IHY Newsroom - Mar 2009 Newsletter






	IHY Newsletter - Mar 2009 About: Posting to, subscribing to, and unsubscribing from IHY Newsletters IHY Newsletter March 2009 --------------------------------- David F. Webb Editor david.webb {at} hanscom.af.mil --------------------------------- This is the final IHY Newsletter. The IHY Closing Ceremony took place in Vienna on February 18, 2009. Therefore, this will be the last IHY newsletter. However, as noted below, there is a follow-on initiative for the IHY UNBSS program called the International Space Weather Initiative, and we may have a newsletter for it. Meanwhile please contact Dave Webb, if you have questions: david.webb {at} hanscom.af.mil. Please refer to the IHY Newsroom site at http://ihy2007.org/newsroom/newsroom.shtml for the latest IHY News and archived Newsletters. ____________________________________________________________ ****************** IHY Comes to a Close! **************** The International Heliophysical Year (IHY) officially came to a close on February 18, 2009 at a closing ceremony at the United Nations in Vienna, Austria. Of course, many IHY follow-on activities will continue for the next year or two. Longer-term efforts will focus on the transition to the new International Space Weather Initiative (ISWI- see next). A preliminary ISWI work plan was adopted by the UN Office of Outer Space Affairs for 2010 - 2012. *************************************************** The INTERNATIONAL SPACE WEATHER INITIATIVE (ISWI) *************************************************** This is the 3-year plan for ISWI as it was presented and discussed at the 18 February 2009 meeting of the UNís COPUOS (Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space) Science and Technical Subcommittee. This is a recommendation to the COPUOS adopted by STSC, and will be part of the October 2009 UN General Assembly resolution. The International Heliophysical Year (IHY), an international program of scientific collaboration to understand the external drivers of planetary environments, has come to an end. The IHY was a major international event of great interest to the member States, which involved the deployment of new instrumentation, new observations from the ground and in space, and an education component. We propose to continue the highly successful collaboration between the heliophysics science community and the United Nations Basic Space Science (UNBSS) program. One of the major thrust of the IHY was to deploy arrays of small instruments such as magnetometers, radio antennas, GPS receivers, all-sky cameras, particle detectors, etc. around the world to provide global measurements of heliospheric phenomena. The United Nations Basic Space Science Initiative (UNBSSI) played a major role in this effort. Scientific teams were organized through UNBSS, which consisted of a lead scientist who provided the instruments or fabrication plans for instruments in the array. As a result of the this program, scientists from UNBSS member states now participate in the instrument operation, data collection, analysis, and publication of scientific results, working at the forefront of science research. As part of this project, support for local scientists, facilities and data acquisition is provided by the host nation. In addition, support at the Government level is provided for local scientists to participate. Building on momentum of the IHY, we propose to continue the highly successful collaboration with the UNBSS program to continue the study of universal processes in the solar system that affect the interplanetary and terrestrial environments, and to continue to coordinate the deployment and operation of new and existing instrument arrays aimed at understanding the impacts of Space Weather on Earth and the near-Earth environment. Toward this end, we propose a new program, the International Space Weather Initiative (ISWI). The study of energetic events in the solar system will pave the way for safe human space travel to the Moon and planets in the future, and it will serve to inspire the next generation of space physicists. The ISWI strongly complements the International Living With a Star (ILWS) program, providing more attention nationally, regionally, and internationally for the ILWS program. To complement the ground-based data, huge amounts of data from space-based missions on Earth and heliospheric phenomena are freely accessible. Support of local Governments and institutions is needed for local scientists to participate in the analysis and interpretation of this data. This work has already begun. UNBSSI, since June 2004, in cooperation with IHY Organizers has begun a worldwide outreach to disseminate basic information on IHY. The timeline for the ISWI is as follows: - 2009: Preliminary planning for the 2010 - 2012 work plan. - 2010: Synthesis from regional to international plans, merging of science working groups and campaigns, "backfilling" missing initiatives; Planning and organize UNBSS Workshop in South Korea; Continue operation of existing instrument arrays, and encourage new instrument deployments. - 2011: Plan and organize UNBSS Workshop; Continue operation of existing instrument arrays, and encourage new instrument deployments. - 2012: Plan and organize UNBSS Workshops; Continue operation of existing instrument arrays, and encourage new instrument deployments. A three-year agenda item on ISWI would provide the opportunity for scientist around the world to participate in this exciting quest to understand the effect of space disturbances on our Earthís environment. Joe Davila & Barbara Thompson February 26, 2009 *************************************** The Proceedings of IAU Symposium 257 is in Press! *************************************** The IAU Symposium No. 257 on "Universal Heliophysical Processes" was held at the Scientific and Technological Park of Epirus (STEP) in Ioannina, Greece during September 15-19, 2008. Seventy nine papers from the symposium will appear in the proceedings volume to be published by the Cambridge University Press (2009). Nat Gopalswamy and David Webb are the editors. The book will be published by the end of March 2009. Nat Gopalswamy 6 March 2009 ******************************** IHY/UNBSS Bulgaria Papers under Review ******************************** Sixty five papers based on the UN/ESA/NASA/JAXA meeting held in Sozopol, Bulgaria in 2008 have been submitted for publication in the journal Sun and Geosphere to be published as a special issue. The papers are under review. Nat Gopalswamy 6 March 2009 **************************************** IHY-Africa 2009 Workshop: June 7-11, 2009 **************************************** The IHY Africa 2009 Workshop will be held at the New Fairmount Hotel in Livingstone, Zambia. The meeting will be held in conjunction with the SCINDA 2009 workshop. Topics of focus in this Workshop include: o GPS Total Electron Content; o Ionospheric Irregularities/Scintillation; o