ISWI Newsletter - Vol.7 No.04
15 February 2015

Dear ISWI Participant:

2015 STSC Meetings of United Nations COPUOS, mentioned in the previous issue of this newsletter, took place during the past two weeks. There were two Space Weather Expert Meetings held on the margins of this annual gathering of COPUOS members: One on Feb. 3 (led by the USA) and one on Feb. 4 (led by Canada). Both were hugely successful; see Item [9] below for photos.

CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE

[1] Thesis defense by Amira Abdel Azim Ahmed Ibrahim Shimeis: "Solar Impact on the Ionized Layers at the Crest of the Equatorial Anomaly in the African Longitude Sector of the Northern Hemisphere"; Helwan University, Egypt. (read it)

[2] Workshop on "Global Data Activities for the Study of Solar-Terrestrial Variability" by SCOSTEP, VarSITI and ICSU-WDS.. (read it)

[3] Call for nominations for THE SCOSTEP DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD. (read it)

[4] Call for Papers: 2015 Int'l Conference on Space Science and Communication (IconSpace2015); on Langkawi Island, Malaysia, August 2015. (read it)

[5] Successful launch of DSCOVR satellite; newspaper article. (read it)

[6] "DSCOVR - Deep Space Climate Observatory," pamphlet from NOAA Satellite and Information Service. (read it)

[7] Call for abstracts: AOGS session ST 30 (The Strange State of the Heliosphere during the Weak Solar Cycles 24 and its Implications), DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACT SUBMISSION: 18 Feb 2015. (read it)

[8] ISWI Steering Committee Meeting on 3 Feb 2015, during 2015 STSC; brief notes by the committee chairman, Dr Nat Gopalswamy. (read it)

[9] Photos of the Space Weather Expert Meetings on 3 and 4 Feb 2015 (side meetings during 2015 STSC COPUOS in Vienna). (read it)

[1] Thesis For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Science in the Physics of Astronomy,

Amira Abdel Azim Ahmed Ibrahim Shimeis Solar Impact on the Ionized Layers at the Crest of the Equatorial Anomaly in the African Longitude Sector of the Northern Hemisphere January 22^nd 2015, Helwan University

See the first attached file

(Sent in by C. Amory)

[2] SCOSTEP-WDS Workshop on ‘Global Data Activities for the Study of Solar-Terrestrial Variability’ 28-30 September 2015 (Circular #1),

The principal objective of the workshop is to stimulate interaction among data providers (WDS members, data centers, data networks, etc.), data scientists, and data-oriented researchers of the SCOSTEP community. The VarSITI (Variability of the Sun and Its Terrestrial Impact) program of SCOSTEP will strive for international collaboration in data analysis, modeling, and theory to understand how the solar variability affects the Earth’s environment. Long-term preservation and provision of quality-assessed data and information will be common objectives for SCOSTEP and WDS. Development of advanced data systems to enable scientists to perform multidisciplinary data-analysis will be another common target. This workshop will be a remarkable opportunity to initiate close collaboration between SCOSTEP and WDS to promote our data-oriented activities by introducing outcomes from the information technology. Data analysis of selected solar-terrestrial events will be an important component of the workshop also not only to develop the study of solar-terrestrial variability but also to establish a mutual feedback loop between “data users”and data providers. Principal topics of the workshop are:

1. Application of information technologies to mutual data activities
2. Data systems for VarSITI (data centers, data networks, data analysis systems, etc.)
3. Data analysis (VarSITI Campaign Intervals and others)
4. Data-oriented collaborations between SCOSTEP and WDS.

(Sent in by Takashi Watanabe WDS-IPO)

[3] Call for nominations for THE SCOSTEP DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD

Recognizing the societal importance of studies in the field of solar-terrestrial physics and to give credit to scientists who contribute significantly to these studies and to SCOSTEP activities, in 2013 the SCOSTEP Bureau instituted three awards:

• SCOSTEP Distinguished Scientist Award
  The award recognizes an outstanding contribution of a scientist to SCOSTEP science;
• SCOSTEP Distinguished Young Scientist Award
  The award is given to a young scientist(s) who has (have) achieved considerable success in SCOSTEP science and has (have) taken an active part in SCOSTEP events;
• SCOSTEP Distinguished Service Award
  The award recognizes a unique contribution to SCOSTEP activities, to realization of its programs and events.

