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Sun becomes central for Monash-hosted international conference

28 June 2006

A composite of the three most visible elements of space weather: a storm from the Sun, aurora as seen from space, and aurora as seen from Earth. The solar storm is a coronal mass ejection (CME) composite of two images from SOHO. The middle image from Polar's VIS imager shows charged particles as they spread down across the USA during a large solar storm. The evidence of space weather from Earth was taken by Jan Curtis in Alaska. Courtesy of NASA/ESA SOHO.

Monash University has been selected to host a major international conference on solar activity, supported by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).

More than 100 scientists from around the world will attend the SOHO 19 conference in Melbourne in July 2007. It will be the first time the event has been held outside Europe or North America.

SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) is the pre-eminent solar observational spacecraft, jointly run by NASA and ESA, which has been providing exceptional data on the sun since 1995.

Deputy Head of the School of Mathematical Sciences Professor Paul Cally said Monash had been chosen to host the conference in recognition of the significant role played by the school's solar physics team in using and interpreting SOHO and other data to further knowledge of the sun.

"The theme of SOHO 19 will be helioseismology -- the study of the waves and oscillations in and around the strong magnetic field regions of the sun, such as sunspots -- which is an area where the Monash team leads the world," Professor Cally said.

Professor Cally, who is also the chair of the SOHO 19 Scientific Organising Committee, said magnetic activity on the sun was one of the most important astronomical phenomena for people on Earth.

"It gives rise to flares and coronal mass ejections, which in turn produce 'space weather' in the solar wind," he said. "This wind rushes by the Earth at up to 700 km/sec carrying magnetic fields and charged particles that affect our upper atmosphere, with implications for telecommunications, satellite safety, terrestrial power grids and, indeed, climate."

Professor Cally said helioseismology was one of the most potent tools for understanding how the sun worked, and the conference would advance our growing knowledge of what it could reveal about magnetic activity.

The SOHO 19, Seismology of Magnetic Activity conference will be held at the Monash Conference Centre in Collins Street, Melbourne, from 9 to 13 July 2007.