The Principal Investigator is a member of the committee that will organize a community workshop under the auspices of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), to be called the "Chapman Conference on the Causes and Consequences of the Extended Solar Minimum" ("4CESM"). The "4CESM" meeting will be held over 5 days in the summer of 2012 and will enable the interdisciplinary exchange of information and ideas concerning recent advances in measurement, theory, and numerical modeling in the solar and space physics communities.
The "4CESM" meeting will provide a forum for interdisciplinary scientists to discuss their research about the current state of our understanding of the Sun's extreme minimum activity between solar cycles 23 and 24, as well as the potential effects of this minmum activity on the Earth. This unusual solar minimum provides a unique opportunity to assess the nature and structure of a very quiet Sun and a terrestrial upper atmosphere relatively devoid of solar influences. The overarching challenge for solar physics is to explain why this minimum happened, to determine how unusual it actually was, and to discover what the ramifications might be for future solar activity and the strength of the solar cycle on longer time scales.
The funding provided by the National Science Foundation will allow 10 to 12 outstanding graduate students and young scientists to attend the "4CESM" meeting. Additonal community impact will be assured through AGU publication of the Chapman Conference proceedings, publication of selected conference papers in the AGU's "Journal of Geophysical Research (Space Physics)," and a summary report in the AGU publication "Eos."
The meeting was structured in 5 broad areas: Area 1: Solar Minimum Magnetic And Radiative Changes Of The Sun Area 2: Solar Minimum Global And In-Ecliptic Solar Wind Properties: Area 3: Solar Minimum Response Of The Magnetosphere-Ionosphere System Area 4: Solar Minimum Response Of The Upper Atmosphere And Ionosphere Area 5: Historical Context Of The Protracted Solar Minimum Very compelling and high standard oral and poster papers, for each scientific theme, were presented at the conference. Additionally, several discussion sessions were held to motivate the multidisciplinary interaction. For all science sessions there were about 67 oral presentations, with the main focus on the understanding of the complex picture emanating from this minimum. It should be remarked the participation of scientists for developing countries, including Brazil, India, and Nigeria. Although many others were interested, the lack of funds affected the possibility to help them with the costs associated with their participation. The 4CSEM Chapman conference was successful in all regards. In addition to being a venue of multidisciplinary scientific discussions, the meeting served as the conduit for the establishment of more formal multidisciplinary, cross-section collaborations among scientists from multiple institutions and very diverse fields. Even more importantly, a number of students were exposed to the Space Science field and had the opportunity to have one-on-one discussions with successful scientists in the field.
