ISWI Newsletter - Vol.6 No.036
01 June 2014

There are nine items in this issue. I am especially proud of Item #6 because it is from a Sudanese university lecturer, Magdi, who recently got his Phd here at Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan. On his own initiative he organized a space science workshop at his university in Khartoum -- Item #6 is his report for this workshop. This kind of initiative, creativity, and dedication to education, is precisely what ISWI seeks to promote in the space weather field. So I say to Magdi: "Great job! Keep it up because persistence always pays off.".

CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE

[1] Observations of geomagnetically induced currents in the Australian power network (paper). (read it)

[2] Reminder: STE Lab / SCOSTEP scientific "manga" series. (read it)

[3] Upcoming European Space Weather Week (November, in Belgium). (read it)

[4] SCOSTEP's 13th Quadrennial Solar-Terrestrial Physics Symposium (STP13). (read it)

[5] 2015 UN/Japan Workshop on Space Weather. (read it)

[6] Space science training workshop recently held in Sudan. (read it)

[7] Endawoke on Scientific Mission (instruments installed in Thailand). (read it)

[8] The 12th International Conference on Substorms. (ICS-12, November 10-14, 2014, Ise-Shima Royal Hotel, Japan). (read it)

[9] School on Space Weather / GNSS-GIS-Intensive computing. (10-21 November 2014, Koudougou, Burkina Faso). (read it)

[1] Paper Abstract:
Infrastructures such as pipelines and power networks at low-middle latitude regions have historically been considered relatively immune to geomagneti- cally induced currents (GICs). Over the past decade there have been an increasing number of investigations into the impact of GICs in long grounded conductors at these latitudes. The Australian region power network spans thousands of kilometers from low to middle latitudes. The approaching maximum of solar cycle 24 and recent findings of studies into power networks located at similar latitudes have stimulated the Australian power industry to better understand this phenomenon in their region. As a result, a pilot study to compare space weather activity with in situ GIC monitors at strategic locations within the power network was initiated. This paper provides some results from the first of these operational GIC monitors during a modest geomagnetic storm, showing the first observational evidence of space weather well correlated with GICs measured in the Australian power network. Transformer neutral currents show a high degree of similarity with the geoelectric field derived from the closest available geomagnetic observatory. Current maxima of 4-5 amperes were observed in association with geoelectric field values of ~0.06-0.07 volts per kilometer. This paper also discusses the GIC measurements obtained during this storm in terms of the space weather drivers and the considerably larger geoelectric field values anticipated during larger geomagnetic storms.

(Sent in by R. Marshall.)

[2] This was previously mentioned in the ISWI Newsletter (Volume 4, No. 95) but is worth repeating here: There is a great collection of science pamphlets in comics-book form from STE Lab at Nagoya University. For a sample, please see this attached pdf: What is Geomagnetic Field.pdf All of the pamphlets can be downloaded from this site:
http://www.stelab.nagoya-u.ac.jp/ste-www1/doce/outreach.html
With the help of SCOSTEP, these pamphlets are being translated into several languages.

(Sent by the Editor.)

[3] At the upcoming European Space Weather Week to be held from November 17th till 21st, 2014, in Liege, Belgium. There will be a session targeted at commercial enterprises active in space weather (see session abstract below). Several of those commercial enterprises are engaged to education in space weather as well as applying instruments for R&D similar to those in the ISWI community used.

(Sent in by Michael A. Danielides)

[4] This is the Second Announcement for STP13:

Plans are underway for the thirteenth Solar-Terrestrial Physics Symposium of the Scientific Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Physics (SCOSTEP) will be held in Xi’An, China during October 12-17, 2014. The scientific sessions of STP13 feature the chains of physical processes that operate in the solar terrestrial domain. These are: (i) the mass chain in the form of plasmas and particles emitted from the Sun, (ii) the electromagnetic radiation chain in the form irradiance (total and spectral) and flare emissions, and (iii) the intra-atmospheric chain representing energy flow from Earth into space.

The processes considered include the generation of energy in the interior of the Sun and near Earth and its flow in various directions. In particular, the symposium will address recent advances in solar dynamo theory and predictions of the future solar activity, long-term variations of solar activity and their impact on terrestrial climate, and the origin and probability of solar extreme events.

Finally, a one-day workshop session will be held to analyze the data collected during the MiniMax24 campaign.

