SCOSTEP/PRESTONEWSLETTER
Vol. 37, October 2023

Inside this issue1
Article 1:
SWATNet - Space Weather and Doctoral Degreein Marie Curie Network
Article 2:
Application of Machine
Learning to the Prediction and Understandingof Space Weather

3

Article 3:
Comprehensive Study of
Plasma Wave Fluctuations in the Inner Heliosphere: Towards DUWI
Database Establishment

6Highlight onYoung Scientists 1:
Sovan Saha / India

8

Meeting Report 1:
16th Hellenic Astronomical Conference
26-28 June 2023, Athens, Greece

9Meeting Report 2:
3rd Iberian Space Science Summer School
(i4s)

10

Meeting Report 3:
The AGATA Kick-off
Meeting11

Meeting Report 4:
International Colloquium
on Equatorial and LowLatitude Ionosphere(ICELLI)

12

Meeting Report5:
IMCP 2023 Space
Weather School

13

Upcoming Meetings

14

Announcement 1:
In Memoriam(Joe Haskell Allen)

15

Article 1:

SWATNet - Space Weather and Doctoral
Degree in Marie Curie Network

E. Kilpua

E. Kilpua1, T. Barata2, R. Erdélyi3, D. Del Moro4, M. Georgoulis5, M. Korsós6,
K. Murawski7, A. Nindos8, K. Petrovay9, S. Patsourakos8, S. Poedts10, R. Vainio11
1University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
2University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
3University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
4Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
5Academy of Athens, Athens, Greece
6Hungarian Solar Physics Foundation, Gyula, Hungary
7Maria Curie Skłodowska University, Lublin, Poland
8University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece
9Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
10KU Leuven, Leuvem, Belgium / UMCS, Lublin, Poland
11University of Turku, Turku, FinlandT

he Space Weather Awareness Training Network (SWATNet) is a European Union’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Innovative Training Network (ITN) project (https://swatnet.eu/). This 4-year project started in February 2021.

S

WATNet trains 12 students towards a
PhD in the field of heliophysics witha versatile set of skills. There are threemain themes and students each have theirown research project under a theme.
Overall, the network aims to bring significant new knowledge to the field by making a step forward in our understandingof drives of space weather, including solar flares, coronal mass ejections and solar energetic particles. The work combines developing advanced modeling anddata analysis tools as well as using thelatest observations.

A

mong the various research activities,
the students have explored precursors for solar eruptions and investigatedacceleration and transport of charged

Figure 1. Top) First face-to-face training event
organizedinCoimbra(Workshop
4:
Communication and Outreach, 20-22 June,2022), Bottom) School 2: Sun - EarthInteractions organized in Athens 26-28, 2022.

SCOSTEP/PRESTO Newsletter・Vol. 37

Articleparticles in the corona and heliosphere. They appliedinterdisciplinary techniques such as Bayesian inference,
image recognition and machine learning to characterize
solar activity, identify flux ropes from coronal simulations and investigate propagation of eruptions throughinterplanetary medium.

S
Highlight on Young Scientists

tudying for a PhD in Marie Curie ITN differs fromtraditional doctoral training in many aspects. Firstly,
students have to pursue double or joint degrees. In practice this means that each student must meet the consolidated criteria for their PhD thesis from two different
academic institutions, they have supervisors from twoplaces, take courses at the two universities and perform
a 6-12 months visit to another SWATNet academic institution. Secondly, each SWATNet student is assigned
a 1-3 month industrial secondment in one of our established space related partner companies, and a month ofsolar observatory training. Thirdly, all students participate in an ambitious training program organized by the
network.

A

Meeting Reports the project started during the pandemic, training
events during the first year were organized online
but when the restrictions were lifted, we have had several face to face activities in the forms of workshops andsummer schools. These in-person activities were organized in Coimbra, Athens, Sheffield, and Budapest.
The topics ranged from solar and heliospheric physics,
to space weather, outreach and developing skills neededin the industry world. These training activities consistedof lectures given by SWATNet supervisors, our partners
and invited experts, and were supported by group workand hands-on activities. Examples of practices include
rehearsals of being in front of the camera, making optimally flying paper planes, coming up with solid space
weather themed business ideas and pitching them, writing outreach text on space weather as well as contemplating and solving together different types of space

Upcoming Meetings
Announcement2

weather related problems.

O

ne of the interesting training provided by the
SWATNet was the one-month observational training period at the Gyula Bay Zoltan Solar Observatory
hosted by the SWATNet partner Hungarian Solar Physics Foundation. Students lived in pairs for one month at
the 46-meter old water tower located at the center of thesmall town of Guyla, southeast of Hungary. There theylearned how to operate a solar telescope mounted on the
top of the tower, learned to design solar observations,writing logs and process the raw solar images they took.

Figure 3. SWATNet students at the Observatory
training at the Gyula Bay Zoltan Solar Observatory
hosted by the SWATNet partner Hungarian Solar
Physics Foundation.

Figure 4. Sample of pictures from SWATNet sciencegallery (https://swatnet.eu/gallery/). Left) Visualisationof the vertical magnetic field in the lower solar
atmosphere extrapolated from the maps of themagnetic field (Shreeyesh Biswal/Project 3), Right)
Flux rope extracted from the data-driven lower coronalsimulation using a developed flux rope tracking scheme(Andreas Wagner/Project 6) .

