Supplementary material to “International symposium on recent observations and simulations of the Sun-Earth system”

Vania Jordanova, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, vania@lanl.gov; Ilia Roussev, Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii at Manoa, iroussev@ifa.hawaii.edu

Citation:
Jordanova, V., and I. Roussev (2007), International symposium on recent observations and simulations of the Sun-Earth system, Eos Trans. AGU, 88(5), 62. [Full Article (pdf)]

Researchers from solar, heliospheric, magnetospheric, and Earth sciences communities worldwide convened in Grand Hotel Varna, Bulgaria, during September 17–22, 2006, on the occasion of holding the ISROSES: International Symposium on Recent Observations and Simulations of the Sun-Earth System. (Detailed information about the Symposium—its science objectives, program, list of attendees, etc.—can be found at http://www.isroses.org/.) The Symposium sought to create a forum to discuss recent advances in modeling and observations of the Sun-Earth System (SES). The ultimate goal of ISROSES was to improve present understanding of the structure and complex interactions of the various components of the SES dictated by the solar cycle. ISROSES was envisioned to foster improved communication among these communities of scientists, and to stimulate fruitful discussions on the following main science themes:

  1. solar cycle variations in the SES;
  2. solar dynamics and the response of geospace;
  3. production, transport, acceleration, and loss of energetic particles; and
  4. SES modeling and prediction.

The agenda of ISROSES included discussions of a number of crucial issues dealing with our ability to predict Space Weather. It was emphasized that as more advanced technologies are placed into the space environment our need to forecast the space weather becomes more urgent. To achieve such goal, an integrated understanding of the physical processes of the coupled Sun-Earth System must be developed. The Symposium succeeded in making progress towards helping facilitate the solution of problems related to Solar-Terrestrial Relations and Space Weather. Contributions of present and future missions to these goals were presented.

ISROSES was attended by over 200 researchers from the above communities—predominantly from Bulgaria, Russian Federation, and USA who communicated their scientific findings on the four main science topics in both formal (during preplanned sessions) and informal (during coffee and lunch breaks) means. Based on the feedback received from various participants during and after the Symposium, the Organizing Committee concluded that ISROSES did achieve its goal to improve science communication between those communities of scientists in the way it was envisioned. ISROSES also succeeded in attracting the interest and involvement of students and young postdoctoral researchers in the discussions.

ISROSES included five and a half days of presentations and discussions, and one half-day devoted to a field trip to the city of Nessebar—a Bulgarian town-museum on the Black Sea Coast and highlight of the UNESCO World Heritage shortlist. The first day of the Symposium (Sep 17) was devoted to plenary talks, which aimed to introduce the main science topics of ISROSES, including both the observational and modeling aspects of the focused topics. Four days of the Symposium were then dedicated to a particular main topic, spanning the solar, magnetospheric, and ionospheric aspects of the topic to fulfill the cross-disciplinary objectives of the Symposium. Each day included three oral sessions—one in the morning and two in the afternoon—with approximately seven talks per session of which two to three were invited. The majority of invited and contributed speakers gave synergistic views on the subject being discussed, and addressed the major scientific issues related to it. One half-day (Sep 20) was devoted to discussing recent observations and related theoretical and numerical modeling relevant to the CLUSTER mission. There were three poster sessions from Sunday through Tuesday, with approximately 50 posters presented at each session.

Some scientific highlights from the meeting are as follows:

