Armagh Observatory
College Hill
Armagh
N. Ireland
An Overview of the Coupled Earth-Sun System
PPARC Introductory Solar System Plasmas School
Background
The UK has a very vibrant solar system science community highly regarded internationally. To maintain and enhance this position the UK must not just continue to make major discoveries and provide critical insight into key solar system science problems but also train new solar system scientists. Because the solar system is accessible to highly detailed remote sensing and a variety of unique in situ measurements, critical understanding of fundamental cross-scale physical processes is possible such as dynamo theory, particle acceleration, reconnection and disc accretion. This allows studies of a rich sample of cross-scale coupling processes where microphysical structures can derive significant system-wide effects. The knowledge gained from such research has significant application to other PPARC science areas, and indeed the science of other research councils. Furthermore, the question of the origins of life in the solar system, as well as the current state of our local space environment have much broader cultural and intellectual interest than to pure science alone. Thus solar system science can play an important role in promoting PPARC's science and society strategy.
The PPARC Introductory and Advanced Courses in Solar System Plasmas has, since the1980s, played an important part in the early training of solar, heliospheric, magnetospheric and ionospheric physicists. The Introductory course, as well as providing a grounding in the theory and the most recent observations relevant to their fields, allows new PhD students and other participants to interact scientifically with each other and with the lecturers, thus strengthening the field as a whole - particularly in the UK. We wish to continue this excellent tradition by hosting the next introductory summer school in Solar System Plasmas at Armagh Observatory. The summer school provides the opportunity for students, who are typically involved either in theoretical modeling or data analysis to broaden their knowledge, and to hear, from experts in the field, how a solid appreciation of current observations motivates theory, and in turns stimulates new observations and instruments. The Observatory has expertise in both solar and solar-terrestrial observations and theory as well as solar system dynamics.
Solar system science is currently undergoing an unprecedented period of growth, e.g.
Several space- and ground-based observatories as well as sophisticated computer modelling are revolutionizing our understanding of the Sun, our closest star, and how it impacts our terrestrial environment. By combining these high-resolution observations with comprehensive theoretical studies, we have an opportunity to obtain an unparalleled insight into the underlying mechanisms of energy flows from the solar interior through the solar atmosphere and into the solar wind until it impacts the Earth;
the UK plays a leading international role in solar and solar-terrestrial theory and observations, providing space hardware, expert data analysis and advanced theoretical modelling;
PhD students are often involved in either theoretical modeling or data analysis and it is vitally important that these twin strands come together both to educate observers about fundamental theoretical concepts and inform theorists of the latest observations.
This proposed summer school has the precise aim of demonstrating the advantages of such a complementary approach using experts in each of the stated research areas, and to provide the training necessary to produce inter-disciplinary scientists who can work effectively in teams at the interfaces between different science areas. We therefore seek support to provide the 2007 Introductory Solar System Plasmas School, which will provide valuable training for the next generation of solar system scientists