W

hile the network has been intense both for the
students and supervisors, it offers an excellent
opportunity for carrying out a PhD in an international
environment, experiencing research practices from two
different places and acquiring a diverse set of transferable and research skills.

S

pace Weather Awareness Training Network(SWATNet) is a project funded by the European
Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant
agreement No 955620.

Figure 2. Annual meeting 2 and Workshop 5: MiniMBA organized in Sheffield 22-24 March, 2023,
Bottom) School 3: Space Weather and ourTechnology-Based Society and
Sun - EarthInteractions and Workshop 6: Entrepreneurship inSpace Physics, organized in Budapest 12-17 June,
2023.

SCOSTEP/PRESTO Newsletter・Vol. 37

Article

Article 2:

Application of Machine Learning to the Prediction andUnderstanding of Space Weather

S

Jacob Bortnik

over the past ~30 years, highlighting the importance of
this problem and recommending better understanding,prediction, and mitigation of space weather impacts[Bonadonna et al., 2017].

Although physics-based numerical models of thespace environment have made tremendous strides
over the past few decades, such models are inherently
limited due to the multi-scale nature of the environment,
and incomplete understanding of all the physical processes involved. As an alternative approach, machinelearning (ML) models directly infer the behavior of agiven system, based on a large dataset of“examples” (called the training set). These examples
train a mathematical function known as a ML model to

Meeting Reportpace weather can be thought of as the collection of
hazardous effects of the heliospheric environment
on human health and technological systems [NRC report, 1995]. When geomagnetic activity increases, satellites can experience significant damage [e.g., Choi etal., 2011; Baker et al., 2017], communications can be
disrupted including loss of positioning, and intense geomagnetically induced currents can disrupt or destroy
major parts of the electric power grid [e.g., Baker andLanzerotti, 2016]. The total economic impact of a large
space weather event has been estimated to be ~$0.6-$2T
in a recent insurance company report [Lloyd’s, 2013]
with recovery times ranging from years to over a decade. It is no surprise that numerous government agency
reports and policy documents have been put forward

Highlight on Young Scientists

Jacob Bortnik
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), CA, USA

Upcoming Meetings
Announcement

Figure 1 (Based on Ma et al. [2023a], Figure 2). ML model of 17 March 2013 storm. Input time series: (a) AL
index, (b) SYM-H index, (c) Solar wind dynamic pressure, Psw (d) Solar wind speed, Vsw (e) Observed and(f) ML modeled 909 keV electron fluxes as a function of time and L-shell, (g) Feature importance based on Lshell, (h)-(k): Color-coded SHAP feature contributions for the model output at time A (2013-Mar-17-0:00)
and the corresponding input in a one-day look-back window, (i)-(o): at time B (2013-Mar-17-12:00), (p)-(s):at time C (2013-Mar-17-20:00), (t)-(w): at time D (2013-Mar-19-0:00) but zoomed in a two-day look-backwindow.

SCOSTEP/PRESTO Newsletter・Vol. 37

3Article
Highlight on Young Scientists
Meeting Report
Upcoming Meetings
Announcement
4

Figure 2 (Based on Ma et al. [2023b], Figure 2). Superposed epoch analysis with SHAP interpretation of geomagnetic indices and solar wind parameters for enhancement events at three different times. The verticaldashed line at t 0 = 0 is defined as the maximum of the solar wind pressure Psw , the line at t = t0 －24h (1d) is
the initial flux and the lines at t0 + 5h (a-f), t 0 + 24h (g-l) and t 0 + 48h (m-r) are the times used to evaluate thecorresponding SHAP values. (e, k and q) show the ML model output. The dashed lines in (f, l and r) show theinitial flux (purple) and target flux (gold) at different L shells and times. The solid lines show the sum of median SHAP results of different indices: AL (blue), SYM-H (yellow), Psw (green) and V sw (red) indicating theiroverall event importance.
map a certain set of inputs to the desired outputs. For
example, Bortnik et al. [2016] used ~1 million plasma
density observations to train a neural network to predictthe density at any location in the inner magnetosphere,
based on a short (~5 hr) history of the sym-H index.
This ML technique has been subsequently used to train
a 3D model of plasma density [Chu et al., 2017a;
2017b], plasma waves [Bortnik et al., 2018], and energetic electrons ~50 keV-MeV [Chu et al., 2021; Ma etal., 2022]. ML techniques have also been applied to thelong-range prediction of geomagnetic indices[Chandorkar and Camporeale, 2018], various problems
in space weather [Camporeale, 2019] and the physicalsciences [Bortnik and Camporeale, 2021].

W

hile ML has been used predominantly in a “blackbox” fashion, a tantalizing new approach uses
ML interpretability to uncover the physics that are“baked into” such ML models. Figure 1 shows a geomagnetic storm in March 2013, the solar wind and geomagnetic indices (a-d), the observed (e) and ML modelreconstructed radiation belt fluxes (f). Applying SHAP
interpretability [Lundberg and Lee, 2017] to the MLmodel results at 4 times (A-D), reveals the different effects that inputs have on the output of the model at different times and L-shells, pointing the way to new physical insights [Ma et al., 2023a]. This approach can betaken a step further, reinterpreting the traditional superposed epoch analysis of radiation belt dynamics[Katsavrias et al., 2019] using SHAP to show statisticalbehavior and dependencies [Ma et al., 2023b]. Suchdevelopments represent only the first steps in application of ML in prediction and understanding of space
weather processes.

