Home » SWICo News

Category Archives: SWICo News

17th European Solar Physics Meeting – Turin, 9-13 September 2024

Dear colleagues,
this is the second announcement for the 17th European Solar Physics Meeting (ESPM-17) that will take place in Turin (Italy) in the period 9-13 September, 2024.
ESPMs are organized by the Board of the European Solar Physics Division (ESPD), a Division of the European Physical Society (EPS). This will be the first in-person ESPM after the stop due to the worldwide pandemic.
The scientific program of the next ESPM meeting will be organized around the following topics:

  • Solar interior, sub-surface flows and long-term variability
  • Fundamental mechanisms of solar plasmas: magnetic reconnection, waves, radiation and particle acceleration
  • Energy and mass transfer throughout the solar atmosphere and structures within
  • Multi-scale energy release, flares and coronal mass ejections
  • Space weather and the solar-heliospheric connections
  • Diagnostic tools and numerical methods in solar physics

The meeting will start on the morning of September 9, and will finish around noon on September 13. The afternoon of September 11 will be dedicated to social excursions, and the conference dinner will be held on September 12. A welcome reception will be offered on Sunday 8 late afternoon.

Online registration and abstract submission will open in early spring 2024. The ESPM-17 Local and Scientific Organizing Committees are currently working to secure funding that will hopefully provide limited travel and/or local support mainly to young researchers.

Further details related to registration fees, abstract submission, accommodation, financial assistance and relevant deadlines will be circulated in a third announcement and will also be available on the meeting’s website:
https://indico.ict.inaf.it/e/espm-17

We look forward to welcoming you in Turin,
the ESPM-17 LOC.

Concluso il Secondo Congresso Nazionale SWICo

Si è concluso presso la sede dell’Agenzia Spaziale Italiana il “Secondo Congresso Nazionale SWICo”. L’incontro si è svolto il 9, 10 e 11 febbraio 2022 (https://swico2021.web.roma2.infn.it/) ed è stato un momento di incontro e confronto dell’intera comunità elio-geofisica italiana impegnata nelle discipline relative allo Space Weather (dal Sole all’interno della Terra).

Durante il convegno si è tenuta l’Assemblea Nazionale SWICo per il rinnovo degli Organi Statutari ed è stato conferito il Premio “Franco Mariani” (https://swico2021.web.roma2.infn.it/premio-mariani), istituito per onorare la memoria di una personalità scientifica di statura internazionale e rivolto a giovani laureati magistrali in discipline inerenti lo “Space Weather”. Per ulteriore informazioni sul congresso SWICo raccomandiamo la lettura delle interviste uscite nei giorni scorsi:

https://www.adnkronos.com/blackout-e-aerei-in-tilt-danni-per-centinaia-di-miliardi-dal-meteo-spaziale_63uWQZjyaKRYsSmEz0Hfpd?fbclid=IwAR0VzEbq7ZWctGLecO-Jb1P04xPbw-ojWszlwm30M8fiC3ShjDnuvq7JftE 

https://www.lastampa.it/scienza/2022/02/09/news/una_meteorologia_del_sole_per_proteggere_la_terra-2851395/?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar&fbclid=IwAR3w3JeQrZ6gczB2iWns7rhNtARxY3HsHkw_T4NBQtdORzGCIOGLWX0X5lo

https://www.ilgiornale.it/news/tecnologia/blackout-satelliti-e-aerei-miliardi-fumo-allarme-space-2008830.html?fbclid=IwAR1SM9xOFky-mHZqqY6HhmbDJxxxdpmKLp57Ts0CjAStUi9Hhynh-0gt0p4

https://www.rainews.it/tgr/rubriche/leonardo/video/2022/02/TGR-Leonardo-del-11022022-37740652-4e66-457c-8837-afa50bba78e7.html

Iniziato il secondo congresso SWICo

E’ iniziato oggi, 9 febbraio 2022 il “Secondo Congresso Nazionale SWICo” presso la sede ASI di Roma. L’incontro della comunità proseguirà nei giorni 9, 10 e 11 febbraio 2022 (https://swico2021.web.roma2.infn.it/). Il Congresso sarà momento di incontro e confronto dell’intera comunità eliogeofisica italiana impegnata nelle discipline relative allo Space Weather (dal Sole all’interno della Terra). E’ pertanto aperto anche a ricercatori e tecnologi non aderenti a SWICo ed è particolarmente incoraggiata la partecipazione attiva di studenti, dottorandi e giovani ricercatori.

Durante il convegno si terrà anche l’Assemblea Nazionale SWICo per il rinnovo degli Organi Statutari.

Il Congresso offrirà anche l’opportunità del conferimento del Premio “Franco Mariani” (https://swico2021.web.roma2.infn.it/premio-mariani), istituito per onorare la memoria di una personalità scientifica di statura internazionale e rivolto a giovani laureati magistrali in discipline inerenti lo “Space Weather”.

