International Heliophysical Year begins (Forwarded)

ESA News
http://www.esa.int

19 February 2007

International Heliophysical Year begins

A year of scientific collaboration and public engagement events aimed at
understanding space weather and the Sun's true effects throughout the Solar
System starts today. The International Heliophysical Year (IHY) will begin
with a ceremony held at the United Nations Science and Technology
Subcommittee Session in Vienna on 19 February 2007.

The Sun connects with all the planets via the solar wind, a flow of
electrically charged particles that constantly 'blows' off the Sun and
creates 'space weather'. Space weather interactions can affect and erode the
atmospheres of Earth and other planets, and, when channelled through a
planetary magnetic field, create beautiful aurorae. Until now, physicists
have been principally concerned with the way the solar wind interacts with
Earth, the so-called Sun-Earth connection. Now it is time to think bigger.

"Fifty years ago the International Geophysical Year marked the starting
point to see Earth in space. Now with the IHY we are on the threshold of
being able to investigate the interconnectivity of the whole Solar System,"
says Hermann Opgenoorth, ESA Head of Solar System Missions Division.

At the forefront of this effort is a fleet of ESA spacecraft. "ESA's
heliophysics space missions -- in particular SOHO, Ulysses and Cluster --
are key members of a network of spacecraft providing data for such studies,"
says Richard Marsden, ESA's Ulysses Mission Manager and Project Scientist.

These missions study various aspects of the Sun-Earth connection. SOHO
stands guard, watching the Sun for any sign of violent magnetic activity
that could hurl a barrage of electrically charged gas at Earth. Cluster
orbits the Earth and studies the way this gas, known as plasma, interacts
with the Earth's magnetic field.

The ESA-NASA Ulysses spacecraft has now been in space for nearly 20 years.
It is currently directly beneath the Sun's south pole, completing its third
looping passage around our central star. Ulysses is returning some
surprising results on the complete solar cycle that are currently being
analysed.

It is not only these missions that are contributing data to the IHY effort.
ESA also has special plasma instruments on Mars Express, Venus Express and
on Cassini, the joint NASA mission to Saturn. These instruments all study
the way the solar wind interacts with those planets. "This is the first time
in history we have such a Solar System fleet at our disposal," says Hermann
Opgenoorth.

"As well as stimulating scientific collaborations, IHY also aims to raise
public awareness of the importance of the Sun-Earth connection," says
Marsden. In particular, on 10 June 2007, 27 scientific establishments (24
across Europe, two in India and one in Mexico) will open their doors to the
public in order to inform people about the importance of the Sun's influence
on Earth.

"When people hear the word astronomy, I believe only five percent think of
the Sun-Earth connection. Through IHY, I would like to raise that to at
least ten percent," says Carine Briand, Observatoire de Paris Meudon, and
the co-chair of the European coordinating committee for IHY.

IHY is just one, yearlong campaign within a decade-long initiative called
International Living With a Star (ILWS). ESA and NASA are joint partners in
ILWS (which consists of a total of 27 space agencies around the world). In
this framework discussions have recently started to evaluate a joint venture
of ESA's Solar Orbiter and NASA's Solar Sentinels. If successful this move
will share the expertise that both sides have developed and build a stronger
coordinated multi-spacecraft mission, to both study and monitor space
weather conditions anywhere around the Sun.

For more information:

Hermann Opgenoorth, Head of Solar System Missions Division
Email: hermann.opgenoorth @ esa.int

Bernhard Fleck, ESA SOHO Project Scientist
Email: bfleck @ esa.nascom.nasa.gov

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