SCOSTEP/PRESTO Newsletter・Vol. 37

References:
Baker, D. N., & Lanzerotti, L. J. (2016). Resource Letter SW1: Space Weather. American Journal of Physics,
84(3), 166-180. doi:10.1119/1.4938403.
Baker, D. N., Erickson, P. J., Fennell, J. F., Foster, J. C.,
Jaynes, A. N., & Verronen, P. T. (2017). Space Weather
Effects in the Earth’s Radiation Belts. Space Science
Reviews, 214(1), 17. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214017-0452-7
Bonadonna, M., Lanzerotti, L., & Stailey, J. (2017). The
National Space Weather Program: Two decades of interagency partnership and accomplishments. Space Weather, 15, 14–25. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016SW001523
Bortnik, J., Li, W., Thorne, R. M., & Angelopoulos, V.
(2016). A unified approach to inner magnetosphericstate prediction. Journal of Geophysical Research:
Space Physics, 121(3), 2423-2430.

Bortnik, J., X. Chu, Q. Ma, W. Li, X. Zhang, R. M.
Thorne, V. Angelopoulos, R. E. Denton, C. A. Kletzing,
G. B. Hospodarsky, H. E. Spence, G. D. Reeves, S. G.
Kanekal, D. N. Baker (2018). Chapter 11 - Artificial
Neural Networks for Determining Magnetospheric Conditions. In E. Camporeale, S. Wing, & J. R. Johnson(Eds.), Machine Learning Techniques for Space Weather (pp. 279-300): Elsevier.
Bortnik, J., & Camporeale, E. (2021). Ten ways to apply machine learning in the Earth and space sciences.
Eos, 102. https://doi. org/10.1029/2021EO160257
Camporeale, E. (2019). The challenge of machine learn-

Chandorkar, M., & Camporeale, E. (2018). Probabilistic
forecasting of geomagnetic indices using Gaussian process models. In Machine learning techniques for space
weather (pp. 237–258). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/
b978-0-12-811788-0.00009-3

ics, Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Research, Commission on Physical Sciences, Mathematics, and Applications, Commission on Geosciences, Environment, andResources, National Research Council, Space and Aeronautics, 1995); available online at http://www.nap.edu/
catalog/12286/a-science-strategy-for- space-physics.

Articleing in space weather: Nowcasting and forecasting.
Space Weather, 17(8), 1166–1207.

Highlight on Young Scientists

Choi, H.-S., J. Lee, K.-S. Cho, Y.-S. Kwak, I.-H. Cho,
Y.-D. Park, Y.-H. Kim, D. N. Baker, G. D. Reeves, and
D.-K. Lee (2011), Analysis of GEO spacecraft anomalies: Space weather relationships, Space Weather, 9,
S06001, doi:10.1029/2010SW000597.
Chu, X., Bortnik, J., Li, W., Ma, Q., Angelopoulos, V., &Thorne, R. M. (2017a). Erosion and refilling of the plasmasphere during a geomagnetic storm modeled by a neural network. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 122(7), 7118-7129. https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/
doi/abs/10.1002/2017JA023948
Chu, X., Bortnik, J., Li, W., Ma, Q., Denton, R., Yue, C., V.
Angelopoulos, R. M. Thorne, F. Darrouzet, P. Ozhogin, C.
A. Kletzing, Y. Wang, and J. Menietti, (2017b). A neuralnetwork model of three-dimensional dynamic electron density in the inner magnetosphere. J. of Geophys. Res: 122(9),9183-9197.
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/
abs/10.1002/2017JA024464

Meeting Report

Chu, X., Ma, D., Bortnik, J., Tobiska, W. K., Cruz, A.,
Bouwer, S. D., et al. (2021). Relativistic Electron Model in theOuter Radiation Belt Using a Neural Network Approach.
Space Weather, 19(12). https://doi.org/10.1029/2021sw002808
Katsavrias, C., Daglis, I. A., & Li, W. (2019). On the Statistics of Acceleration and Loss of Relativistic Electrons in
the Outer Radiation Belt: A Superposed Epoch Analysis.
Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 124(4),2755–2768. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019ja026569
Lloyd’s of London (2013). “Solar Storm Risk to theNorth American Electric Grid.” London: Lloyd’s ofLondon.

Upcoming Meetings

Lundberg, S. M., & Lee, S.-I. (2017). A unified approach to interpreting model predictions.
In I. Guyon et al. (Eds.), Advances in neural information
processing systems 30 (pp. 4765–4774). Curran Associates, Inc. Retrieved from http://papers.nips.cc/paper/7062-a-unified-approach-to-interpreting-modelpredictions.pdf
Ma, D., Chu, X., Bortnik, J., Claudepierre, G. S., Tobiska, W. K., Cruz, A., et al. (2022). Modeling the dynamic variability of sub‐relativistic outer radiation belt
electron fluxes using machine learning. Space Weather.
https://doi.org/10.1029/2022sw003079

Announcement

Ma, D., Bortnik, J., Chu, X., Claudepierre, S. G., Ma,
Q., & Kellerman, A. (2023a). Opening the Black Box of
the Radiation Belt Machine Learning Model. Space
Weather, 21(4). https://doi.org/10.1029/2022sw003339
Ma, D., J. Bortnik, Q. Ma, M. Hua, and X. Chu (2023b),
Machine Learning Interpretability of Outer Radiation
Belt Enhancement & Depletion Events, GeophysicalResearch Letters [under review]
National Research Council (1995), A Science Strategy
for Space Physics (Committee on Solar and Space Phys-SCOSTEP/PRESTO Newsletter・Vol. 37

