We are pleased to announce that the 2006 IHY Asia/Pacific Regional Planning Meeting & International Space Weather Meridian Circle Project Workshop will be held at Beijing, China, Oct. 9-12, 2006.

In 1957 a program of international research, inspired by the International Polar Years of 1882-83 and 1932-33, was organized as the International Geophysical Year (IGY) to study global phenomena of the Earth and geospace. The IGY involved about 60,000 scientists from 66 nations, working at thousands of stations, from pole to pole to obtain simultaneous, global observations on Earth and in space. There had never been anything like it before. On the fiftieth anniversary of the IGY an international program of scientific collaboration, the International Heliophysical Year (IHY) will commence. Like its predecessors, the IHY will focus on fundamental global questions of Sun-Earth Connected science.

The objective of the IHY is to discover the physical mechanisms at work which link the Earth to events within the heliosphere. It has been obvious for some time that events on the Sun can affect geospace, and even the Earth's climate. The systematic global study of this connection is to be the central theme of the IHY. In view of these aims, the following objectives are proposed for the IHY:

• To obtain a coordinated set of observations to study, at the largest scale, the heliospheric events and their effects on life and the climate of Earth
• To document and report the observations and provide a forum for the development of new scientific results utilizing these observations
• To foster international cooperation in the study of heliophysical phenomena now and in the future
• To communicate the unique scientific results of the IHY to the interested scientific community and to the general public

A mega-project of science research on space weather monitoring, namely the Meridian Space Weather Monitoring Project (Meridian Project for short), proposed by several research institutes and universities in China has been approved recently by the Chinese government. The Meridian Project is a ground-based network program to monitor Solar-Terrestrial space environment, which consists of a chain of ground-based observatories with multiple instruments including magnetometers, ionosondes, HF and VHF radar, Lidar, IPS monitors, sounding rockets etc. The chain is mainly located in the neighborhood of 120 E meridian. In the meantime, the International Space Weather Meridian Circle Program is also proposed to connect 120 E and 60 W meridian chains of ground based monitors, which will greatly enhance the ability of monitoring space environment worldwide.

Scientific Program

The meeting program will consist of a description of the current concept for implementation of the IHY, reviews of current unresolved issues, and detailed planning of the Asia/Pacific contribution to the success of the IHY. The International Space Weather Meridian Circle Program will be also discussed.

The preliminary topic areas include:

• 1. Overview and progress of IHY
• 2. Presentation of National Activities
• 3. Review of Space Weather Studies
• 4. Instrumentation and facilities available in 2007-2008
• 5. Data management and Databases
• 6. How to use IHY: CIP, Campaigns and IHY sessions
• 7. International Space Weather Meridian Circle Program

We would like to inform us of your attendance, the title of your talk by sending us email at qlfan@spaceweather.ac.cn no later than July 10, 2006.

For Further Information

For additional information about the workshop, please contact:

• Dr. QuanLin Fan
• State Key Laboratory of Space Weather, Chinese Academy of Sciences
• P.O.Box 8701, Beijing, 100080, China
• Phone: +86-10-62559674
• Fax: +86-10-82610170
• E-mail: qlfan@spaceweather.ac.cn