The STP13 scientific sessions consist of tutorial lectures/keynotes in the mornings and focused presentations (overview talks, invited talks, contributed papers) in the afternoons. Original research papers are solicited on any of these topics or on topics related to other aspects of Sun-Earth connection.

Papers involving the origin and consequences of the current weak solar activity are encouraged.

(Sent in by Nat Gopalswamy.)

[5] The "First Circular" for this United Nations workshop will come out this month (June of 2014) and will probably be included in the next issue of the ISWI Newsletter. For the time being, for this workshop, please save these dates on your 2015 calendar: March 2 through 6.

The workshop will take place in Fukuoka, Japan.

(Sent by the Editor.)

[6] Recently, Sudan University of Science and Technology (SUST) with partnership with the National Society of Renewable Energies (NORE) conducted a workshop whose title was: "Introduction to Space Science and Solar Cells."

(Sent in by Magdi Elfadil Yousif Suliman.)

[7] Endawoke Yizengaw, et al, recently installed space weather instrumentation (AMBER and SCINDA) in Thailand. For details, please visit here: http://endawokeonscientificmission.blogspot.com/

(Sent in by Endawoke Yizengaw.)

The deadline (June 30) of abstract submission for ICS-12 is approaching soon. Please visit http://www.stelab.nagoya-u.ac.jp/ICS-12/ for details of the abstract submission.

We would like to inform you that ICS-12 encourages the participants to submit their presentations to the ICS-12 special issue on the open-access refereed journal "Earth, Planets, and Space" (EPS) (http://www.earth-planets-space.org/).

This special issue solicits papers from ICS-12 that widely cover various topics of substorms, i.e., substorm processes in the tail, interaction between the tail and the inner magnetosphere and ionosphere, substorm currents and its dynamics,and the role of substorm in geospace energetics, as well as the role of MHD and kinetic instabilities in substorms. Other substorm-related researches are also welcomed, such as storm-substorm relationship, ULF/ELF/VLF waves, and non-Earth substorm-like features. The article processing charge (APC) for letters (8 page maximum) contributed to the special issue is only 100 Euros. Full papers or Technical Reports can also be submitted and the normal APC is assessed: 200 Euros for members and 600 Euros for non-members. Please join the ICS-12 and submit your latest results to EPS.

Only new and original content can be published in EPS; EPS does not accept review papers. For those who plan to write a review paper, please contact SOC chair, Kazuo Shiokawa (shiokawa[at]stelab.nagoya-u.ac.jp). We plan to make such review papers as invited papers on another journal "Progress in Earth and Planetary Science (PEPS)" under Japan Geoscience Union, and combine the papers in EPS and PEPS into the special issue book.

Best regards, Kazuo Shiokawa

(Sent in by K. Shiokawa.)

School on Space Weather/GNSS-GIS-Intensive computing
Basic theory and hands-on experience
10-21 November 2014, Koudougou, Burkina Faso

The objective of this school is to increase the level of expertise of the West African students in order for them to participate and contribute to international programmes.

(Sent in by Christine Amory.)

(1) R. A. Marshall, H. Gorniak, T. Van Der Walt, C. L. Waters, M. D. Sciffer, M. Miller, M. Dalzell, T. Daly, G. Pouferis, G. Hesse,P. Wilkinson Observations of geomagnetically induced currents in the Australian power network SPACE WEATHER, VOL.11 (2013), pp.1‑11 DOI:10.1029/2012SW000849 7 309 KB pdf, 11 pages, (click )

(2) STE Lab at Nagoya University: What is the Geomagnetic Field ?! one book from collection of science pamphlets 1 142 KB pdf, 17 pages, (click )

(3) Second Announcement: SCOSTEP’s 13th Quadrennial Solar?Terrestrial Physics Symposium (STP13) October 12‑18, 2014 Xi’An, Shanxi, China 350 KB pdf, 3 pages, (click )

(4) Report of a training workshop on: Introduction to Space Science and Solar Cells Khartoum, Sudan, March 24‑27, 2014 2 057 KB pdf, 19 pages, (click )

(5) FLYER School on Space Weather/GNSS-GIS-Intensive computing 10-21 Nov. 2014, Koudougou, Burkina Faso. 270 KB pdf, 1 page, (click )