Building on the successful Forum “Physical Links Between Weather in Space and Weather in the Lower Atmosphere” in November 2022, ISSI organizes a workshop on “Physical Links Between Weather and Climate in Space and the Lower Atmosphere”, to be held on January 22-26 2024, at ISSI in Bern. This Workshop involves Space, Earth Observation and Meteorology experts in the discussion of the links between weather and climate in space and in the lower atmosphere. A publication on the Forum held in November 2022 is currently under preparation.
The Earth’s predominantly neutral atmosphere interfaces with the “sea of plasmas” surrounding it via its ionosphere and the upper and middle Atmosphere, providing an interface layer through which a broad diversity of energy transfer processes takes place in this comingled plasma-neutral domain. Developing an integrative understanding of global geospace energy and momentum transfer processes acting within and across this layer is a major scientific challenge with important societal implications.
This workshop will support a deeper understanding of the solar and terrestrial interactions through energy and momentum transfer processes between the ionosphere and the upper- and middle atmosphere, thus possibly enabling the detection of signatures by natural and anthropogenic hazards. The results of this analysis should be based on the existing worldwide capability in the related fields and should support the conceptual design of a future space-borne and ground based observing capability.
An ISSI Forum addressing this subject in the fall of 2022 noted good progress in the scientific field and showed results demonstrating the value of studying space weather forcing from above and atmospheric weather forcing from below. The Forum’s recommended to continue and extend the scientific framework by addressing a wider range of scientific sub-disciplines and involving a larger number of scientists, thus attaining a broader perspective.
Central to the Workshop would be the establishment of a framework where all related observations can be combined for assimilation and visualisation (including data from ground-and space based systems). This would necessitate an interoperable ‘working’ environment with homogeneity in data formats. etc. and the improvement of the discoverability and interoperability of ground and space-based data. As a result the concept development of an Ionosphere-Thermosphere-Mesosphere Observatory could be enabled, using existing and planned missions as focal points, towards an “International Solar-Terrestrial Physics Programme-Next”.
The Workshop will aim to:
- Provide a scientifically unified view in the area of Space and Atmospheric weather and climate, in light of the plans of the involved disciplines
- Act as focus for discussion of the scientific interests of these communities, including the European ground-based community and data archiving activities
- Assess potential synergies and provide inputs and recommendations as relevant
- Receive inputs from the scientific community that cutting across Space and other Agency Programmes encourage inter-agency activities to improve communication
The outcome of the Workshop will be summarised in peer-reviewed papers to be published as individual papers in Surveys in Geophysics and subsequently as Book in the Space Sciences Series of ISSI. This book will describe the state of the art of our current understanding of the physical processes within and across this region, identify the main observational gaps both in space and on the ground, and the gaps in scientific understanding and modelling capabilities in this still under explored region. Further the book will address observational infrastructure- and ground segment topics, enabling data sharing and combination. ISSI aims for all papers to have open access status.