Chapman Conference on the Earth's radiation belts and inner magnetosphere

Late in the evening on 31 January 1958, a Juno ( Jupiter-C) rocket blasted into space, lofting the first U.S. artificial Earth satellite into orbit. This spacecraft, dubbed Explorer 1, joined in space one other satellite, Sputnik 2, which had been launched on 3 November 1957 by the Soviet Union. The Explorer 1 mission was groundbreaking, for it carried a small scientific payload prepared at the University of Iowa by a team of researchers led by James A. Van Allen. The instrumentation on Explorer 1 (and on the subsequently successful Explorer 3) would make the first truly revolutionary discovery of the space age, namely, that Earth is enshrouded in toroids, or belts, of extraordinarily high energy, high-intensity radiation. Van Allen and his team would go on to explore and map the radiation regions around the Earth in considerable detail. The radiation zones are today known in his honor as the Van Allen radiation belts. Van Allen would lead subsequent exploratory efforts (such as those on Pioneer 10 and 11) that would discover radiation zones around the giant magnetized planets Jupiter and Saturn. Moreover, Van Allen and colleagues would show the lack of persistent radiation belts around Mars and Venus, owing to these latter planets’ lack of strong intrinsic magnetic dipole fields. Since the seminal discovery by Van Allen and coworkers, the world scientific community has made huge strides not only in understanding the fundamental and cosmic significance of the radiation first measured in 1958 but also in recognizing its significance as a space weather threat to human technological systems in space. At an AGU Chapman Conference held 17–22 July 2011 in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, more than 110 researchers from more than 15 countries gathered to assess the state of radiation belt research. Despite more than 5 decades of radiation belt research, the Chapman Conference, entitled “Dynamics of the Earth’s Radiation Belts and Inner Magnetosphere,” revealed a still vibrant interest in the particles, waves, and fields that form the physical basis of modern radiation belt science. The meeting was the first Chapman Conference dealing with space science topics to be held in Canada in more than 35 years. The meeting took place overlooking the harbor of St. John’s and the beautiful narrows to the Atlantic Ocean, at a location within sight of Signal Hill, where Guglielmo Marconi first successfully received transatlantic wireless radio transmissions from Cornwall, England, in December 1901. The rugged coastline of Newfoundland provided a stunning backdrop for conference presentations and for the superb social program organized under the aegis of the Memorial University of Newfoundland. As the third nation in space, with the launch of the Alouette 1 satellite on 29 September 1962 and its 10 years of operation, Canada has a long heritage of space exploration. Hence, it was fitting that current advances in space radiation research be showcased in Canada; strong Canadian participation highlighted how Canadian space science and space weather research continues to play a major role in coordinated international endeavors. The program of plenary lectures, invited talks, contributed oral papers, and outstanding posters showed the exciting state of modern radiation belt research. Continuing analysis of data (see Figure 1) from such Earth-orbiting spacecraft as the Combined Release and Radiation Effects Satellite (CRRES), the Solar Anomalous and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer (SAMPEX), Polar, and other active missions, as well as from physical modeling that is increasingly thorough and sophisticated, showed that radiation belt science is thriving. All eyes at the meeting were on new space missions now in development, such as the Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) dualspacecraft project of NASA, the Energization and Radiation in Geospace (ERG) mission of Japan, and the RESONANCE mission of Russia. These new spacecraft, all planned for launch within the next 2–3 years, should further revolutionize scientific understanding of Earth’s radiation belts. The St. John’s Chapman Conference effectively reminded all present not only of the exciting upcoming scientific op-