Per ulteriore informazioni sul congresso SWICo raccomandiamo la lettura delle interviste uscite nei giorni scorsi:

https://www.adnkronos.com/blackout-e-aerei-in-tilt-danni-per-centinaia-di-miliardi-dal-meteo-spaziale_63uWQZjyaKRYsSmEz0Hfpd

https://www.dire.it/07-02-2022/705540-space-weather-il-pericolo-che-viene-dal-sole-%EF%BF%BC/

https://www.lastampa.it/scienza/2022/02/09/news/una_meteorologia_del_sole_per_proteggere_la_terra-2851395/?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar

https://www.ilgiornale.it/news/tecnologia/blackout-satelliti-e-aerei-miliardi-fumo-allarme-space-2008830.html

Quando il Sole fa i capricci

E’ stato recentemente pubblicato un libro divulgativo dedicato allo Space Weather scritto dal Prof. Umberto Villante: Quando il Sole fa i capricci (ed. Dedalo).

Blackout, interruzioni nelle comunicazioni, traffico aereo in tilt, animali e navigatori che perdono la bussola, satelliti fuori uso, pericoli per gli astronauti: le tempeste solari sono sempre esistite, ma oggi il loro impatto sulla nostra società tecnologica può essere devastante. La giovane disciplina denominata space weather, meteorologia spaziale, studia proprio i capricci del Sole e i loro effetti sul nostro pianeta. Villante, tra i massimi esperti del settore, ci guida in modo chiaro e originale nella storia e negli attuali programmi di studio internazionali su queste tematiche, permettendoci di capire a che punto siamo nella comprensione e nella previsione di tali fenomeni. Tra aurore polari, tempeste magnetiche e possibili ripercussioni su milioni di persone, dobbiamo oggi chiederci che tempo farà sul Sole domani.

Course on “Radiation Belt Dynamics and Remote Sensing of the Earth’s Plasmasphere”

The International School of Space Science of the Consorzio Interuniversitario per la Fisica Spaziale organizes a Course on “Radiation Belt Dynamics and Remote Sensing of the Earth’s Plasmasphere”, to be held in L’Aquila, Italy, 26-30 September, 2022 directed by Prof. János Lichtenberger (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary), Prof. G. Reeves (Los Alamos
National Laboratory, Los Alamos, USA) and Prof. Massimo Vellante (University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy).
The course is designed for PhD students and young post-doctoral researchers. It will offer an overview of the current knowledge of a key Space Weather region, the radiation belts, and in particular on its related energization and loss processes due to wave-particle interactions, and particle precipitation into the atmosphere. These processes are strongly governed by the properties of the plasmasphere (the outward extension of the ionosphere) which is partially overlapping with the radiation belts.  Part of the course will be then devoted to present, both from
a theoretical and observational point of view, as well as through modelling, the basic plasmasphere dynamics, including its coupling with the ionosphere.


Applications are due before May 22, 2022


For more information visit https://www.cifs-isss.org/ or send an e-mail to ssc@aquila.infn.it

Course on “The different spatio-temporal scales of the solar magnetism”

The International School of Space Science of the Consorzio Interuniversitario per la Fisica Spaziale organizes a Course on “The different spatio-temporal scales of the solar magnetism”, to be held in L’Aquila, Italy, 11-15 April, 2022 directed by Prof. F. Zuccarello (Università di Catania, Italy) and Prof. L.Bellot Rubio (Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucía, IAA-CSIC, Spain).

The School is aimed at providing an in-depth overview of the magnetic phenomena occurring in our star, as well as at presenting some of the most recent tools that can allow to directly tackle the analysis of the problems that are still present in the comprehension of solar magnetic phenomena, through hands-on sessions.

The main topics that will be examined are: the global magnetic field of the Sun and the solar cycle; the small-scale magnetic field: emergence and evolution; the global and local dynamo; the sunspots: processes of formation and evolution and the fine-structure of umbrae and penumbrae; magnetic field instabilities, eruptive events and their impact on Space Weather.

Applications are due before November 21, 2021.

For more information visit https://www.cifs-isss.org/ or send an e-mail to ssc@aquila.infn.it

Secondo Congresso della Space Weather Italian Community (SWICo)

Il “Secondo Congresso Nazionale SWICo” si terrà a Roma presso la sede dell’ASI nei giorni 9, 10 e 11 febbraio 2022 (https://swico2021.web.roma2.infn.it/). Il Congresso sarà momento di incontro e confronto dell’intera comunità eliogeofisica italiana impegnata nelle discipline relative allo Space Weather (dal Sole all’interno della Terra). E’ pertanto aperto anche a ricercatori e tecnologi non aderenti a SWICo ed è particolarmente incoraggiata la partecipazione attiva di studenti, dottorandi e giovani ricercatori.

