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ILWS Newsletter Volume 5
Contents
1) ILWS Steering Committee Chair's Report
2) National Delegate and Task Group Reports
Space Weather Activities in Belgium: European Space Weather Week 2008 Report
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 | Also some special events were organized. The Space Weather Tutorial focused on students and people new to the space weather community. The Space Weather Fair turned into a vivid workshop showing hands-on tools and concrete user-friendly space weather products. |
| A more complete summary of these activities can be found in http://sidc.be/esww5/ |
The ILWS Steering Committee is happy to announce that Dr. Ji Wu, who has been serving as the ILWS Delegate for the China National Space Administration (CNSA) and the Center for Space Science and Applied Research (CSSAR), has agreed to serve as the ILWS Steering Committee Vice-Chair.
Dr. Wu is currently the director of Center for Space Science and Applied Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He has been working in the field of antenna design and measurement, microwave remote sensing technology, space science mission management for more than 25 years. From 1985 to 1986, he worked at ESTEC, European Space Agency in the field of multi-beam antenna design for communication satellite. From 1989 to 1994, he studied and worked at the Technical University of Denmark firstly as a Ph.D. student and then a post doctorate research associate in the field of near-field antenna measurements and also multi-beam antenna design.
In 1995, he joined the Center for Space Science and Applied Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Since then he has dedicated himself to the research field of microwave remote sensing theory and technology and also space science and exploration programs. Among others, he and his team developed a series of passive microwave imagers using innovated interfereometric imaging technology. He was the chief designer and project manager of the application system of Chinese/European cooperated Double Star Program, project manager of the scientific payload subsystem of Chinese Lunar Exploration Program – Chang’E-1 satellite. He is now the project manager of Space Weather Monitoring Meridian Chain Project, and chief scientist of Yinghuo-1 mission, which is the first Chinese mission to Mars. Dr. Wu is author of 10 patents, more than 40 journal publications both domestic and internationally and one translation book. Dr. Wu is also corresponding member of International Academy of Astronautics, member of Electromagnetics Academy, member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of COSPAR, Vice President of Chinese Society of Space Research, Secretary General of CN-COSPAR.
Russia has launched its third satellite on a program for the study of the Sun and solar-terrestrial physics. The launch of Koronas-Foton took place on January 30, 2009 at 13:30 UTC from the GIK-1 Plesetsk Cosmodrome, in Arkhangelsk Oblast, about 800 km North of Moscow. This was the last launch of the venerable 11K68 Tsyklon-3 rocket.
CORONAS (Complex ORbital Observations Near-Earth of Activity of the Sun) is the Russian program for study of the Sun and solar-terrestrial connections physics by series of spacecrafts, which provided the launch of three solar-oriented satellites onto the near-Earth orbit.
Koronas-Foton was the third satellite in this series. Two previous missions of the project are Koronas-I / Intercosmos-26 (23019 1994-14A), launched on March 2, 1994, and Koronas-F (26873 2001-032A), launched on July 31, 2001. Koronas-Foton is a highly anticipated part of ILWS.
The instrument package on Koronas-Foton consists of the Natalya-2M spectrometer, RT-2 gamma-telescope, Pingvin-M (Penguin) polarimeter, Konus-RF x-ray and gamma spectrometer, BRM x-ray detector, FOKA UV-detector, TESIS telescope/spectrometer, Electron-M-Peska charged particles analyzer, STEP-F Electron and proton detector, and the SM-8M magnetometer.
For more information on the Koronas-Foton mission, please go to http://www.russianspaceweb.com/koronas_foton.html
The Solar Dynamics Observatory has been granted a launch manifest. United Launch Alliance and Kennedy Space Center have assigned SDO a launch window between October 8, 2009 and November 6, 2009, with a possible option for August 27, 2009.
The mission completed its thermal vacuum tests in the summer of 2008, and completed the first stage of the Pre-Ship Review in January 2009.
Information and most recent news on SDO can be found at http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov
submitted by Dr. Vladimir Osherovich, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and Catholic University of America
A new means of predicting the sunspot cycle date, amplitude and mean has been developed by Vladimir Osherovich and Joe Fainberg. The method has been shown to be reliable to a cross correlation of 0.96 to predict the amplitude of the sunspot maximum Rmax(n) using maximum and mean sunspot numbers for the two previous cycles (n - 1) and (n - 2) and the Gleissberg-cycle correction. A 24-month Gaussian filter is used to smooth the monthly sunspot number.
The method has been applied to predict the Cycle 24 maximum. Under the assumption that August 2008 is the end of Cycle 23, we forecast Rmax(24) = 77.0 with an error of 14.1. Assuming an August 2008 solar minimum, the arrival of the next solar maximum using the method is predicted to be in October 2012 with an error of 5.4 months.
The forecast is consistent with the some of predictions in the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Solar Cycle 24 Prediction Panel, but as the panel did not come to a consensus, there are differing opinions.