5Article

Article 3:

Comprehensive Study of Plasma Wave Fluctuations in
the Inner Heliosphere: Towards DUWI Database Establishment

Highlight on Young Scientists

Jiansen He1, Xingyu Zhu1,2
1School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China
2Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research (CSPAR), University of
Alabama in Huntsville, AL, USAI

Meeting Reportn the inner heliosphere, a rich variety of plasma fluctuations creates a vibrant scenario for in-situ exploration by spacecraft. These plasma fluctuations hold awealth of information about solar and heliospheric activity, including crucial physical processes such as energy transfer and conversion. Therefore, comprehensive
research encompassing the detection, identification, anddiagnosis of plasma fluctuations is of paramount importance. Fortunately, two major international missions
dedicated to the sun and inner heliosphere, the Parker
Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter, have recently beenequipped with instruments designed for the detection ofplasma waves (Fox et al. 2016; Muller et al. 2020).
These instruments include electric and magnetic fieldmeasurement devices (FIELDS/PSP, MAG/SolO, RPW/
SolO), which make it possible to detect, identify, anddiagnose plasma waves. Our research is driven by thevision and goal of establishing a standardized workflow
for the study of inner heliospheric wave fluctuations.
We aim to create a pipeline based on this workflow,

Jiansen He

Xingyu Zhu

enabling the automatic identification and diagnosis ofwaves in the data stream from in-situ measurements
while providing a corresponding diagnostic information
database (DUWI: Database for Unambiguous identification of Waves in the Inner heliosphere).

W

e divide this project into two phases: the firstphase focuses on the identification and diagnosis
of quasi-parallel propagating fluctuations, while the second phase targets fluctuations with various propagation
directions. In the first phase, we concentrate on quasiparallel propagating fluctuations in the inner heliosphere, particularly electromagnetic transverse waves in
the near-Sun solar wind. These waves exhibit electricfield fluctuations that are oriented both perpendicular tothe background magnetic field and predominantly perpendicular to the radial direction. They lie in the TNplane of the RTN coordinate system and can be detectedby PSP's FIELDS and SolO's RPW instruments. In thisphase, we introduce a novel approach to obtain the dis-Upcoming Meetings
Announcement
6

Figure 1. Identification and Diagnosis of a rapidly growing quasi-parallel propagating fast magnetosonic/
whistler wave event during Parker Solar Probe's first close encounter. The top left panel shows the configuration of the heliospheric current sheet, the Parker Solar Probe's flight path, and attitude. The bottom left
panel displays the detection of wave magnetic and electric fields. The bottom right panel presents the dispersion relation and growth rate of the identified fast magnetosonic/whistler wave event.

SCOSTEP/PRESTO Newsletter・Vol. 37

orbit on February 25, 2022 (see Figure 3). By analyzing
plasma waves as PSP crossed the current sheet, we observed a significant enhancement in current density
spectra, a pronounced decrease in propagation phasevelocity, and a notable increase in wave energy conversion rates near the current sheet. This case study instills
our confidence in extending the application of this method to a broader range of observations in the inner heliosphere.

Articlepersion relations and growth/dissipation frequency spectra of these fluctuations. The primary results of thisphase are presented in Figure 1, and the relevant work
has been published in the Astrophysical Journal in 2022
(He et al. 2022). Next, we primarily focus on the second
phase of our work. Figure 2 illustrates the procedural
flowchart for the analysis steps in this second phase.

Highlight on Young Scientists

Figure 2. Flowchart of the analysis steps for the second phase of this work.

Based on the wavelet spectra of electric current densities and electric fields, we construct wavelet spectra of the energy conversion rates between fields andparticles. This allows us to diagnose whether the observed waves are in a state of growth (gaining energy
from the free energy of solar wind particles) or dissipation (losing wave energy to energize solar wind particles). Utilizing the analysis framework established in thesecond phase, we analyzed the plasma wave observations made by PSP near the perihelion during its 11th

References:
Fox, N. J., Velli, M. C., Bale, S. D., Decker, R., Driesman, A., Howard, R. A., ... & Szabo, A. (2016). The
solar probe plus mission: humanity’s first visit to ourstar. Space Science Reviews, 204, 7-48. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-015-0211-6
Müller, D., Cyr, O. S., Zouganelis, I., Gilbert, H. R.,
Marsden, R., Nieves-Chinchilla, T., ... & Williams, D.
(2020). The solar orbiter mission-science overview. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 642, A1. https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202038467

Announcement

B

Figure 3. An example of plasma wave analysis nearand around the current sheet detected by the Parker
Solar Probe. From top to bottom, the panels show
the three components of the interplanetary magnetic
field, the wavelet spectra of propagation angles, thespectra of phase velocities, the spectra of wave numbers, the spectra of wave frequencies in the plasma
frame of reference, the spectra of current density,and the spectra of energy conversion rates.

Upcoming MeetingsTo explore the energy conversion rates of waves,especially the energy conversion between fields andparticles, we not only require information about theelectric field but also data on electric currents. Measuring current density through precisely measuring the motion of electrons is a challenging task. Leveraging thefavorable conditions provided by the spectra of wave
vectors that we have already obtained, we apply the
Fourier transform form of Ampère's law to derive thewavelet spectra of electric current densities.

