Conference on space weather predictions

Conference on space weather predictions
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Mumbai, Mar 4: A five day international conference on important aspects of ``space weather'' will be held at Lonavala, from March 12 according to G S Lakhina, Director, Indian Institute of Geomagnetism (IIG) Mumbai.

Space weather predictions are important for the safety of spacecrafts, astronauts, satellite and military tele- communication links, power grids and other related fields.

The conference is also expected to open up possibilities to integrate space weather as an integral part of Indian space research activites in the near future, Lakhina said.

The conference will be co-sponsored by the Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy,(IAGA), National Science Foundation (NSF), Indian National Science Academy (INSA), Department of Science and Technology (DST), Indian Geophysical Union(IGU), Committee of Space Research (COSPAR), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), USA, Indian Physics Assocaition and IIG.

Lakhina explained that geomagnetic storms are phenomena in the per atmosphere (upto 10-20 km in height) caused by eruptive process like coronal mass ejection (CMEs) and flares occurring on the sun which distort the magnetosphere.

A substorm is a process which suddenly releases a huge amount of magnetic energy stored in the tail of the earth's magnetosphere in the form of plasma kinetic energy.

During geomagnetic storms and substorms, the magnetosphere is populated with intense fluxes of relativistic electrons and energetic protons, which can pose a danger to modern spacecraft, astronauts and ground to satellite commercial and military telecommunication links.

Space weather has gained great importance in many advance countries like USA, Canada, Japan, China, France, Australia, Sweden, Taiwan and have dedicated national space weather programmes of their own, Lakhina added.