The awards are given biannually.

The first SCOSTEP Distinguished Service Award was given in November 2013 during the SCOSTEP Symposium at Nagoya (November 18-22, 2013, SCOSTEP CAWSES-II International Symposium at Nagoya, Japan). The First Distinguished Scientist and Distinguished Young Scientist Awards were presented in October 2014 during SCOSTEP’s 13^th Quadrennial Solar-Terrestrial Physics symposium (STP13) (October 12-18, 2014) in Xi’An, China).

This is a call for nominations for the Second edition of the SCOSTEP Distinguished Service Award, to be presented in 2015. The Statute and Procedure for the award are given in the Appendix. The Statute of SCOSTEP Awards is located on the SCOSTEP web site in the section “About” -> “Awards”.

The deadline for submitting nominations is April 30, 2015. All nominations should be sent to the SCOSTEP Scientific Secretary, Prof. Marianna Shepherd (mshepher[at]yorku.ca).

The award decision will be made by a SCOSTEP Award Committee (SAC).

(Sent in by Marianna G. Shepherd)

[4] Call for Papers: 2015 Int'l Conference on Space Science and Communication (IconSpace2015); on Langkawi Island, Malaysia, August 2015,

For more details see the second attached file

(Sent in by Nurul Shazana Abdul Hamid)

[5] Successful launch of DSCOVR satellite, From The New York Times of 11 Feb 2015

"In about 110 days, the observatory, abbreviated as Dscovr and pronounced “discover,” is to reach a point where the gravitational pull of the Earth and that of the sun cancel each other out and the spacecraft can easily hold its position, almost a million miles from the day side of Earth. From that location, Dscovr will be able to give 15 to 60 minutes' warning if a wave of energetic solar particles known as a coronal mass ejection is about to slam into Earth."

See the third attached file for the rest.

(Sent in by G. Maeda)

[6] "DSCOVR - Deep Space Climate Observatory," pamphlet from NOAA Satellite and Information Service,

See the fourth attached file

(Sent in by G. Maeda)

[7] Call for abstracts: AOGS session ST 30 (The Strange State of the Heliosphere during the Weak Solar Cycles 24 and its Implications)

See the fifth attached file

(Sent in by N. Gopalswamy)

[8] ISWI Steering Committee Meeting on 3 Feb 2015, during 2015 STSC; brief notes by the committee chairman, Dr Nat Gopalswamy

See the sixth attached file

(Sent in by N. Gopalswamy)

[9]Photos of the Space Weather Expert Meetings on 3 and 4 Feb 2015 (side meetings during 2015 STSC COPUOS in Vienna),

To view this photo album, please click here. You must have Google account. Have to wait for permission from Sunhak Hong

The editor of the ISWI Newsletter wishes to thank him for creating this album so that many ISWI participants can see roughly what occurred during 3 and 4 Feb 2015, on the margins of 2015 STSC COPUOS. The turnout was good.

(Sent in by G. Maeda)

(1) Thesis defense by Amira... 311 KB pdf, one page (click )

(2) Brosure and call for Papers: IconSpace2015 on Langkawi Island, Malaysia, 10–12 August 2015 477 KB pdf, 2 pages (click )

(3) Kenneth Chang New Lookout for Solar Storms Lifts Off on SpaceX Rocket New York Times, 11 Feb 2015 195 KB pdf, 3 pages (click )

(4) "DSCOVR - Deep Space Climate Observatory," pamphlet from NOAA Satellite and Information Service 1069 KB pdf, 4 pages (click )

(5) Call for abstracts AOGS2015/ST30 55 KB pdf, one page (click )

(6) ISWI Steering Committee Meeting on 3 Feb 2015, during 2015 STSC; brief notes by the committee chairman, Dr Nat Gopalswamy 82 KB pdf, one page (click )