Heliospace Physics; o Electrodynamics/ Magnetometer and Plasmasphere; o Space Science Education and Public Outreach (EPO) Section. For meeting information , please see http://www.unza.zm/ihyafrica2009/ihy.htm **************************************************** IAU Joint Discussion 16, The Whole Heliosphere Interval: August 12-14, 2009 **************************************************** A Joint Discussion (#16) on the results of the IHY Whole Heliosphere Interval will take place August 12-14, 2009 at the IAU General Assembly in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. All are invited to contribute presentations. Application for travel grants ends on March 1, 2009; Abstract submission ends on March 15 and Early Registration on May 1. Session details are at http://ihy2007.org/WHI/jd16.shtml Barbara Thompson, David Webb & Sarah Gibson February 2009 ******************************************************** IHY Session Planned for IAGA in Sopron, Hungary, August 23-30, 2009 ******************************************************** The International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy (IAGA) is holding its 11th Scientific Assembly in Sopron, Hungary during August 23 - 30, 2009. IAGA promotes and coordinates studies of Earth, upper atmosphere, the ionosphere and magnetosphere, the Sun, the solar wind, the planets and interplanetary bodies. The 11th Scientific Assembly in Sopron will be one of the outstanding events of the International Heliophysical Year (IHY) and other IGY+50 organizations. In this connection, we are organizing a session jointly with IAGA divisions IV, II, and III to highlight the science activities of IHY over the past few years.† The name of the session is ìIV03.† Universal Heliophysical Processesî. Please see the meeting web site: http://www.iaga2009sopron.hu/ for details on abstract submission, registration, and more. Nat Gopalswamy 6 March 2009 ****************************************************************** The Final IHY/UNBSS Workshop: 21-25 September, 2009 in Daejeon, Korea ****************************************************************** The final joint workshop between the United Nations Basic Space Science program and the IHY will be hosted by the Korean Astronomy and Space Science Institute on behalf of the Korean government. The workshop will be sponsored by the UN, NASA, ESA and JAXA. Travel support will be available; applications can be submitted from 1 April - 31 May 2009. See: http://bssihy.kasi.re.kr/ ****************************************************************** Second WHI Workshop planned for November 10-13, 2009 in Boulder, CO ****************************************************************** The follow-on workshop to the successful IHY's Whole Heliosphere Interval (WHI) Data and Modeling Assessment Workshop (WHIDMAW) will be held November 10-13, 2009 and hosted by UCAR in Boulder, Colorado, USA. This workshop will focus on scientific results and analysis and will build on the findings of the WHIDMAW. More details to follow. See: http://ihy2007.org/WHI/whidmaw.shtml ********************* Callisto Status Report #19 ********************* This is a report of the current status of the present host sites of the Callisto radio project. A 2nd Callisto spectrometer was recently handed over and set into operation at Humain station, the remote observatory of the ROB (Royal Observatory of Belgium). This is to study decimetric radio events of the active sun. After several months of complete lack of solar activity we finally got a weak deka-metric radio flare captured by the Callisto network. On December 11, 2008 the system observed its "first light" as a type II burst associated with a class C1.3 x-ray flare. Beside Humain (Belgium), Ooty (India) and Bleien (Switzerland) also observed the flare at the same time (09:26:35 UT) and at exactly the same frequency of about 70MHz. Sites in Brazil, Ecuador, Mauritius and Ulaanbaator/Mongolia are still in the planning phase. We expect that these locations will be put into operation in early summer, 2009. The main problem is always the lack of funding to cover the travel costs of an engineer. We have set into operation a low frequency antenna connected to a converter at Bleien observatory covering a frequency range from 20MHz - 90MHz. During the active phase of December 11th we received some small radio bursts. We have some problems with our web-interface ëDiRaCí due to lack of man power at our institute. But we are optimistic to finish it in summer 2009. In parallel, Belgium is interested in taking over the visualization software ëDiRaCí in the near future. During a recent ESO-meeting in Aussois France, a new radio quiet area was found. Due to low infrastructure there are only a few transmitters within the national park of Val Vanoise. A new heterodyne up-converter to cover the range 20-90 MHz has been designed and is now in MAIT phase. We plan to manufacture up to 4 devices for observation of the low frequency spectrum at remote areas. All components were purchased through eBay using private means. Four additional Callisto spectrometers have just been built and are now in an intensive testing phase. A new software tool is available to create a new frequency program out of an existing spectral overview. Only channels with low RFI are automatically selected. The program can be downloaded from our website free as a beta-version and it will be improved until February 2009. If you have ideas for improvement of the control software, please let us know. Within CRAF (Committee for Radio Astronomy Frequencies) the idea came up to use Callisto also for radio monitoring. This is already possible using the function ëSpectral overviewí, for example, during the night when no observations are taking place. General information about Callisto: http://www.astro.phys.ethz.ch/instrument/callisto/callisto_nf.html Software and related products about Callisto: http://www.astro.phys.ethz.ch/instrument/callisto/ecallisto/applidocs.htm Access to data archive and DiRaC: http://www.astro.phys.ethz.ch/rapp/rapp_home_nf.html Christian Monstein Institute of Astronomy; Zurich, Switzerland 18 December 2008 *********************** ILWS Workshop "Influence of Solar Activity on Geophysical and Heliospheric Phenomena" to be held October 4 - 9 in Ubatuba, Brasil *********************** "The Influence of Solar Variability on Geophysical and Heliospheric Phenomena"; the 2009 ILWS Workshop will be held near the city of Ubatuba in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, October 4-10, 2009. This will be the third in a series of very successful and well-attended meetings sponsored by the International Living With a Star (ILWS) that have been held around the world (Goa, India in 2006 and Varna, Bulgaria in 2007). Abstracts are due August 14, 2009. Meeting Information (27 February 2009) --------------------------------- 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 - Mar 2009