Meeting Reportased on the measurements of electric and magnetic
fields by PSP and SolO, we employ the method ofElectroMagnetic-field-based Singular Value Decomposition (EM-SVD) to compute wavelet spectra of wave
vectors in two-dimensional space (time and period).
Furthermore, by considering the Doppler effect of wave
frequencies in different reference frames, we transformthe wavelet spectra of wave frequencies from the spacecraft frame to the solar wind plasma frame. Based on thecalculated spectra of wave vectors and wave frequencies, we perform statistical analyses to derive the dispersion relations of the relevant plasma wave fluctuations.
On the other hand, utilizing the spectra of wave vector
components and the spectra of magnetic field perturbations, we compute the spectra of magnetic field fluctuations' polarization properties. This allows us to determine whether the waves exhibit circular polarization,
elliptical polarization, or linear polarization, as well as
whether they are left-handed or right-handed polarized.
By conducting statistical analyses on the dispersion andpolarization properties of the fluctuations, we can ascertain the inherent wave modes of the observed wave
event.

He, J., Wang, Y., Zhu, X., Duan, D., Verscharen, D., &Zhao, G. (2022). Growth of Outward Propagating Fastmagnetosonic/Whistler Waves in the Inner Heliosphere
Observed by Parker Solar Probe. The AstrophysicalJournal, 933(2), 220. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/
ac6c8eSCOSTEP/PRESTO Newsletter・Vol. 37

7Article
ArticleHighlight on Young Scientists
Meeting Report
Upcoming Meetings
Announcement
8

Highlight on Young Scientists 1:

Latitudinal Movement of EIA Crest as seen in OI630.0nm
Nightglow Emissions over Low-Latitudes

Sovan Saha
Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, IndiaA

irglow emissions act as tracers to the altitudes of
the upper atmosphere from where they originate.
Measurements of OI630.0 nm nightglow (redline) emissions using High Throughput Imaging Echelle Spectrograph (HiTIES), having 54o field-of-view, oriented in
the meridional direction enables to provide the intensity
variations over a large spatial distance at Mt. Abu(24.6oN, 72.7oE, 19oN Mag), a low-latitude location inIndia.

T

he nighttime redline emissions over the lowlatitudes show different variabilities, such as postsunset enhancement in emissions (Saha et al., 2021;2023), latitudinal gradient in emissions (Saha and Pallamraju, 2022), imprint of gravity wave scale-sizes inplasma bubbles (Saha et al., 2022), etc. The latitudinal
movement of crest of the equatorial ionization anomaly(EIA) has been investigated using the redline emission
measurement over a large spatial region at low-latitudes.
The emissions towards north of Mt. Abu were foundlarger after sunset, and later in night, the locations ofthese enhanced emissions are seen to be shifting southwards (Figure 1), indicating the reversal in the movement of the EIA crest. The curl-free condition of theionospheric electric field over the equatorial region dur-

Sovan Saha

ing geomagnetic quiet times has been validated using
simultaneous measurements of the daytime equatorial
electrojet (EEJ) strength over Indian longitudes andnighttime incoherent scatter radar measured plasma vertical drifts over Jicamarca. The changes in the daytime
EEJ strength over Jicamarca have been compared withthe concurrent nighttime reversal speeds of the EIA overthe Indian sector, which show a remarkable relationshipwith each other (Figure 2). This result showed indirect
experimental evidence of the relation between the reversal speeds in EIA and the nighttime zonal electric field.
It is hereby proposed that the nightglow emissions canserve as a proxy for the determination of nighttime
equatorial electric field in that longitude, which is otherwise difficult to measure (Saha and Pallamraju, 2022).

Figure 2: Integrated EEJ variation for the duration
8–12 LT over Jicamarca is compared with the reversal speed of EIA over Indian sector for the year
2014.
References:

Figure 1. OI630.0 nm nightglow emission variation
on a given night over Mt. Abu, a low-latitudinal location. The emissions from different direction over
Mt. Abu are depicted in different colours. The uncertainties in emission measurements are shown for
extreme north and south directions.

SCOSTEP/PRESTO Newsletter・Vol. 37

Saha, S., Pallamraju, D., Pant, T. K., & Chakrabarti, S.
(2021). On the cause of the post-sunset nocturnal OI 630
nm airglow enhancement over low-latitude thermosphere.
Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 126,e2021JA029146. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JA029146.
Saha, S., Pallamraju, D., & Ghodpage, R. (2022). Investigation of equatorial plasma bubbles as observed in the
OI 630 nm nightglow emissions over off-equatorial andlow-latitudinal locations over Indian longitudes. Ad-

Saha, S. & Pallamraju, D. (2022). Latitudinal Variations in
the Nocturnal behaviour of OI 630 nm Airglow Emissions
and their relationship with the Equatorial Electrodynamics.
Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics, 241,
105965. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jastp.2022.105965.

Saha, S., Pallamraju, D., Kumar, S., Laskar, F. & Pedatella, N. M. (2023). OI 630.0 nm Post-Sunset Emission
Enhancement as an Effect of Tidal Activity over LowLatitudes. ESS Open Archive. https://doi.org/10.22541/
essoar.169008301.17329599/v1.

Articlevances in Space Research, 70, 11, 3686-3698. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2022.08.023.