  1. The causes and properties of cyclic solar activity were reviewed as well as their effects on geospace, such as triggering of geomagnetic storms, and producing hazardous fluxes of energetic particles in the ionosphere, showing pronounced differences during the period of the solar cycle. Characteristic phenomena during the approach to solar minimum are corotating interaction regions (CIRs) causing recurrent magnetic storms and enhancing relativistic electrons, in contrast with transient coronal mass ejections (CMEs) occurring near solar maximum and associated with major geomagnetic disturbances.
  2. The origin and evolution of the solar wind and the response of the Earth’s space environment (magnetosphere-ionosphere-atmosphere) to its variations were discussed. It was shown that the strength and waveform of the solar wind drivers determine the mode in which the magnetosphere responds, thus storms, substorms, steady magnetospheric convection, or sawtooth injections may result. However, how the magnetosphere transitions from one mode to another is not well known, neither do we know how these modes are correlated with solar wind structures. Interacting CMEs have been found to be associated with long-lived geomagnetic storms and large solar energetic particle events. Such long-lasting space weather events appear to have contributed significantly to many major spacecraft operational failures and their prediction is highly desirable.
  3. Various acceleration mechanisms in the inner heliosphere such as stochastic waves, shocks, and more-gradual compressions were introduced, and the role of the spatial transport through the turbulent solar wind as an important part of the acceleration process was discussed. Approaches to model the dynamics of the coupled magnetosphere-ionosphere system and the challenges they pose were reviewed. The importance of development of models that calculate the inner magnetospheric electric and magnetic fields self-consistently with the anisotropic particle distributions was indicated. In-situ observations showing that besides radial diffusion local stochastic acceleration may contribute to the energization and/or loss of radiation belt particles were presented, demonstrating the need of including self-consistent treatment of transport and wave instabilities in models.
  4. An important challenge for solar-terrestrial physics research is to advance our understanding of the Sun-Earth system and to develop models to the level where timely and accurate predictions of space weather can be made that result in benefits to society. For this to occur, the information provided by these models must be directly usable and must enable decisions to be made that have positive economic consequences. It was discussed that much of what is needed today for important applications, such as forecasts of solar energetic particle events, is still beyond our current scientific capabilities. However, significant progress is being made in many areas that could lead to direct societal benefits.

A great number of invited and contributed papers presented during ISROSES are currently being considered for publication in a special issue of the Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics (JASTP). The special issue will be published in the Fall of 2007. Some other ISROSES papers will be published in the Bulgarian Journal of Physics (BJP) and the regular JASTP.

ISROSES would not have been possible without the support from the International Living With a Star Program (ILWS), Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), European Office of Aerospace Research and Development (EOARD), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), US National Science Foundation (NSF), and the International Union of Radio Science (URSI). With funds received from these agencies, the Organizing Committee was able to provide partial or full support to approximately 120 ISROSES participants, of which a large fraction were young postdoctoral researchers and graduate students. Locally, we received tremendous support in the organization of ISROSES from the Solar-Terrestrial-Influences Laboratory (STIL), Institute of Mechanics (IM) of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS), Geophysical Institute (GI) of BAS, and the Faculty of Physics of Sofia University. The Symposium topics meshed well with the scientific objectives of the NASA’s Living With a Star (LWS) Program, and with the NSF’s Solar, Heliospheric, and INterplanetary Environment (SHINE), Geospace Environment Modeling (GEM), and Coupling, Energetics, and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions (CEDAR) Programs.

ISROSES built upon the legacy of other similar conferences held in Bulgaria in the past, such as the 15th International Cosmic Ray Conference in Plovdiv (August 13–26, 1977), the 18th COSPAR Plenary Meeting in Varna (May 29–June 7, 1975), the COSPAR Colloquium on Plasma Processes in the near–Earth Space: Interball and Beyond in Sofia (February 5–10, 2002), among others. All of these events succeeded in improving the science communication between western scientists and their colleagues from Eastern/Central Europe and Russian Federation. Having ISROSES held in Bulgaria—the Country of Roses—was important for stimulating space science research on the Balkans, as well as increasing the motivation and involvement of Bulgarian students in space physics. The Symposium was an important event for Bulgarian Science in the dawn of European Union integration beginning on Jan 1, 2007.

Vania Jordanova, Los Alamos National Laboratory, E-mail: vania@lanl.gov;
Ilia Roussev, Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii at Manoa; E-mail: iroussev@ifa.hawaii.edu
– Conveners of ISROSES