ISWI Newsletter - Vol.10 No.03
02 February 2018

Dear ISWI Participant:

STSC of COPUOS (at Vienna) is still in progress. Some of the items below are time sensitive, so I send this special issue out today.

George Maeda
Editor of ISWI Newsletter

CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE

[1] Agenda ISWI Steering Committee Meeting 2018 (read it)

[2] Special issue of "Sun and Geosphere" -- deadline has been extended (read it)

[3] Report on the German ISWI activities, 19 January 2018 (read it)

[4] UN/Argentina Workshop on the Applications of Global Navigation Satellite Systems, 19÷23 March 2018, Falda Del Carmen, Argentina (read it)

[1] ISWI Steering Committee Meeting 2018, Vienna Austria 9 AM to 6 PM, January 31, 2018

Agenda
  1. Introduction & Report (Nat Gopalswamy, Chair)
  2. Secretariat update (Newsletter: George Maeda; Website: Mitko Danov)
  3. Steering Committee update; SC member remarks
  4. ISWI National Coordinators (Report by Christine Amory)
  5. ISWI Instruments update (Shing Fung)
  6. Data Subcommittee Report (Shing Fung)
  7. ISWI – UNOOSA Collaboration (Sharafat Gadimova – Baku School)
  8. Expert Group update (Ian Mann)
  9. ISWI/NASA report: Elsayed Talaat
  10. UN/US Workshop on ISWI in Boston (Nat Gopalswamy, Patricia Doherty)
  11. SunGeo Special Issue (Shing Fung)
  12. ISWI/Mekelle Workshop report (Christian Monstein, Nat Gopalswamy)
  13. VarSITI Report Katya Georgieva
  14. National/Regional Coordinator reports
  15. Baku School, COSPAR Capacity Building, COLAGE mini school (2018)
  16. Any other matter

Look at Agenda:  link to document

Send by N. Gopalswamy

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[2] Special issue of "Sun and Geosphere" -- deadline has been extended

Dear ISWI Community,

This is a gentle reminder that the submission deadline for the Sun and Geosphere special issue (see below) has been extended to March 31, 2018. You are invited to submit contributed papers relevant to the topics covered by the recent UN/US ISWI Workshop held at Boston College on July 31-August 4, 2017.

Details can be found in this issue of the ISWI Newsletter Vol.9 No.13.

Manuscripts can be submitted directly through the webpage (http://www.sungeosphere.org/) under "Submit a manuscript" for "Special issue devoted to "The decade after the International Heliophysical Year 2007".

With best wishes, Guest Editors
Shing Fung (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)
David Webb (Boston College)
Manju Gopalapillai (Indian Space Research Organization)


Send by Shing Fung

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[3] Report on the German ISWI activities, 19 January 2018
Norbert Jakowski, Daniela Banyś, Alexander Kasten

DLR Neustrelitz holds two projects that are part of the International Space Weather Initiative (ISWI): The world-spanning, near real-time network named GIFDS (Global Ionospheric Flare Detection System, see also Wenzel et al., 2016) and the educational project named SOFIE (SOlar Flares detected by Ionospheric Effects). Both projects deal with the monitoring of the lower ionosphere by means of VLF measurements in order to monitor, analyze and discuss solar flare effects and its relation to space weather. 

Currently, the GIFDS network consists of five globally distributed receivers located in Neustrelitz (Germany), Krakow (Poland), Boston (MA, USA), Stanford (CA, USA) and Taoyuan City (Taiwan). Two further installations are in progress, one in Fortaleza (Brazil) and another one in Hermanus (South Africa). Each GIFDS station is capable of measuring amplitude and phase of several VLF transmitters in real-time. With GIFDS, we joined a live broadcast of the solar eclipse effects on the 21 August 2017 demonstrating its real-time capabilities (see SWACI news via http://swaciweb.dlr.de/news/solar-eclipse-21-aug-2017/?L=1). Besides the TEC products of the Ionosphere Monitoring and Prediction Center (IMPC, formerly SWACI), VLF amplitude measurements of the GIFDS stations in Boston and Stanford are presented. 

Read the full report:  link to document 340KB, 5 pages)

Send by Nobert Jakowski

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[4] UN/Argentina Workshop on the Applications of Global Navigation Satellite Systems, 19÷23 March 2018, Falda Del Carmen, Argentina

Please be informed that the United Nations/Argentina Workshop on the applications of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) will be held from 19 to 23 March 2018 in Falda Del Carmen, Argentina. The Workshop, organized by the Office for Outer Space Affairs (OOSA) in collaboration with the Government of Argentina, will be hosted by the National Commission for Space Activities (CONAE) and supported by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the International Committee on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (ICG). Detailed information about the Workshop is available on the OOSA website at: http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/psa/schedule/2018/GNSS-un-argentina-workshop.html

The Workshop will address the use of GNSS for various applications, and current and planned projects that use GNSS technology for both practical applications and scientific explorations will be presented. Cooperative efforts and international partnerships for capacity-building, training and research will be discussed. The Workshop programme will include plenary sessions and also sufficient time for discussions among participants to identify the priority areas, where pilot projects will be launched and examine possible partnerships that could be established.

A special session on "GNSS spectrum protection and interference detection and mitigation" will be organized in coordination with the ICG's Working Group on Systems, Signals and Services. The purpose of the session is to highlight the importance of GNSS spectrum protection at the national level and explain how to reap the benefits of GNSS.

Additionally, a session on "Space Weather and its effects on GNSS" will be held during the Workshop. The purpose of this session is to provide a background on the phenomena of space weather and illustrate its effects on GNSS. The session will describe the challenging aspects of space weather phenomena, their impact on GNSS users, the variability of these impacts and the actions that may mitigate their effects.

For ease of your reference, kindly find attached an Information Note describing the background to the Workshop and its objectives. Please also note that an online application form is available on the OOSA website at: https://register.unoosa.org/civicrm/event/info?id=72&reset=1

We appreciate your cooperation and contribution to the success of the Workshop.

Best regards,
Sharafat Gadimova, (Ms.)
Office for Outer Space Affairs
United Nations Office at Vienna
Tel (Office) ++43-(1)-26060-5479
FAX (Office) ++43-(1)-26060-5830

Look at this Note:  link to document 235KB, 7 pages)

Send by Sharafat Gadimova

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**************[ End of this issue of the ISWI Newsletter ]******************
Attachments:

(1) Agenda ISWI Steering Committee Meeting 2018, Vienna Austria, 9 AM to 6 PM, January 31, 2018 (click link to document 1 500KB, 31 pages)

(2) Report on German ISWI activities, (click link to document 340KB, 5 pages)

(3) UN Office for Outer Space Affairs Information note UN/Argentina Workshop on the Applications of Global Navigation Satellite Systems, (click link to document 235KB, 7 pages)

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