Highlight on Young Scientists

Meeting Report 1:

16th Hellenic Astronomical Conference
26-28 June 2023, Athens, Greece

Vassilis Charmandaris
President of HelAS, Athens, Greece

he 16th Conference of the Hellenic Astronomical
Society (HelAS) took place in Athens on June 2628, 2023 (https://helas.gr/conf/2023/). A total of 160
participants from 21 countries presented their science in
108 oral and 46 poster contributions. The four plenary
talks were given by Dr. Y. Zouganelis (ESA, Spain) on“Unlocking the Secrets of the Sun: Early Discoveries
and Future Prospects of the Solar Orbiter Mission”, Dr.
N.M. Forster Schreiber (MPE, Germany) on “Star-

Meeting Report

T

Vassilis
Charmandaris

forming Galaxies at Cosmic Noon and Beyond”, Prof.
Dr. M. Kramer (MPIfR, Germany) on “Radio pulsars asprobes of fundamental physics” and Dr. J. Laskar (Obs.
de Paris, France) on “Chaos in the Solar System”.

During the Conference a special session was devoted
to the celebration of the 30 years since the foundation of the Society and several public outreach eventswere organized throughout the city of Athens.

Upcoming Meetings
Announcement

Figure 1. A group photo of the participants of the 16th Hellenic Astronomical Conference.

SCOSTEP/PRESTO Newsletter・Vol. 37

9Article

Meeting Report 2:

3rd Iberian Space Science Summer School (i4s)Highlight on Young Scientists

Anna
Morozova

Teresa Barata

RicardeGafeiraConsuelo CId

Manuel Flores

Antonio
GuerreroAnna Morozova1,2, Teresa Barata1,2, Ricardo Gafeira1,2, Consuelo Cid1,3, Manuel Flores1,3, Antonio Guerrero1,3
1i4s LOC members
2University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
3University of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, SpainT

Meeting Report

he third edition of the i4s school was held in-person
between 26th and 30th of June 2023 at the Universityof Coimbra in Portugal. The local organization was carried out by the IA-UC research centre (Portugal) andSWE-UAH research group (Spain) with the support
from SCOSTEP. Eighteen students from 16 different
countries from Africa, America, Europe, and Asia participated, attending lectures given by 11 scientists fromall over the world covering all areas related of the SunEarth interaction. Grouped in four projects the students
worked on specific space weather events studying

event’s development from solar sources to consequences for Earth’s infrastructure. Students also presented
their own research as oral and poster presentations.
Travel and accommodation grants as well as organizational expenses were covered thanks to grants by
SCOSTEP, ISWI, ISEE and E-SWAN. School participants had the opportunity to visit museums of the University of Coimbra, one of the oldest universities in Europe, and to visit the Geophysics and Astronomy Observatory of the University of Coimbra to have night observations of the sky.

Upcoming Meetings
Announcement
Figure 1. A group photo of the participants of the 3rd Iberian Space Science Summer School (i4s) .

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SCOSTEP/PRESTO Newsletter・Vol. 37

Article

Meeting Report 3:

The AGATA Kick-off Meeting

T

Lucilla Alfonsiin further discussion extending beyond the official
close.

D

uring the meeting the attendees provided interesting feedback to the AGATA team that is currently
working hard on the proposal of a new SCAR Scientific
Research Programme that will be soon evaluated by the
SCAR Executive Committee.

To learn more on AGATA and join the initiative visit: https://scar.org/science/agata/about/.

Meeting Report

he Antarctic Geospace and ATmospheric reseArch(AGATA) Programme Planning Group approved
by SCAR at the end of 2022 was officially kicked off in
Berlin as a side meeting of the IUGG General Assemblyon 12 July 2023 and online. The meeting was very wellattended, reaching about 80 participants! Thanks to the
support of SCAR and SCOSTEP/PRESTO, the AGATA
leading team provided financial support to six people,
students and Early Career Researchers, to attend theKOM. The meeting was originally planned to last one
hour and a half, but the enthusiast participation resulted

Highlight on Young Scientists

Lucillla AlfonsiIstituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Rome, Italy

Upcoming Meetings
Announcement

Figure 1. Photos of the AGATA Kick-off meeting.

SCOSTEP/PRESTO Newsletter・Vol. 37

11Meeting Report 4:

ArticleInternational Colloquium on Equatorial and Low-Latitude
Ionosphere (ICELLI)

Highlight on Young Scientists

Babatunde Rabiu
United Nations African Regional Centre for Space Science and Technology Education- English, Obafemi Awolowo University Campus, Ile Ife, Nigeria

T

Meeting Report

he International Colloquium on Equatorial and Low-Latitude Ionosphere (ICELLI), was held at University of Ilorin, Nigeria between 4th and 8th September
2023. At prime, 53 physical and 73 virtual participantsfrom 21 countries participated in the Colloquium, which
was jointly organized by United Nations African Regional Centre for Space Science and Technology Education in English; Network of Space-Earth Environmentalist; Scientific Committee on Solar Terrestrial Physics
PRESTO/SCOSTEP; Boston College, USA; UN International Space Weather Initiative; Institute for SpaceEarth Environmental Research (ISEE), Nagoya University, Japan; University of Ilorin, Nigeria; University ofOslo, Norway; JSPS Program; Abdus Salam Interna-

tional Centre for Theoretical Physics, Italy; and African
Geophysical Society. The 7th edition like others, featured lectures, tutorials and hand on sessions on topics
geared towards understanding of the Sun and its impact
on space weather; the dynamics of the equatorial ionosphere, and how space weather impact on spacedependent technologies. The participants visited theSpace Environment Research Laboratory, Abuja,
Digisonde facility and other observational facilities at
the University of Ilorin, Space Museum of the UNAfrican Regional Space Science and Technology Education, Ile-Ife, and the NigerBEAR radar at Bowen University Iwo.

