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IHY SCHOOLS

Introduction | IHY Schools Committee | Students and Curriculum | Upcoming Schools

This year space scientists around the globe are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the IGY through a wide range of international activities under the auspices of the International Heliophysical Year. The IHY's focus on developing new and exciting EPO programs provides unique opportunities for the global community to increase the visibility and accessibility of heliophysics outreach programs.

To address this IHY focus, the IHY has an IHY Schools Program that is developing a series of schools in 2007 and 2008 with the purpose of educating students about Universal Processes and providing them with an opportunity to view their own research interests in a new context. Universal Processes are the organizational principles and universal laws that underlie our understanding of the universe. Examples of such processes are magnetic reconnection, boundaries and interfaces such as shock waves, turbulence, and particle acceleration. The establishment of heliophysics as a new discipline requires a cross-disciplinary comparative approach to understanding these underlying principles.

If you are interested in joining or helping out with the IHY Schools Program or if you are part of a summer school program that can join in the IHY schools, contact David Webb at david.webb at hanscom.af.mil or call +1 781-377-3086.

IHY Schools Committee

The IHY Schools Program is organized and operated by the IHY Schools Committee (ISC), which currently consists of the following members:
  • David Webb (Boston College/Hanscom Research Laboratory) ISC Chair
  • Ilia Roussev (University of Hawaii)
  • Cristina Mandrini (IAFE) IHY-South America Coordinator
  • Don Hassler (SWRI-Boulder) IHY-North America Coordinator
  • Nancy Crooker (Boston University)
  • Nat Gopalswamy (NASA GSFC) IHY International Coordinator and Indian School Coordinator
  • Cristina Rabello-Soares (Stanford University) IHY EPO coordinator,
  • Barbara Thompson (NASA GSFC) IHY Dir. of Operations
  • Alisson Dal Lago (INPE, Sao Jose dos Campos) Latin American School Coordinator
  • Ashok Ambastha (IIA, Bangalore) Indian School Coordinator
  • Chi Wang (SSAC, CAS) IHY Regional Coordinator and Chinese School Coordinator
  • Fan Quanlin (SSAC, CAS) Chinese School Coordinator
  • Fairos Asillam (Malaysian School Coordinators)
  • Azreena Ahmad (Malaysian School Coordinators)

Students and Curriculum

By enhancing the scope, impact, and outreach of existing space physics programs at various host locations, the IHY schools will enable student cultural exchange with the goal of establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in heliophysics. Moreover, the schools will provide fertile grounds for collaborative research in this field, and will facilitate the development of a diverse, globally-engaged scientific community that recognises the increasing relevance of heliophysics.

The ISC is developing a general curriculum as a model for all the IHY schools. It includes seminars and hands-on sessions with databases acquired particularly through the CIP and UNBSSI programs, and collaborative efforts with other affiliated groups. The overall scope of the schools is heliophysics, including Universal Processes, Sun-Earth interactions as well as those at other planets, and the outer heliosphere. The lectures and data labs cover the cross-disciplinary studies of Universal Processes, responses to external drivers including lectures in the 5 main IHY science topic areas, achieving international scientific cooperation, preserving the history and legacy of the IGY on its 50th Anniversary, public outreach, and global studies with an emphasis on science in developing countries.

Other lectures may include topics by science disciplines, such as Solar Physics; Solar sources of heliospheric variability; emission of energetic particles, and their acceleration and propagation through the Heliosphere; Atmospheric studies of the planets, involving ionospheres, thermospheres, and mesospheres; Interaction of energetic particles with magnetospheres (Earth and planets), and their effects in the planetary atmosphere; Coronal Mass Ejections and Space Weather, and solar irradiance and climate. The topics will be treated both from theoretical and modeling aspects as well as using observations focusing on new instrumentation and missions such as STEREO, Hinode, THEMIS and IBEX. The structure of the schools will consist of about 10 full day's class time, with brief morning and afternoon breaks and longer day and evening breaks for socializing and off time. There will be about 4 sessions per day with each session ~1.5 hr. The amount of time devoted to the data analysis labs will depend on the number of students and the amount of pertinent, analyzable data that will be available by the time of the school.

Additionally, each student will be given individual attention and encouraged to focus on their own individual research area. A mentoring system will be used, so that at several times throughout the school, they will be paired with 1-2 workshop coordinators/lecturers who will assist them in identifying the heliophysical regimes and research topics that will allow them to view their own research in a broader heliophysical context. The Committee is currently developing the Curriculum for the Schools, and anyone with ideas or comments on the schools or the curriculum is encouraged to contact Dave Webb by email at david.webb at hanscom.af.mil.