The International Heliophysical Year is coming to an end. It has been a very successful international collaboration which has resulted in the deployment of many new instruments around the world, and the beginning of many new scientific collaborations.To build on this legacy from the IHY, a new United Nations initiative has been adopted by the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs: the International Space Weather Initiative (ISWI). The purpose of this effort would be to continue to encourage existing and new scientific collaborations, and begin the process of making the data from these new arrays part of the space weather alert system.
The ISWI strongly complements the ILWS program, and will provide more attention nationally, regionally, and internationally for the ILWS program.
A new book is now available that is of great relevance to the ILWS community. The title is "Severe Space Weather Events - Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts Workshop Report," and was authored by the US National Research Council's Committee on the Societal and Economic Impacts of Severe Space Weather Events.
The adverse effects of extreme space weather on modern technology--power grid outages, high-frequency communication blackouts, spacecraft anomalies--are well known and well documented, and the physical processes underlying space weather are also generally well understood. Less well documented and understood, however, are the potential economic and societal impacts of the disruption of critical technological systems by severe space weather.
As a first step toward determining the socioeconomic impacts of extreme space weather events and addressing the questions of space weather risk assessment and management, a public workshop was held in May 2008. The workshop brought together representatives of industry, the government, and academia to consider both direct and collateral effects of severe space weather events, the current state of the space weather services infrastructure in the United States, the needs of users of space weather data and services, and the ramifications of future technological developments for contemporary society's vulnerability to space weather. The workshop concluded with a discussion of un- or underexplored topics that would yield the greatest benefits in space weather risk management.
This book is of great value to the ILWS program, as it provides a clear summary of our state of knowledge regarding the socionomic impacts of space weather. The144-page report has eight chapters and five appendices, and is available at http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12507
We have a special request to make of all ILWS colleagues! We would like to complete a comprehensive survey of all ILWS missions, including both missions in development and those that are operational. All missions of relevance to ILWS are needed, so that we may have a complete understanding of our assets at our fingertips.Templates for this activity have been produced; the fields in the templates are relatively simple, and we anticipate that ILWS delegates and science community members will be able to complete them relatively quickly. We hope to receive completed summaries by the end of October 2008.
The location of the 2009 ILWS Community Workshop has now been determined. It will be held at the Itamambuca Eco Resort, in Ubatuba, Brasil, near São Paulo.
The schedule has been refined, and agenda information is now available on the website. The deadline for abstract submission will be August 14, 2009, and the registration deadline will be August 28, 2009.
The meeting will include the following topics:
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The first announcement is now available online, as well as other information about
the meeting.
http://www.dge.inpe.br/maghel/ilws/
for updates. Results from the ILWS Community Workshop held in 2006 in Goa, India, can be found at http://ilws.gsfc.nasa.gov/ilws_goa2006.htm |
The International Heliophysical Year will officially come to a close on February 18, 2009, with a closing ceremony held at the United Nations Vienna International Centre. The ceremony will take place during the 2009 United Nations Science and Technical Subcommittee Meeting, during which reports on IHY activities will be presented by the IHY Secretariat and delegates of individual nations.
A new plan for the International Space Weather Initiative will also be presented. All IHY team members (national coordinators, program leaders, outreach coordinators) are invited to attend.
The NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center (formerly Space Environment Center) announces the this year's Space Weather Workshop will be held April 28 - May 1, 2009. Space Weather Workshop is an annual conference that brings industry, academia, and government agencies together in a lively dialog about space weather. What began in 1996 as a conference for the space weather user community, Space Weather Workshop has evolved into the Nation’s leading conference on all issues relating to space weather.
The conference addresses the remarkably diverse impacts of space weather on today’s technology. The program highlights space weather impacts in several areas, including communications, navigations, spacecraft operations, aviation, and electric power. The presentations and discussions at the Space Weather Workshop also focus on identifying the highest priority needs for operational services that can guide future research and identifying new high-value capabilities that can be transitioned into operations. The conference fosters communication among researchers, space weather service providers, and users of space weather services.
The registration and abstract deadline is Friday, April 3, 2009. The conference website is http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/sww/index.html
The hugely successful SOHO Workshops are being combined with the upcoming international STEREO Workshops into the first STEREO/SOHO Workshop, to be hosted by the UK in the week of April 27 2009. This combined workshop promises to be a major celebration of the continuing scientific achievements of these two missions.
The meeting will be held in a grand Victorian hotel with panoramic views across the English Channel, will include a conference dinner at the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu and a visit to Stonehenge (surely a must for any solar physicist!) where we will have rare access to the stones themselves.
The abstract deadline is Friday, February 27, 2009. The conference website is http://www.sstd.rl.ac.uk/stereo-soho/index.html
The ILWS Newsletter will be released on a quarterly basis. Submissions for and inquiries about this newsletter can be sent to Barbara Thompson at barbara.j.thompson {at} nasa.gov.The current and archived versions of ILWS newsletters will be posted on the ILWS website at http://ilws.gsfc.nasa.gov.
