IAGA in Sapporo - Appendix D
President's Report to the IAGA Conference of Delegates, Monday 30th June 2003
IAGA's "mission" is set out in the Association's first Statute, which states that IAGA should promote scientific studies of international interest and facilitate international co-ordination and discussion of research. So, an important defining characteristic of IAGA is to encourage inclusiveness in the scientific community, making excellent science accessible to scientists worldwide. One way in which IAGA achieves this is through the organisation of Scientific Assemblies. IAGA enjoyed a well-organised and successful joint Scientific Assembly with IASPEI in Hanoi in 2001, where the scientific programme for Sapporo in 2003 was developed. The funding allocated by the Association to support attendance at the Hanoi meeting, particularly targeted at young scientists and scientists from developing countries, was greater than at any previous Assembly, and this has been surpassed for the Sapporo Assembly.
The Executive Committee also recognises the value of smaller scale meetings and workshops in making IAGA science accessible to a wider audience. An example is the series of observatory workshops attended by technical staff who do not normally have the opportunity to attend IAGA Scientific Assemblies. Younger scientists and scientists from developing countries can take advantage of specialised topical meetings sponsored by IAGA to accelerate their learning. The Executive has taken a positive view of applications for support and over its term has approved sponsorship for 25 meetings.
Another way of promoting the science is to collaborate with other bodies with similar interests. IAGA has good links with the other IUGG Associations and their component bodies, and with Inter-Association bodies including Studies of the Earth's Deep Interior (SEDI) and the Working Group on Electric and Magnetic Studies on Earthquakes and Volcanoes (EMSEV). There are also contacts with the International Lithosphere Program (ILP), the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) and the Scientific Committee on Solar Terrestrial Physics (SCOSTEP). IAGA has also engaged with the ISO organisation over its investigations into magnetospheric models.
IAGA science has benefited from successful applications to ICSU for grants to support the activities of INTERMAGNET, promoting the modernisation of magnetic observatories around the world, and for a project to rescue and preserve, digitally, long-term geomagnetic field recordings in the form of analogue magnetograms from observatories worldwide.
To improve its profile IAGA has published a new flyer setting out the purpose of the Association and describing its activities and the relevance of its science. A copy has been distributed to everyone attending the Sapporo Assembly. The flyer will be translated into several languages. The IAGA web site has been re-launched under the IUGG umbrella and will be used as the main vehicle for keeping scientists in touch with the Association and its activities. IAGA is also well known because of its widely used practical outputs such as the International Geomagnetic Reference Field and the IAGA-sanctioned magnetic activity indices issued by the International Service for Geomagnetic Indices.
In making a report on IAGA science I have to be highly selective. Starting with the Earth's core, advances have continued to be made in computer simulations aiming to advance understanding of the geodynamo. Satellite datasets are improving our ability to resolve the structure of the magnetic field at the core surface and giving clues about the fluid motions in the core. These kinds of global scale analyses appear to contrast with fundamental work on rock magnetism, for example, also carried out in IAGA. However, it is interesting to note that the understanding gained from research into rock magnetism provides the basis for interpreting palaeomagnetic and archaeomagnetic data, our record of the long-term history of the behaviour of the geomagnetic field, and it is against these types of data that dynamo theory and numerical simulations must be tested.
A natural goal for IAGA scientists is to be able to understand and model the whole Sun-Earth system. This large-scale enterprise requires detailed study of the physics of often small-scale processes controlling coupling and feedback. Examples are the growing evidence of the importance of small-scale variability in the thermosphere, and the important role of upward feedback from the ionosphere and thermosphere into the magnetosphere.
In solar physics the role of coronal mass ejections as the major drivers of geomagnetic disturbances is now firmly established, and their generation is well understood. It is often said that we understand the solar magnetic field better than the geomagnetic field, and remarkable results from helioseismology are providing detailed information on regions responsible for the generation of the solar magnetic field, revealing the importance of near-surface processes.
There are excellent prospects to advance understanding of the history of Mars through new missions and through interpretation of the recently discovered intense remanent magnetic fields associated with shallow crustal sources. Recent observations at Venus have provided further evidence for a characteristic plasma boundary around all non globally magnetized bodies interacting with the solar wind. This boundary is now thought to be associated with coupling between a neutral exosphere and the solar wind rather than electrodynamic coupling with induced ionospheric currents.
IAGA science is naturally finding itself relevant to many questions of societal concern, and a major question being addressed is how to disentangle natural from anthropogenic causes of global change. Advances have been made in theoretical aspects of possible mechanisms linking solar variability and climate change, and in understanding the effects on the atmosphere of greenhouse gases of anthropogenic origin. In the area of geohazards, the science underpinning understanding of solar-terrestrial interactions helps to determine how "space weather" conditions affect the risk to technological systems and human activities in space, and the recently-formed Inter-Association Working Group on Electric and Magnetic Studies of Earthquakes and Volcanoes is charged with establishing firm scientific understanding of the generation mechanisms of signals which may ultimately help to mitigate the effects of natural disasters.
This year Hollywood produced a film called "The Core", rather in the realm of science fantasy, and in the UK a TV documentary, "The Magnetic Flip", was screened. There is no doubt that the concept of magnetic field reversals excites the public's imagination and arouses curiosity about possible environmental and human consequences. The plausible evidence for a geomagnetic field reversal currently being in progress gives motivation to understand how the magnetosphere, ionosphere and atmosphere respond as the core field reconfigures during a reversal. This problem also provides an interesting context for research into comparative planetary atmospheres, ionospheres and magnetospheres. It is a good vehicle to showcase a range of IAGA science.
As I commented in my report two years ago in Hanoi, observations feed advances in scientific research and this has been exemplified by the wealth of spacecraft data leading to new discoveries. Examples are studies of the 3-D heliosphere based on Ulysses data over a full solar cycle, multi-point observations of the magnetosphere using the four Cluster spacecraft and the prospect, through follow-on missions to Ørsted, CHAMP and SAC-C, of achieving the goal of having uninterrupted measurements from magnetic survey satellites for a decade. The first satellite was launched at the time of the International Geophysical Year, less than 50 years ago, and it is perhaps ironic that this silver lining of scientific advances has a cloud as we now see IAGA scientists involved in international conferences on the problems of space debris!
I have been interested to see, in the symposia descriptions for this Assembly, the clear appreciation of the value of the combination of ground-based and satellite data for a wide range of IAGA science. I also note the interest in the equatorial regions, including the setting up of new experimental facilities, continuing the impetus given by the International Equatorial Electrojet Year.
Looking forward over the next few years, IAGA recognises the significance of the opportunity presented by the 50th anniversary of the IGY and will play an active role in IUGG-led activities to mark the event. In Hanoi I remarked on the advances made possible by modern computer technology. The availability of distributed computing resources efficiently linking multiple remote sources of data and modelling codes has the potential to assist the participation of scientists in developing countries in research by reducing the need for major local capital investment. This has led IAGA to suggest the concept of an Electronic Geophysical Year as a possible component of the IGY+50 celebrations.
The IUGG plans for IGY+50 will be crystallised by the time of the next IAGA Scientific Assembly in Toulouse in 2005 where the International Commission on the Middle Atmosphere will join us. Toulouse is an attractive location, the city is a national centre for science and technology, and the conference facilities are excellent. The rapid pace of development in IAGA science at the moment promises to produce a fascinating scientific programme and I am personally very excited about the prospects for the Assembly. I encourage you all to reserve 18th - 29th July 2005 in your diary!
David Kerridge
