1999-2002 Report on SCOSTEP Activities
Prof. W. Baumjohann (IUGG Liaison to SCOSTEP)
This is a report on the activities of SCOSTEP (Scientific Committee for Solar-Terrestrial Physics) for the period 1999-2002. SCOSTEP is a scientific committee of the International Council for Science (ICSU) and is responsible for: (1) the conduct and sponsoring of international meetings in the scientific area or solar-terrestrial physics and (2) the coordination and organization of international scientific programs in solar-terrestrial physics. SCOSTEP's Bureau consists of a President, Vice President, Scientific Secretary, and one representative each from the Participating Bodies. Current officers are: M.A. Geller (President), R.A. Vincent (Vice-president). J.H. Allen (Scientific Secretary), S.K. Avery (URSI), R. Fujii (COSPAR), B. Schmieder (IAU), F. W. Sluijter (IUPAP), T. Tsuda (IAMAS), and W. Baumjohann (IAGA).The substance of this report was extracted from material generously made available by J. H. Allen, the Scientific Secretary of SCOSTEP.
International Scientific Programs Conducted by SCOSTEP: Four new Post-STEP scientific programs began in January 1998 and continued operations during 1999. Each is scheduled to run for five years. The programs are:
- S-RAMP (STEP Results, Applications and Modeling Program, Chair D.N. Baker)
- EPIC (Equatorial Processes Including Coupling; Chairs S. Fukao, J. Forbes, R.A. Vincent)
- PSMOS (Planetary Scale Mesosphere Observing System; Chairs G. Shepherd, M. Hagan)
- ISCS (International Solar Cycle Study; Chair S.T. Wu, V. Obridko).
During the past four years, SCOSTEP was fully involved with the new Post-STEP programs listed above, all of which produced a wealth of new results.
Future Planning: To prepare for the future, the Bureau established a Long Range Planning Committee (LRPC), chaired by B. Schmieder and with Su. Basu, W. Baum-johann, J. Lean, T. Ono, and R.A. Vincent as members. The LRPC met several times and, after discussion with the general scientific community, came up with CAWSES (Climate and Weather of the Sun-Earth System), the next major international STP program for 2004-2008. The CAWSES Scientific Steering Group (Su. Basu (Chair), A. Richmond, J. Haigh, Y. Kamide, J.-L. Bougeret, L. Zelenyi, and C.-H. Liu) in 2002 specified four scientific program areas: Solar Influence on Climate; Space Weather: Science and Applications; Atmospheric Coupling Processes; and Space Climatology. These will be presented to and discussed with the scientific community in 2003.
SCOSTEP maintains an extensive WWW homepage on the internet. The address is
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/stp/SCOSTEP/scostep.html
It has proven to be very convenient for easy access to SCOSTEP's organization and activities. All interested parties are encouraged to access the site and communicate with the SCOSTEP secretarial offices.
Prof. W. Baumjohann
January 2003.