Upcoming Meetings
Announcement
12

Figure 1. A set of participants at ICELLI 2023.

SCOSTEP/PRESTO Newsletter・Vol. 37

BabatundeRabiu

Article

Meeting Report 5:

IMCP 2023 Space Weather School

The International Meridian Circle Program (IMCP) is
dedicated to advancing the understanding of geospace
and atmospheric coupling processes which may ultimately
give rise to space weather consequences. IMCP successfully conducted its first Space Weather School from September 14 to 22, 2023 at its newly dedicated headquarters in
Beijing, China. A total of 41 students from 14 countries
participated in the school. Accompanying them were 25
esteemed lecturers and teaching assistants from 5 countries.
he school encompasses a comprehensive program
comprising a series of geospace science and tech-

Liwen Rennical lectures, hands-on data analysis through mini research projects, technical visits, and instrument demonstrations. It emphasized close interaction between students and leading experts and recognized the pivotal
role of collaboration among student team members as
key components of the learning experience.

I

MCP school was sponsored by SCOSTEP, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NSSC, CAS), the AsiaPacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO) andNational Natural Science Foundation of China(NSFC).

Meeting Report

T

Highlight on Young Scientists

Liwen Ren
IMCP Program Manager

Upcoming Meetings

Figure 1. IMCP 2023 Space Weather School Group Photo.

Announcement

SCOSTEP/PRESTO Newsletter・Vol. 37

13Article

Upcoming meetings related to SCOSTEPHighlight on Young Scientists

Conference

Date

LocationContact Information

The European Space Weather Week
(ESWW)

Nov. 20-24, 2023

Toulouse, France

http://esww2023.irap.omp.eu/

AGU Fall Meeting 2023

Dec. 11-15, 2023

San Francisco, CA,USA

https://www.agu.org/fall-meeting

XIV COLAGE - Conferencia Latinoamericanade Geofísica Espacial

Apr. 8-13, 2024

Monterrey, Nuevo https://www.rice.unam.mx/colag
León, Mexicoe2024/IAU Symposium 388: Solar and Stellar CoroMay 5-10, 2024
nal Mass ejections

Krakow, Poland

https://iausymposium.zyrosite.com/45th COSPAR Scientific Assembly

Jul. 13-21, 2024

Busan, South Korea

https://www.cospar2024.org/

XXXII IAU General AssemblyAug. 5-16, 2024

Cape Town, South
Africahttps://www.iau.org/science/meetings/future/symposia/

11th SCAR Open Science Conference

Aug. 19-23, 2024

Pucon, Chile

Please send the information of upcoming meetings to the newsletter editors.

Meeting Report
Upcoming Meetings
Announcement
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SCOSTEP/PRESTO Newsletter・Vol. 37

Announcement 1:

ArticleIn MemoriamWJ

e are sad to announce the passing of Joe Haskell
Allen, former SCOSTEP Scientific Secretary(1994 – 2006).

oe Allen passed away on March 4, 2023, in Denton,
Texas, at the age of 83. He was born on June 6, 1939,
in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA. He studied physics
at the University of Oklahoma, and later earned his
Master of Science in engineering from the University ofCalifornia at Berkeley.

J

and local organizing committees (e.g., on STP-8, Sendai, June 1994, STP-10, Longmont, 2001, and STP-11,
Rio de Janeiro, March 2006). He also served on many
National Academy of Sciences working groups and panels, with similar service on panels for ICSU unions andassociations e.g., COSPAR, IAGA. Joe Allen’s datasetof spacecraft anomalies was likely the largest in the civilian community.

I

n 1994 Joe Allen became SCOSTEP’s Scientific Secretary, a position that he held until 2006, making him
one of the longest serving members in this position. It isdifficult to overstate the importance of the Scientific
Secretary to the successful running of SCOSTEP; theresponsibilities are many and varied, ranging from administration to finances and public outreach. Joe excelled in the position. He was a prolific writer of letters,
memoranda, and reports for various national and international organizations (e.g., NSF, IAGA, COSPAR,
ICSU). He oversaw the planning and management of
SCOSTEP scientific programs (e.g., STEP, S-RAMP,
EPIC, PSMOS, ISCS, CAWSES). His extensive
knowledge of US and international space programs andbureaucracies and his many contacts were invaluable.

Meeting ReportIn October 2013 Joe Haskell Allen was awarded the
SCOSTEP Distinguished Service Award for his outstanding and selfless service in supporting SCOSTEP
programs and the SCOSTEP community over nearlyfour decades.

