OR/16/030 Recent space weather forecaster training
| Thomson, Alan W P. 2016. Geomagnetism review 2015. British Geological Survey Internal Report, OR/16/030. |
Over recent years we have invested in training for our space weather forecasting team. In September 2015 Tom Humphries attended an International School of Space Science course in L’Aquila, Italy. Earlier, in September 2014, John Williamson attended the STFC Introductory Summer School in Solar System Plasmas at Imperial College, London.
International School of Space Science, L’Aquila
As part of our continuing aim to better forecast geomagnetic storms, Tom Humphries attended the 2015 International School of Space Science in L’Aquila, Italy. The title of the school was ‘Heliospheric physical processes for understanding solar terrestrial relations’, with subjects covering all aspects of the Sun-Earth environment from the causes and manifestations of solar variability, through heliospheric particle transport and plasma physics, right to the response of the Earth’s environment and climate to solar influences. Also covered were various techniques for data analysis and the modelling of the Sun-Earth environment.
The primary interest of BGS Geomagnetism in this course was in the prediction of solar events (i.e. solar flares and coronal mass ejections, CMEs), better understanding of the propagation of CMEs en route to Earth, and the reaction of the geomagnetic field to CMEs. Better understanding enables better prediction of the path of a CME (to discern whether it is a threat or not) and of propagation time (to improve the prediction of storm onset time, following which geomagnetic activity is at its highest).
In addition to the course of lectures, students were also fortunate to attend a tour of the underground facility at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, which for 10 years has been receiving a beam of muon neutrinos from the CERN accelerator, as part of a study of neutrino oscillations. On the final night of the course, students were also able to participate in the town’s celebration of the European Researchers’ Night.
STFC Introductory Summer School in Solar System Plasmas
John Williamson attended the STFC (Science and Technology Facilities Council) Introductory Summer School on Solar System Plasmas in September 2014. The School was held at the South Kensington campus of Imperial College, London.
A broad range of subjects were covered, relating to Solar System Plasmas. These included Plasma Kinetics, Fundamentals of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), MHD Waves and Instabilities, Space Instrumentation, Reconnection and Earth’s Magnetosphere, Solar Interior, Solar Atmosphere and Activity, Solar Wind and Heliosphere, Space Weather: Causes and Implications, Shocks, Turbulence and Particle Acceleration, Mesosphere and Thermosphere, Ionospheres, Outer Planets/Moons Magnetospheres, Ionospheres and Atmospheres, Comets and Rosetta, Small bodies and Origins of the Solar System, and finally Exoplanets.
In addition to these lectures, we also had a visit to the Science Museum in London where, in addition to a tour, we participated in exercises in Public Engagement and Understanding of Science, and a presentation on Careers in the Space Industry.
The primary interest on behalf of BGS was in the space weather aspects of the school, which included developing an understanding of the solar processes involved and the causes and effects of space weather. The aim for the BGS forecasting team was to improve knowledge and understanding of space weather phenomena and their interaction with Earth’s magnetosphere to aid in the delivery of more accurate forecasts.