee Len Culhane, Terry Forbes, Joe Giacalone, Wing Ip, Chris Owen, George Siscoe, Roger Smith, Jan-Erik Wahlund, and Gary Zank The conference title reflects the primary science theme of the 2007-2008 International Heliophysical Year (IHY), advancing our understanding of the fundamental heliophysical processes that govern the Sun, Earth, and heliosphere. The conference program will reflect the approach to research described in the 2004 report of the National Research Council (NRC), Plasma Physics of the Local Cosmos (available online at http://books.nap.edu/openbook/0309092159/html/index.html, which is organized into five categories: creation and annihilation of magnetic fields, formation of structures and transients, plasma interactions, explosive energy conversion, and energetic particle acceleration. This approach seeks to find universal physical laws through comparative studies in the laboratory of the solar system. It contrasts with the less-focused, traditional approach that deals with a heterogeneous collection of structures and processes that have fixed locations and distinct modes of organization, like sunspots, solar flares, coronal mass ejections, the solar wind, solar energetic particles, Earth's bow shock, magnetopause, magnetotail, magnetosphere, substorms, radiation belts, and auroras. Each has been the sole or featured subject of at least one conference and at least one book. This compartmentalization of study that pervades the basic side of the field inhibits desired progress from a derivative to a stand-alone field of science. It invites ad hoc explanations instead of universal explanations that apply generally to plasmas in the cosmos. The objective of the conference is to help focus efforts on finding the universal explanations. The conference website http://www.agu.org/meetings/chapman/2008/gcall/ will be updated periodically with further information. News of IHY EPO Activities in Bulgaria ********************************** Joint initiatives of Yuri Gagarin Public Astronomical Observatory and Planetarium (PAOP) and Solar- Terrestrial Influences Laboratory of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (STIL BAS), Stara Zagora, Bulgaria. Sun Earth Day 2008 - Space Weather Around the World 17 March 2008 - Public talk: The use of Solar energy - benefits of its use on Earth and in Space - Art Gallery in Stara Zagora 17 - 20 March 2008 - Space Weather: using the SID (Sudden Ionospheric Disturbances) Monitor to make a real space weather broadcast - Yuri Gagarin Public Astronomical Observatory 18 March 2008 - The Sun in tales: lecture in the Library - Zahari Knyazheskiâ 19 and 20 March 2008 - Public talk: When the Sun was God - in the Yuri Gagarin Public Astronomical Observatory and Art Gallery in Stara Zagora 20 March 2008 Yuri Gagarin Astronomical Observatory: The Sun and its children: Game, Building an edible model of the sun Public talks on processes which govern influence of the Sun on our Solar system and its connection to the Earth and other planets, on learning how we are preparing for watching the August 1, 2008 total solar eclipse, and how everybody could watch it via a live web cast from China. Yuri's Night Parties in Stara Zagora - 12 April 2008 Contributed by Penka Stoeva (penm {at} abv.bg) and Alexey Stoev (stoev52 {at} abv.bg) Goddard Space Flight Center's Sunworks is on Tour! ********************************************************* This exhibit at Goddard SFC (done by Steele Hill) called Sunworks is a touring art exhibit on the Sun, that was in Vienna, Austria earlier last year for the start of the IHY activities! The exhibit has concluded at Fiske Planetarium, in Boulder, Co, and is now at the USAF Academy in Colorado Springs! The Academy is a HIGHLY PRESTIGIOUS location for the exhibit. We are also planning for Kennedy Space Center in the spring, probably in late March, followed by other venues. We are currently looking into New York's Hayden Planetarium as one such possible location. Jim Stryder (rjusa {at} acsol.net) NASA-Soho/UN-IHY 2007-09 Sunworks Liaison (Colorado) Grand Junction, CO More on the Sunworks Visit to the USAF Academy ****************************************************** Following a successful west coast series of showings of Sunworks in California, and Washington State, the exhibit moved back eastward to Boulder, CO, in January. Following a thirty-day stay at the University of Colorado's Fiske Planetarium, the exhibit moved on to the United States Air Force Academy, in Colorado Springs. Dr. Delores Knipp, of the USAFA's Space Physics division was the host for Sunworks at the Academy during its stay through March. The exhibit was shown at the Academy's McDermott Library. Dr. Knipp used the display as a motivation for space situational awareness. Dr. Knipp teaches a physics course that deals with solar effects on the environment in which DoD hardware operates and signals propagate. Space as we all know is not empty. Our Sun continuously contributes photons, particles and fields to the harsh space environment surounding Earth. Professor Pam Aloisa (DFENG) who creates displays for the Permanent Professor Art Gallery assisted Dr. Knipp with the display. Sunworks is a collection of twenty-four artworks, from artists ranging from 4th grade to adult, from seven different countries around the world, to show the beauty of Earth's closest star in space our own Sun. The art pieces are colorful and diverse and include a 30-inch aluminum Sun, an exotic solar face mask, a sun made of Lego blocks, an imaginative stained