European Geosciences Union
Division on Solar-Terrestrial Sciences
President: Margit Haberreiter (st@egu.eu)
Deputy President: Olga Malandraki (omaland@astro.noa.gr)
The ST Division considers all aspects of solar and heliospheric physics, specifically the solar-terrestrial connection. It covers the physical processes occurring on the Sun, in the solar wind, as well as in Earth's magnetosphere and ionosphere. Solar activity (e.g. coronal mass ejections, solar flares, solar energetic particle events) and the response of the near-Earth space environment to these solar phenomena are studied on a wide-range of temporal and spatial scales. Data analysis and interpretation of space-borne and ground-based data, as well as theoretical studies and different modeling techniques are used to better our understanding of how our local star defines the neighborhood that we live in.
The 2018 Hannes Alfvén Medal is awarded to Eckart Marsch for fundamental contributions to our understanding of the kinetic processes and plasma turbulence in the heliosphere, as well as for work that helped HELIOS become a successful mission and initiated the Solar Orbiter.
The 2018 Julius Bartels Medal is awarded to Ilya G. Usoskin for his key contributions to long-term changes of cosmic rays and solar activity, qualifying him as a founder of the space climate discipline.
The 2018 Division Outstanding Early Career Scientists Award is awarded to Natasha L. S. Jeffrey for her outstanding achievements in improving the standard model of fast electrons produced in solar flares, thereby eliminating the long-standing low-energy cut-off uncertainty.
The 2017 Hannes Alfvén Medal is awarded to Eric R. Priest for his fundamental contribution to the understanding of the mathematical complexity and physics of magnetic reconnection and the magnetic coupling of the convection zone with the solar atmosphere.
The 2017 Julius Bartels Medal is awarded to Tuija I. Pulkkinen for her key contributions in solar-terrestrial science, scientific management, academic leadership, and services to the space community.
The 2017 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Awards is awarded to Emma Anderberg Reconstructing the 11-year solar cycle length from cosmogenic radionuclides for the last 600 years
Last week the 2018 General Assembly were held in Vienna. Gathering 15 075 scientists from 106 countries, this is the most important EGU event throughout the year. Summarizing what happened during the week is an impossible task, as a meeting like this is way more than the 666 individual sessions convened and the 11 128 posters presented during the week. However, in this post I will point to some of the ST Division specific highlights. This year, spring came to …
Cosmic rays (CRs), are not actually rays, but highly energetic charged particles of extraterrestrial origin. The life cycle of a cosmic ray particle starts with its birth at some point in the Universe, its travel at nearly the speed of light and finally with its death ( e.g. at a detector). These highly energetic particles strike our planet from all directions and thus provide a constant background. In practice, this means that thousands of cosmic ray particles pass through our …
Social media platforms offer every person with internet access the possibility to share content of various kind. The recent increase in social media use globally give birth to new tools and insights, from a different perspective. The size of, and the global nature of the user driven social media, makes one expect it to include information also about geomagnetic activity related to posts of visual observations of the aurora by the users. Inspired by the ongoing Aurorasaurus initiative, an outreach …
Our closest star, the Sun, is constantly emitting hot gas in all directions as its upper atmosphere, the corona, expands. This is known as the Solar Wind, also carrying with it an embedded magnetic field, the Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF). The IMF originates at the Sun and forms an enormous spiral throughout the solar system as the solar wind escapes radially, while the magnetic field-lines are anchored to the rotating Sun. This is the large-scale environment, or the laboratory, for …
Earlier this month, we hosted a record-breaking number of participants (over 15,000) at our annual EGU General Assembly in Vienna. The meeting included over 17,000 poster, oral and PICO presentations in over 650 sessions, as well as a number of popular short courses and side events. We are grateful to all participants, including conveners, the EGU Programme Committee, Copernicus Meetings, conference assistants, and ACV and EGU office staff, for making the meeting a success.
If you participated in the meeting, we especially welcome your suggestions and feedback (deadline: 3 June), which will be instrumental in ensuring an even more successful General Assembly in 2019 (7–12 April, Vienna).
Finally, we would like to remind you that we are currently accepting nominations for the 2019 EGU awards and medals. To promote the best deserving geoscientists from around the world and increase diversity in the group of EGU awardees and medallists, we encourage the EGU membership to consider gender, geographical, and cultural balance when nominating outstanding Earth, planetary and space scientists at various career stages. Please consider submitting a nomination by 15 June.