LWS / IRIS / Hinode Workshop

Evolving solar activity and its influence on space and earth

Portland, Oregon, USA - Nov. 2-6, 2014

Science Program

The LWS program, by definition, is cross-disciplinary, and brings together the science teams from the different LWS missions and other heliophysics missions, as well as the LWS Targeted Research and Technology (TR&T) teams to connect the different disciplines. The LWS research forms a network that connects many areas of solar physics, Earth's and other planets' magnetospheric and atmospheric physics, Sun-climate relationships, and radiation safety for human exploration. Combining these cross-disciplinary research teams enables new understanding of the Sun and its influence on our space environment at Earth.

The NASA Heliophysics System Observatory (HSO) has recently grown and will continue to develop, thus providing a more complete picture of the interactions of various environments that are subject to the Sun's influence. The newest missions include the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) and the Van Allen Probes, the 2nd mission in the LWS program. The other LWS mission currently in orbit is the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). Data from current and past missions, such as the Hinode, RHESSI, STEREO, SOHO, ACE, THEMIS/ARTEMIS, TIMED, among many others, and future missions (BARREL, MMS, SPP, and Solar Orbiter), will be combined to pursue cross-disciplinary science goals that are broader and more complex than any single mission could address alone. These observations are supported by complementary theoretical and modeling studies that help maximize the science return from the LWS program.

The sessions planned for this meeting focus on coupling throughout the heliosphere and are science themes common to many disciplines:

  • Evolving Magnetic Fields, Magnetic Instabilities, Magnetic Reconnection
  • Dynamics of Energetic Particles, Wave-Particle Interactions, Shocks, and Turbulence
  • Evolving Coronal Mass Ejections through the Heliosphere and into Geospace
  • Ion-Neutral Interactions within Earth's Atmosphere and the Solar Atmosphere
  • Energetics of Heliosphere and Magnetosphere Interactions
  • Origins of Solar Magnetic Fields, Variability and Effects at Earth
  • Modeling and Forecasting Space Climate and Space Weather Events

Important Deadlines:

  • Abstract: August 1, 2014
  • Student / Post-doc Travel Application: August 1, 2014
  • Pre-Registration: October 3, 2014
  • Hotel Reservation: October 3, 2014

Session Topics: (There will be one plenary session, two splinter sessions, and two poster sessions for each theme.)

  • 1a. Magnetic Energy and Field from Solar Interior to Corona and Heliosphere
    These sessions will host presentations that discuss the origin and evolution of the solar magnetic field and associated solar cycle, the storage mechanisms and heating processes in solar and coronal magnetic fields and the extended interplanetary environment.
  • 1b. Reconnection and Magnetic Instabilities in Geospace, Heliosphere, and the Solar Atmosphere
    These sessions will offer discussion of the energy release mechanisms that convert stored magnetic free energy. Reconnection occurs over many spatial scales in the solar atmosphere, within terrestrial magnetospheres, and has down-stream impacts on radiation and particle populations in geospace.
  • 2a. Evolving Coronal Mass Ejections from Corona, through the Heliosphere, into Geospace
    These sessions will will address the "cradle to grave" physics of coronal mass ejections, from their origin in the solar atmosphere to their impact at Earth. Relevant topics include energy storage and release, magnetic topology, propagation through the heliosphere, ICME in situ observations, and impact on geospace processes.
  • 2b. Dynamics of Energetic Particles, Wave-Particle Interactions, Shocks, and Turbulence
    These sessions will address mechanisms for and effects of wave-particle interactions, energetic particle acceleration and transport, shocks, and turbulence throughout the Sun-Earth system.
  • 3a. Ion-Neutral Interactions within Earth's Atmosphere and the Solar Atmosphere
    These sessions will address the effects of ion-neutral interactions on the energetics and dynamics of the Earth's ionosphere, as well as discussions on the dynamics, energetics and ion-neutral effects in the solar chromosphere and transition region.
  • 3b. Heliosphere-Magnetosphere Interactions from Bowshock to Geotail
    These sessions will address the flow of energy in and around the geospace system, focusing on global and local physical processes that govern the redistribution of energy within the terrestrial magnetosphere.
  • 4a. Origins of Solar Magnetic Fields, Variability, and Effects at Earth
    These sessions will address the origins of the solar dynamo and the solar magnetic fields through helioseismology studies, solar activity, such as irradiance variations, flares, solar energetic particles (SEPs), and coronal mass ejections (CMEs), and how these solar activities influence variations throughout the heliosphere, including a myriad of effects in Earth's atmosphere.
  • 4b. Modeling and Forecasting Space Climate and Space Weather Events
    These sessions will address how the extended fleet of heliospheric, geospace, and planetary spacecraft in NASA's Heliophysics System Observatory (HSO) have enabled improvements to, and also have benefited from, a variety of data assimilation and theoretical models of the Sun, heliosphere, and planets' magnetospheres and atmospheres. One aspect of some of these models is to provide predictions and forecasts for space weather events that affect the complex and coupled processes throughout our space environment.