Durante il convegno si terrà anche l’Assemblea Nazionale SWICo per il rinnovo degli Organi Statutari.

Il Congresso offrirà anche l’opportunità del conferimento del Premio “Franco Mariani” (https://swico2021.web.roma2.infn.it/premio-mariani), istituito per onorare la memoria di una personalità scientifica di statura internazionale e rivolto a giovani laureati magistrali in discipline inerenti lo “Space Weather”.

La scadenza per l’iscrizione, l’invio degli abstract e delle domande di partecipazione al premio è il 30 maggio 2021.

Premio Franco Mariani

Il Gruppo Nazionale SWICo intende rendere omaggio alla memoria del prof. Franco Mariani, personalità scientifica di rilievo in ambito internazionale, pioniere e protagonista dello sviluppo della ricerca spaziale in Italia, con l’istituzione del Premio “Franco Mariani” per giovani laureati magistrali in discipline inerenti lo “Space Weather” (https://swico2021.web.roma2.infn.it/premio-mariani/).

Il premio è rivolto a giovani laureati magistrali in discipline inerenti lo Space Weather.

Più precisamente, l’ammissione è riservata a laureati delle Università italiane che abbiano conseguito la Laurea Magistrale negli anni accademici 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20, e comunque entro la data di scadenza del bando, discutendo tesi su tematiche inerenti lo Space Weather.

La scadenza per l’invio delle domande di partecipazione al premio è il 15 maggio 2021.

VINCENZO FERRARO AWARD 2021 for young scholars in Space Physics

The Vincenzo Ferraro Association intends to pay tribute to Prof. Vincenzo C.A. Ferraro, originally from Sorrento peninsula (Campania, Italy), an astrophysicist and pioneer in plasma physics, in order to encourage studies in the field of space physics.

With this in view, the Vincenzo Ferraro Association, represented by President Maddalena Ferraro, establishes for the year 2021 a “Vincenzo Ferraro” Prize to be assigned, after evaluation by a qualified scientific panel, to a young scholar in the physics of space plasmas with particular reference to his/her doctoral thesis.

Admission to this prize is reserved to students of Italian and foreign universities who have obtained a PhD degree in Physics or equivalent in Italy or abroad after September 1, 2016 with a thesis on topics relevant to the study of space plasmas.

All the details can be found in the attached official announcement.

The SWELTO portal for Space Weather is now operating in real time

The portal of the SWELTO project is now operating and distributing in real-time the first “products” for future Space Weather applications. SWELTO (Space Weather Lab in Turin Observatory) aims to develop and test new diagnostic tools for analyzing space-based data providing real-time information on current conditions on the Sun and in the interplanetary space (https://www.oato.inaf.it/portfolio-items/swelto/).

Fig. 1: a screenshot from the SWELTO portal distributing real-time results from data analysis.

During the project, new sensors will also be installed at Turin Observatory for the detection of ionospheric disturbances (with a SID monitor) and geomagnetic field disturbances (with a fluxgate magnetometer), now under calibration. Finally, through SWELTO other projects will be involved (such as PRISMA, SAMADHA, or others) that can provide through their sensors other context information related to space weather events.

Now, after more than two years of development, the SWELTO portal (http://swelto.oato.inaf.it/) is able to provide the following products in real time:

  • “SunNow”: series of movies showing the evolution of the solar corona (inner corona in the EUV, and intermediate corona in VL) as observed from space along the Sun-Earth line over the last 3 days, up to the latest data currently available from the SOHO and SDO missions;
  • “CorDens”: current distribution of the electron density in the intermediate corona as determined from coronographic images of the SOHO/LASCO instrument;
  • “WindSpeed”: current distribution of the solar wind expansion velocity measured by the coronographic image sequences acquired by the SOHO/LASCO instrument (still under test);
  • “ParkerSpiral”: current distributions of density and outflow speed of interplanetary plasma from 0.1 to 1.1 AU on the ecliptic plane as determined by a MHD numerical simulation constrained to the in situ measurements from ACE;
  • “InSitu”: evolution during the last solar rotation (about 27 days) of the conditions of the interplanetary plasma (density, speed, temperature) measured in situ at the Lagrangian point L1 by ACE.

Other modules that will provide other products in real time (such as the occurrence of solar flares or eruptions, or the distribution on the solar disk of regions potentially of interest for space weather) will be activated in the next developments of the project.

SWELTO is a “think tank” where new data analysis methods, numerical models, measurements, and ideas of interest for Space Weather are developed and tested. The project is currently fully supported by the INAF-Turin Observatory.

For more information please contact alessandro.bemporad@inaf.it or download the technical note describing the project in details (https://openaccess.inaf.it/handle/20.500.12386/27715).