안녕하세요! Today we have two Guest Editors for the blog. The first is Christine Verbeke, Space Weather Scientist at KU Leuven, Belgium and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (CCMC), USA. She is the recipient of the COSPAR Outstanding Paper Award for Young Scientists for two papers, published in Advances in Space Research (ASR) in 2022 and 2023. She writes:
“I am not the biggest fan of large conferences, but ever since my first COSPAR Scientific Assembly in Pasadena as a PhD student, I have always thoroughly enjoyed them. Being at COSPAR hits a spot that other conferences do not quite seem to reach. Not sure whether it is the variety of topics, the format (Scientific Commissions and Panels), the great organization, the people or the (sometimes exotic) locations. My guess is that it is most likely a combination of all of these.
The past week has been a blast so far: great sessions, amazing panels, necessary business meetings, round tables… Thursday was a very busy day for Commission D — my main field. I had a difficult time determining what sessions to go to. In the end I did switch between sessions before the break, just so that I could catch all the presentations that made my shortlist!
My personal highlight of the day was Erika’s Palmerio’s talk on “Global Modelling of the September 2022 ’Labour Day’ CME and its Heliospheric Impact”. This talk highlighted how far we have advanced in modeling and understanding the propagation of coronal mass ejections in the inner heliosphere!
And for those of you who did not manage to get to the exhibitions yet– you missed out! It was definitely worth a visit, it has been an exceptional experience talking to all the exhibitors to learn about not just science in space, but also about all the space institutes and companies out there.”
And our second Guest Editor for today is Julie Barnum, Project Manager at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), also the PI/Lead for the Python in Heliophysics Community (PyHC), and OPAFYS recipient for her paper published in ASR in 2023. She looks back on Wednesday:
“On 17 July of the COSPAR 2024 Scientific Assembly, I listened in on the Panel on Space Weather (PSW) Business Meeting, three interdisciplinary lectures, and the afternoon sessions for SW.4: Information Architecture and Innovative Solutions in Space Weather (Interfacing and Coordination between Different Efforts on Standardization). I greatly enjoyed each session I attended (I even had the opportunity to present at one of the SW.4 sessions on my own work!).
Sami Solanki gives the fifth Interdisciplinary Lecture
The one that stood out to me the most, however, was the last of the interdisciplinary lectures, “Our Sparkling Star: The Sun’s Magnetic Field, Activity and Variability” given by Dr. Sami Solanki. The background on the sun that he gave, and his manner of presenting the information was captivating and I found myself in awe at the graphics and lecture. It was as though I was relearning about the sun all over again, but with even more enthusiasm than ever before. It has been a while since a professor, or scientific conference presentation, has managed to have my complete rapt attention like that. The cherry on the cake for the day was running into a fellow colleague from NSF while at the nearby Shinsegae food hall in Centum City (and nabbing an open table in an otherwise booked lunchroom). Excellent day all around!”
This is the last blog for COSPAR 2024, and we’d like to say goodbye, Busan, and 감사합니다! (gamsahabnida! Thank you!) to our wonderful Korean hosts. We hope this Assembly has given you ample networking opportunities, exchange of knowledge, and that you have made new connections, collaborations and friendships for life. We hope you return home with great memories and we look forward to seeing you at COSPAR 2026 in Florence, Italy, or another COSPAR event.