STEREO-3 / SOHO-22 Workshop

Held on April 27 - May 1, 2009
at The De Vere Royal Bath Hotel, Bournemouth

The hugely successful SOHO Workshops are being combined with the upcoming international STEREO Workshops into the first STEREO/SOHO Workshop, to be hosted by the UK in the week of April 27 2009. This combined workshop promises to be a major celebration of the continuing scientific achievements of these two missions. The meeting will be held in a grand Victorian hotel with panoramic views across the English Channel, will include a conference dinner at the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu and a visit to Stonehenge (surely a must for any solar physicist!) where we will have rare access to the stones themselves.

Scientific structure

The workshop aim is to consider a range of scientific topics key to our current studies of the Sun and Heliosphere, to take stock of our understanding of those topics and to plan strategies to address outstanding issues.

We plan to ask some basic questions, to step back and consider the progress we have made:

• Are we approaching the use of our observational and modeling resources in ways which maximize our physical understanding?
• Are we exploiting instrument coordination effectively?
• What steps can we take to make real progress?
• How can we better understand the next solar maximum?
• What more can/should we do with our observations and models to set the stage for the next generation of missions and analyses?

In short, a major aim of this meeting is to look at the big picture, assess where we are and where we need to go, and ask whether we need to adjust the direction of our efforts. This aim will be achieved through a series of invited talks covering the topical areas, reviewing our current position and assessing the future needs. The hope is that this approach will be continued in the many contributed talks covering the science coming out of STEREO and SOHO.

After the initial invited talks, the basic workshop structure will be:

• Session I. 'Quiet' solar wind sources, structure, interplanetary evolution (includes coronal hole regions – jets and plumes, SIRs/CIRs, heliospheric imaging and in-situ slow solar wind studies)
• Session II. 'Active' corona and its heliospheric consequences (includes active regions, CME initiation and propagation, SEPs, solar system impacts)
• Session III. 3D reconstruction of the Sun and Heliosphere

Schedule for the week

The detailed structure of the science programme will be available nearer to the meeting date but key events include:

Tuesday April 28 - ‘Stonehenge and the Sun’ - A keynote talk, possibly open to the public, to be given by a local archeologist.

Wednesday April 29 - Visit to Stonehenge.

Thursday April 30 - Dinner at the Beaulieu National Motor Museum.

Organisation

The meeting is formally hosted by the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory Solar Group, the PI institute for the two HI/STEREO and the CDS/SOHO instruments.

The Scientific Organising Committee includes the following:

• The De Vere Royal Bath Hotel (link opens in a new window) is described as a grand Victorian hotel with panoramic views across the Channel. It is located on the cliff top overlooking Bournemouth beach. There are many facilities nearby, including a range of hotels and restaurants to suit every budget.
• Stonehenge (link opens in a new window) is a 5000 year old World Heritage Site. As old as the pyramids in Egypt, Stonehenge has clear links to the Sun, but was it a place of Sun worship, or part of a huge astronomical calendar? The monument was a circular structure, aligned with the rising sun at the solstice. Erected between 3,000 BC and 1,600 BC, the stones were carried hundreds of miles over land and sea, while antlers and bones were used to dig the pits that hold the stones.
• Bealieu (link opens in a new window) is famous for its National Motor Museum, and is located in the heart of the New Forest. The museum houses a large collection of historical and classic cars, including Donald Campbell’s Bluebird and even Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

We look forward to welcoming you to the Royal Bath hotel.