glass solar themed creation, and a blown glass plate that looks amazingly sun-like. The exhibit's major sponsor is the Outreach and Education Program for IHY (International Heliophysical Year) whose goal is to "demonstrate the beauty, relevance and significance of Space and Earth Science to the world." They have already developed programs though partnerships with many organizations worldwide and are supported by the United Nations. Another sponsor is the NASA SOHO Project that is co-sponsoring the event. Since 1996 the SOHO spacecraft has studied the Sun 24 hours a day from a point one million miles towards the Sun from Earth. SOHO has contributed immensely to our understanding of the Sun, its influence on the heliosphere and effects on our lives here on Earth. To learn more about Sunworks and information on how you can bring Sunworks to your area, visit Soho at; http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov, or contact Steele Hill on the Soho project for further details, at steele.w.hill {at} nasa.gov Walt Steiger's Role in the IGY ******************************* In the IAU Bulletin 101 in an article by David Webb on the IHY, there is a statement that there is an initiative to identify and recognize participants in the first IGY. A description of my role in the IGY can be found at www.ifa.hawaii.edu/ifa/history.htm . It shows that the IGY played a very significant role in the beginning of an astronomy program at the University of Hawaii, which today is one of the major programs in the country. I just thought this information might be of interest to your history initiative. Walter Steiger (steiger {at} hawaii.edu) To the SEVAN network members ********************************** We want to inform you that the first article on the SEVAN network detectors has already been published: A. Chilingarian and A. Reymers, - Investigations of the response of hybrid particle detectors for the Space Environmental Viewing and Analysis Network (SEVAN): (2008) Ann. Geophys., 26, 249-257, and is available via the following link: http://aragats.am/CRD_PUBLICATIONS/CRD_Journal_Publications_2002-2006/materials/2008/PAPERS/sevan2008.pdf We are also honored to inform you that the International Symposium: Forecasting of the Radiation and Geomagnetic Storms by networks of particle detectors (FORGES-2008) will be held on September 29 - October 3, 2008, in the International Conference Center, Nor Amberd, Armenia, 40 km from Armenia's capital Yerevan. We plan to organize training courses on SEVAN related physics, electronics and data analysis. Please use the following link to find more information on the conference and to register at http://aragats.am/forges2008. Updated charts of the mechanical parts of SEVAN measuring unit are available from: http://aragats.am/SEVAN/sevan.htm If you don't want your name to be involved in the mailing list, please notify us beforehand. If there are any questions do not hesitate to ask for explanations from us, especially from Anna Alaverdyan (anna {at} aragats.am), hence I will perform as coordinator instead of Veronika Moisseenko. Anna Alaverdyan (anna {at} aragats.am) African Regional IHY School: November 10 - 22, 1008 ***************************************** IHY-Nigeria will host the African Regional IHY School in Nsukka, Nigeria. The school will feature internationally recognized researchers from many branches of heliophysics. The school will be held at the Centre for Basic Space Science, National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The application deadline is 30 April, 2008. Please contact Dr. A. Babatunde Rabiu for application materials. Below is the list of topics to be covered during the School. Speakers have been arranged for most of them. 1. Sun in the Universe 2. Solar interior, atmosphere 3. Solar eruptions (CMES and flares) 4. Dynamo processes 5. Solar activity and heliospheric consequences 6. Solar wind: 7. Solar magnetic field: 8. Reconnection processes in heliospace 9. Sun-Climate relationship 10. Turbulence in heliospace 11. Planetary atmospheres 12. Planetary ionospheres 13. Planetary magnetospheres 14. Geomagnetism 15. Lithospheric effects of Geomagnetism 16. Space weather 17. Radio emission processes 18. Energetic particles in the heliosphere 19. Space platforms for heliophysical studies 20. Elemental abundances in the heliosphere; 21. The dynamic heliosphere; space climate 22. Galactic and anomalous cosmic rays in the heliosphere 23. Satellite Meteorology 24. Programming Techniques using MATLAB 25. Advanced numerical methods in space physics 26. Signal and Image Processing Whole Heliosphere Interval: Call for Participation ************************************* The Whole Heliosphere Interval (WHI) began on March 20, 2008. There are over 200 researchers participating, representing space and ground-based observatories around the world. We are also pleased that there are a large number of participants from geospace, providing the essential observations to connect the variability of the Sun and heliosphere to their impacts at Earth. Please take a look at the WHI website and consider joining and participating in the data analysis! WHI Homepage Barbara Thompson [barbara.j.thompson {at} nasa.gov] About the IHY Newsletter** To post to the IHY Newsletter, please send an email to the IHY Newsletter Editor, David Webb, at david.webb {at} hanscom.af.mil with "IHY News Item" in the subject line. Previous IHY Newsletters and News Notes can be found in the "Newsroom" portion of our website.

IHY Newsletter - Apr 2008