Richard A. HarrisonRutherford Appleton LaboratoryUnited Kingdom

IHY – The International Heliophysical Year

• First International Polar Year– January 1875 at the Academy of Sciences in Vienna Carl Weyprecht

suggested a coordinated study of the north polar region – Polar meteorological and magnetic observations commenced on Aug 1, 1882 and

concluded Sep 1, 1883 • Second International Polar Year

– Scientific activities were significantly limited by the world-wide economic depression – Polar meteorological and magnetic observations to be made in 1932-1933, fifty years after the

first IPY

The logical next step is to extend global studies into the Heliosphere to incorporate the drivers of Geophysical change into the global system-The IHY.

• International Geophysical Year– In 1957 the IGY involved about 60,000 scientists from 66 nations– To obtain simultaneous, global observations on Earth and in space

Historical Perspective

The IHY continues the tradition of previous international years through synoptic observation of universal physical processes in the solar system.

Historical Perspective

19571933 20071883

TIME

Siz

e S

cale

S

tud

ied

IPY-1

IPY-2

IGY

IHY

Plans for IHY have been under discussion since 2001, with early sessions at the 2002 World Space Congress in Houston, the 2003/4 EGU meetings in Nice and ‘local’ meetings in the USA and UK.

The international IHY committee is led by Joe Davila (NASA/GSFC).

IHY is endorsed by COSPAR, AGU, IAU, UN OOSA, NASA, IUGG, SCOSTEP etc…

IHY is accepted as a project within the IPY, selected in collaboration with ICESTAR as a ‘lead project’ with a coordination role in a number of campaigns.

IHY has been adopted by the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs as the theme for a series of workshops on Basic Space Science (www.oosa.unvienna.org)

IHY - The Story So Far

Science Goals

1. Develop the basic science of heliophysics through cross-disciplinary studies of universal processes.

2. Determine the response of terrestrial and planetary magnetospheres and atmospheres to external drivers.

3. Promote research on the Sun-heliosphere system outward to the local interstellar medium - the new frontier.

4. Foster international scientific cooperation in the study of heliophysical phenomena now and in the future

5. Communicate unique IHY results to the scientific community and the general public

Fifty years after the IGY, a large armada of existing or planned spacecraft are in place to provide the most comprehensive global measurements of the Sun-earth interplanetary system yet obtained

Earth based observatories can provide measurements of terrestrial effects at the poles and elsewhere

Why Now?

International collaboration is easier today than in previous international years with abundant and cheap electronic communication available

NOW is the best opportunity for global studies in the next 50

years

Most international activities of this kind create many meetings and extra paperwork/e-mails yet the product is questionable. Why is IHY different?

IHY is NOT designed to be another red-tape activity. It is set up as an enabling activity for the grass-roots scientist to drive co-ordinated observations and to encourage international collaborations and outreach.

The IHY Web site is at ihy2007.org. The official European IHY Web site is at www.lesia.obspm.fr/IHY/; the UK site is at ihy2007.org.uk.

In practice, IHY is what you make of it!

More red tape?

So what does it do for me?

Enables campaigns/access to instruments/data – Mainly through the COORDINATED INVESTIGATION PROGRAMMES (CIPs)

Coordinates meetings to encourage collaboration (e.g. UN meetings in developing countries), in particular with developing countries.

Acts as focus for information dissemination, operations planning, outreach etc, etc…

More red tape?

Planning Organization

Science campaigns (CIPs)

Distributed small instrument arrays

Magnetometers, radio dish, GPS receivers, all-sky cameras, etc.

Series of cross-cutting CDAW-like workshops to develop interpretations

Publication of workshop results

Outreach, Education, and History

History preservation effort in conjunction with AGU History Committee

IGY Gold Program to honor participants in the IGY

Educational outreach

Planetarium show development

UNBSS distributed instrument initiative

Program Elements

To Encourage Basic Space Science in Developing

Countries

UN Basic Science Workshops established in 1991.

IHY adopted as theme from 2004.

First dedicated workshop in United Arab Emirates, 20-23 November 2005.

Fostering international coordination and communication.

Major effort – to define and deploy instrumentation in the developing nations.

UN Basic Space Science Workshops

THE SOHO JOINT OBSERVING PROGRAMMES (JOPs) AS A MODEL FOR THE PRACTICAL IMPLEMENTATION

OF THE IHY

The Co-ordinated Investigation Programmes (CIPs)

Most basic, lowest-level building block of any campaign is the set of observations required by a single scientist or collaboration to satisfy a specific scientific question.

With the CIP concept, the IHY scientific campaign is the sum of the CIPs – i.e. it is user driven.

The Co-ordinated Investigation Programmes (CIPs)

2006 January 10-13: Paris, France. IHY European General Assembly

2007 February 5-9: Helsinki, Finland. ICESTAR/IHY Kick-off meeting

2007 February 19-20: Vienna, Austria. Formal IHY kick-off meeting

2007 June 18-22: Torino, Italy. 2nd IHY European General Assembly

Major Meetings

For full list, see http://ihy2007.org

2004: Regional coordination meetings, campaigns begin to be defined, synergy/coordination discussions with professional organizations

2005: Synthesis from regional to international, merging of science working groups and campaigns, "backfilling" missing initiatives

2006: Prototyping year, preliminary work, review and finalize campaign proposals, proposals to national funding agencies

2007: IHY campaigns, establish data bases and tools

2008: workshops, publications, archives

Overall Schedule

WEBSITE: http://ihy2007.org