The Principal Investigator will organize an international community workshop and symposium in Bulgaria to foster interdisciplinary research and education. This sympoium will be held during September 12-16, 2011, in the Bulgarian town of Borovets near the capital of Sofia. The proposed Second International Symposium on Recent Observations and Simulations of the Sun-Earth System (ISROSES-II) will provide a forum for scientists from all space physics communities to present and discuss recent advances in modeling and observations of the Sun-Earth System. This symposium is a continuation of the highly successful ISROSES symposium held in Varna, Bulgaria, during September 17-22, 2006.
Each day of the symposium will be devoted to a primary science topic, including both the observational and modeling aspects of: (1) solar wind - magnetosphere interactions; (2) magnetosphere - ionosphere - thermosphere coupling; (3) dynamics of the near-Earth space environment; and (4) new measurement, data analysis, and simulation techniques.
One of the main goals of the Symposium is to improve "understanding and prediction of processes affecting solar activity and the propagation of resulting solar effects to the Earth via the solar wind," which has been a prime objective of the NSF's National Space Weather Program (NSWP). ISROSES-II is also relevant to the strategic goals and focus aeas of the NSF's Solar, Heliospheric, and INterplanetary Environment (SHINE) community, the Geospace Environment Modeling (GEM) community, and the Coupling, Energetics, and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions (CEDAR) community.
The main purpose of this NSF project was to foster interdisciplinary research and education through the vehicle of an international symposium, namely the 2nd International Symposium on Recent Observations and Simulations of the Sun-Earth System (ISROSES-II) held in Borovets, Bulgaria, from 11 to 16 September 2011. The main sponsors of the symposium were the US National Science Foundation (NSF) and the International Union of Radio Science (URSI). ISROSES-II also received collaboration and support from the International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy (IAGA), the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the LANL Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP), Sofia University, Bulgaria, and the ICT Cluster, Bulgaria. The purpose of the symposium was to bring together cross-disciplinary scientists from the solar, heliospheric, magnetospheric, and earth sciences communities worldwide to have focused discussions on fundamental problems related to the space environment of the Earth and the Sun-Earth Connection. ISROSES-II fostered improved communication among these communities of scientists and stimulated fruitful discussions on the following main science themes: (1) Solar wind – magnetosphere interactions; (2) Magnetosphere – ionosphere – thermosphere coupling; (3) Dynamics of the near-Earth space environment; and, (4) New measurement, data analysis, and simulation techniques. The ISROSES-II scientific program consisted of an introductory keynote lecture, invited as well as contributed talks, and posters. The symposium had 15 oral and two poster sessions which gathered more than 100 participants for fruitful discussions. An international panel convened to discuss "Space Science Research Perspectives and International Collaborations." Leading scientists from the worldwide research community presented the latest advancements in the Space Weather field. Among the ISROSES-II participants were distinguished speakers from US universities and research centers, the European Union, Canada, Japan, Norway, Russia, and other countries. For further information about the symposium, please visit the official website: www.isroses.lanl.gov/. The highest quality invited and contributed papers presented during ISROSES-II will be published in a Special Issue of the Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics (JASTP). The Special Issue will include 21 papers, and it will appear in print in the Fall of 2013. Some other ISROSES papers will be published in the Bulgarian Journal of Physics (BJP) and the European Journal on Space Weather and Space Climate (SWSC). ISROSES-II built upon the legacy of other similar conferences held in Bulgaria in the past, such as the 15th International Cosmic Ray Conference in Plovdiv (August 13–26, 1977), the 18th COSPAR Plenary Meeting in Varna (May 29–June 7, 1975), the COSPAR Colloquium on "Plasma Processes in the near–Earth Space: Interball and Beyond" in Sofia (February 5–10, 2002), and the 1st ISROSES conference in Varna (September 17–22, 2006). All of these events succeeded in improving the science communication between western scientists and their colleagues from Eastern/Central Europe and the Russian Federation, as well as in increasing the motivation and involvement of Bulgarian students in space physics.