The Schools will initially invite and support students that are or will be associated with the two key elements of the IHY science program, the Coordinated Investigation Programs (CIPs) and the United Nations Basic Space Science Initiative (UNBSSI) IHY instrument program. The CIPs are the primary means of coordinating IHY science by organising campaigns, coordinating access to and use of the necessary resources and as a forum for presenting and discussing the results. The UNBSSI IHY program is deploying arrays of small, inexpensive instruments around the world, especially in developing nations, to provide global measurements of geospace and heliospheric phenomena. It also hosts annual workshops dedicated to the IHY program through 2009. The summer schools will provide students with two unique opportunities not available through any current program: the chance to develop their studies as part of a new "basic" research discipline, and the ability to work with researchers active in the field during the summer school as a means of broadening their research. It is expected that upon completion of the program, graduates will be familiar with several new topics, will have made fundamental connections with and undergone personal mentoring by a number of leading researchers, and will have identified new arenas and pathways to apply their own knowledge in the future. To enhance the experience of each student and help guide them after the school, a CD or DVD containing all the presentations and additional material will be made available to the participants at the end of the School. Copies of one or more books related to IHY science will also be available. Finally, continuing contacts between the lecturers/mentors and the students will be encouraged to help them solidify their first exposure to this new scientific discipline.

2007 - 2009 IHY School Schedule

  • North America
      2007 Date: 30 July - 7 August 2007
      2008 Date: 23 - 30 July 2008
      Location: Boulder CO, USA
      Contacts: Karel Schrijver, Don Hassler and David Webb
      Website: http://www.vsp.ucar.edu/HeliophysicsSummerSchool/
      No. of students: 30 - 45
      The LWS Heliophysics Summer Schools will occur over three years: 2007, 2008 and 2009. Each will yield a book covering the topics of that school. This first school is on plasma physics of the local cosmos. The school was held over 8 days with about 25 lecturers and computer lab coordinators participating. The schedule, faculty and students and other details are listed on the website.
  • Latin America
      Date: 14 - 20 February 2008
      Location: EE Presbyterian Mackenzie University in Sao Paulo, BRAZIL
      Contacts: Alisson Dal LagoJean-Pierre Raulin, Adriana VR Silva and Cristina Mandrini
      Website: http://www.craam.mackenzie.br/~asilva/IHY/index.html
      No. of students: 60-70
      This international school is organized by the Centro de Radioastronomia e Astrofisica Mackenzie (CRAAM). Lectures will be in the mornings, and computer labs and other activities, such as visits to local institutes, will be in the afternoons. The lecturers and curriculum have been confirmed. The First IHY Summer School was held 25-29 September 2006 in Buenos Aires.

      The first IHY school was in Lima, PERU in 17-22 April 2006.
      25 students attended.
      Contacts: J-P Raulin; W. Guevara Day.

      The next Latin American school was held 25-29 September 2006 in Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA (IAFE)
      Website: http://www.riarche.iafe.uba.ar/wiki/index.php/Portada
      30 students attended.

      The following Latin American school was held in San Jose dos Campos, BRAZIL (INPE), 23-26 October 2006.
      110 students attended for one week.
      Website: http://www.cea.inpe.br/~sbgea/

      Another school happened in conjunction with the 8th Latin American Conference on Geophysics (COLAGE) in Merida, MEXICO, 12-17 July 2007.
      Contact: Jean-Pierre Raulin and Alisson Dal Lago.
      Website: http://www.alage.org/colageviii.html