Upcoming Meetings

Marianna Shepherd,
SCOSTEP Scientific Secretary 2010-2019

Announcement

oe Allen’s service to space research and to
SCOSTEP began when he commenced his scientificcareer in 1963 after joining what was to become the
NOAA Geophysical Data Center. It coincided with thedevelopment of SCOSTEP, first as an ICSU Inter-Union
Commission, then a Special Committee in 1972 andfinally as a Scientific Committee on Solar-Terrestrial
Physics in 1978. Joe Allen played a key role in the first
SCOSTEP international science program, the International Magnetospheric Study (IMS) that began in 1976.
He established and ran the Central Information Office(IMS CIE) (1976 – 1979) that helped coordinate thevarious activities and bodies involved in IMS. Joe Allen
also established the IMS Newsletter and mailed it out
regularly to a worldwide network of more than 4000
space scientists. In 1981, he became the chief of the
Solar – Terrestrial Physics Division of the National Geophysical Data Center. As a service to the broader Solar-Terrestrial physics community Joe Allen developed anumber of indices to delineate solar effects on the
Earth’s magnetic field, including the widely used AE
index. Investigating the solar-induced magnetic field
disturbances led him to the realisation through the 1970sof the links between short-term solar disturbances andsatellite anomalies and thus to the broader understanding of short-term solar impacts on geospace, now called“space weather.” In fact, Joe was the first to coin thisphrase at a conference on Space Environment Effects on
Satellites and Other Technology and Humans held in
Boulder, Colorado in October 1985. The failure of the
Galaxy-4 satellite in 1998 and Baker and Allen’s subsequent investigations led SCOSTEP to declare AprilMay 1998 a “special study interval”, outcomes fromwhich were the focus of many papers at SCOSTEP
meetings, especially at the STP Symposium in Sapporo,
Japan, 2000.

Highlight on Young Scientists

Joe Haskell Allen(June 6, 1939 – March 4, 2023)

J

oe was also actively involvement in SCOSTEP workshops and the quadrennial international symposia on
Solar-Terrestrial physics (STP) and served on scientific

SCOSTEP/PRESTO Newsletter・Vol. 37

15

The purpose of the SCOSTEP/PRESTO newsletter is to promote communication among scientists related to solar-terrestrial physics and the
SCOSTEP’s PRESTO program.
The editors would like to ask you to submit the following articles to the SCOSTEP/PRESTO newsletter.
Our newsletter has five categories of the articles:
1. Articles— Each article has a maximum of 500 words length and four figures/photos (at least two figures/photos).
With the writer’s approval, the small face photo will be also added.
On campaign, ground observations, satellite observations, modeling, etc.
2. Meeting reports—Each meeting report has a maximum of 150 words length and one photo from the meeting.
With the writer’s approval, the small face photo will be also added.
On workshop/conference/ symposium report related to SCOSTEP/PRESTO
3. Highlights on young scientists— Each highlight has a maximum of 300 words length and two figures.
With the writer’s approval, the small face photo will be also added.
On the young scientist’s own work related to SCOSTEP/PRESTO
4. Announcement— Each announcement has a maximum of 200 words length.
Announcements of campaign, workshop, etc.
5. Meeting schedule

Category 3 (Highlights on young scientists) helps both young scientists and SCOSTEP/PRESTO members to know each other. Please contact
the editors if you know any recommended young scientists who are willing to write an article on this category.
TO SUBMIT AN ARTICLE
Articles/figures/photos can be emailed to the Newsletter Secretary, Ms. Miho Sugiyama (sugiyama.miho_at_isee.nagoya-u.ac.jp). If you haveany questions or problem, please do not hesitate to ask us.
SUBSCRIPTION - SCOSTEP MAILING LISTThe PDF version of the SCOSTEP/PRESTO Newsletter is distributed through the SCOSTEP-all mailing list. If you want to be included in themailing list to receive future information of SCOSTEP/PRESTO, please send e-mail to “scostep_at_bc.edu” or “scosteprequest_at_bc.edu” (replace “_at_” by “@”) with your name, affiliation, and topic of interest to be included.

Editors:

Kazuo Shiokawa (shiokawa_at_nagoya-u.jp)
SCOSTEP President,
Center for International Collaborative Research (CICR),
Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research (ISEE), Nagoya University,
Nagoya, Japan
Keith Groves (keith.groves_at_bc.edu)
SCOSTEP Scientific Secretary,
Boston College, Boston, MA, USA

Ramon Lopez (relopez_at_uta.edu)
PRESTO chair,
University of Texas at Arlington, TX, USA

Newsletter Secretary:

Miho Sugiyama (sugiyama.miho_at_isee.nagoya-u.ac.jp)
Center for International Collaborative Research (CICR),
Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research (ISEE), Nagoya University,
Nagoya, Japan

PRESTO co-chairs
and Pillar co-leaders:Odele Coddington (co-chair), Jie Zhang (co-chair), Allison Jaynes (Pillar 1 co-leader), Emilia
Kilpua (Pillar 1 co-leader), Spiros Patsourakos (Pillar 1 co-leader), Loren Chang (Pillar 2 coleader), Duggirala Pallamraju (Pillar 2 co-leader), Nick Pedatella (Pillar 2 co-leader), Jie Jiang(Pillar 3 co-leader), and Stergios Misios (Pillar 3 co-leader)

SCOSTEP Bureau:

Kazuo Shiokawa (President), Bernd Funke (Vice President), Nat Goplaswamy (Past President),
Keith Groves (Scientific Secretary, ex-officio), Mamoru Ishii (WDS), Jorge Chau (URSI), Valery Nakariakov (IAU), Yoshizumi Miyoshi (COSPAR), Renata Lukianova (IAGA/IUGG), Peter
Pilewskie (IAMAS), Pravata Kumar Mohanty (IUPAP), and Lucilla Alfonsi (SCAR)
website: https://scostep.org.

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SCOSTEP/PRESTO Newsletter・Vol. 37