  • Asia-Pacific: India
      Date: 10-22 December 2007
      Location: Kodaikanal Solar Observatory, INDIA
      Contacts: School Directors: Ashok Ambastha, R. Ramesh, K.E. Rangarajan, and Nat Gopalswamy. Local Organization: R. Ramesh
      Website: http://www.iiap.res.in/ihy/school/index.htm
      No. of students: approx. 50
      The 2007 school is organized by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bangalore and held at Kodaikanal Solar Observatory. This international school offers an intensive two-week course on topics related to heliophysics. The course is aimed at Ph.D. and post-doctoral research students. Kodaikanal can provide board and lodging for 50 students. A similar 2006 school on Solar Physics was held at Kodaikanal in Dec. 2006.
  • Asia-Pacific: China
      Date: 20 October - 1 November 2008
      Location: Beijing, CHINA
      Contacts: Chi Wang and Fan Quanlin
  • Asia-Pacific: Malaysia
      Date: March 2009
      Location: Possibly on Langkawi Island where a new solar telescope system is available.
      Contacts: Fairos Asillam and Azreena Ahmad
      Website: TBD
      No. of students: approx. 30
      The theme for this school is "Living with the Sun". It basically involves study of the "Earth-Sun Relationship" or "how activity of Sun contributes to the Earth's behavior". Malaysia is willing to support local expenses such as lodging.
      Syllabus: 1. The basic technique on ground based solar telescope; 2. The current interesting research using ground based solar telescope and collaboration opportunities; 3. Practical solar observation and performance testing; 4. Space weather and climate change; 5. Solar radiation especially on UV studies.
  • Europe and Africa
      IHY-Nigeria will host the African Regional IHY School in Nsukka, Nigeria. The school will feature internationally recognized researchers from many branches of heliophysics. The school will be held at the Centre for Basic Space Science, National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

      The application deadline is 30 April, 2008. Please contact Dr. A. Babatunde Rabiu for application materials.

    Other IHY-Related Schools:

  • North America
      Polar Aeronomy and Radio Science School at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks
      23 July - August 2007.
      2 weeks long; school normally has 16 lectures and individually chosen hands-on experiments with ionospheric radars, heaters, atmospheric lidars, noctilucent cloud cameras etc. Average attendance is 40.
      Contact: Roger Smith
      Website: http://www.gi.alaska.edu/PARS/
  • Western Europe
      ISSS Advanced School in Space Environment - ASSE 2006: Solar-Terrestrial Physics, 9-14 September 2006, L'Aquila, ITALY
      "Turbulence and Waves in Space Plasmas"
      The scientific programme "Series of Events on Relations in the Sun-Earth System and Space Weather" (SERSES) offers a coherent series of courses for young researchers in the years 2006-2009 in different disciplines which concur to the Sun-Earth relationships, and presents the solar-terrestrial environment as a global system in order to allow a significant improvement in the global knowledge of the entire system. SERSES courses will be organized at L'Aquila, in close cooperation, by the Consorzio Area di Ricerca in Astrogeofisica and the International School of Space Science of the Consorzio Interuniversitario di Fisica Spaziale:
      1) Spring 2006: The Physics of the Sun (i.e. The Active Sun on your Active Desktop)
      2) Fall 2006: Solar Terrestrial Physics
      3) Spring 2007: Magnetospheric Dynamics (9-15 April 2007)
      4) Fall 2007: Turbulence and Waves in Space Plasmas (9-14 September, 2007)
      5) Spring 2008: Geomagnetism and Ionosphere
      6) Fall 2008: Solar-terrestrial relations in Antarctica
      Website: http://www.cifs-isss.org/

  • Balkan/Black/Caspian Sea Region
      Tusi 3rd Summer Astronomical School, 2006, held at Baku, The Republic of Azerbaijan

      4th Tusi Summer Regional Astronomical School "Sun and Geosphere" and Young Scientists Conference - 2007, Azerbaijan

      Young Scientists International School on "Heliosphere and Galaxy", May 3-5, 2007 in Bucharest, ROMANIA.
      Contact: Cristiana Dumitrache
      Website: http://www.astro.ro/Helga

      The Second International Symposium on Space Climate: Long-Term Change in the Sun, and its Effects in the Heliosphere and Planet Earth,
      Sinaia, Romania, September 13-16, 2006 - Organiser Georgeta Maris

      International Conference Fifty Years of Romanian Astrophysics, Bucharest, September 26-30, 2006 - Organiser Cristiana Dumitrache

      Workshop on "Flows, Boundaries, Interactions", Bucharest, May 4-5, 2007

  • Africa

      IHY-Africa Space Weather Science and Education Workshop, Nov 11-16, 2007, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
      The meeting was held at the Ghion Hotel in Addis Ababa.
      Website: http://kuiper.colorado.edu/IHY-Africa/

    Additional schools under the IHY umbrella are being organized in individual countries and the Committee will keep track of and support these where possible.

    If you are interested in joining or helping out with the ISC, or if you are part of a summer school program that can join with the IHY schools, contact David Webb at david.webb at hanscom.af.mil or call +1 781-377-3086.

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