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Dear Mike, I read the ASTRONET document looking for arguments to conduct long term monitoring activities common to European Astronomy and Space Weather. You will find enclosed a summary of the points I found of interest for Space Weather and my personal comments. In my opinion it would be very useful : - to push ASTRONET to be more homogeneous in defining time scales required for observations of the Sun, then to review the relevant recommendations, - to be more specific in dealing with the space environment of the planets, to examine the interest of a long term monitoring of those environments, then to think about instrumentations which could be calibrated in the Earth’s environment, - to alert ASTRONET about the importance of Space Weather for space missions dedicated to the Solar System (see J.P. Lebreton). Sincerely yours, Francois Hapgood, MA (Mike) a écrit : > Dear colleagues, > > Chris Harvey has asked me to circulate this to SWWT. > > Cheers, > Mike > > -----Original Message----- > From: Christopher HARVEY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] > Sent: 03 January 2007 11:38 > To: Hapgood, MA (Mike) > Subject: Re: Astronet > > > Dear Mike, > > A 09:00 02/01/2007 +0000, vous avez écrit : > >> First of all let me wish you all a very Happy New Year for 2007. I have >> a couple of items of news to report. >> > > > And a Happy New Year to you too ! > > I am not sure how widely known ASTRONET is to the Space Weather > community. Before your e-mail I was not aware of its mandate, but > after a little Web browsing I came up with the following information. > I certainly think that it would be a good idea to have a space weather > representative at the ASTRONET Poitiers meeting on 23-25 January 2007, > where the draft of the report "A Science Vision for European Astronomy" > will be presented and discussed. The agenda of this meeting can be > found at http://www.eso.org/gen-fac/meetings/SciChall07/agenda.html > > The overall objectives of the meeting can be found on the page > http://www.eso.org/gen-fac/meetings/SciChall07/ > where it is written > "The ASTRONET effort has been initiated by a group of European funding > Agencies in order to establish a comprehensive long-term planning > for the development of European astronomy. It has been selected and > is financially supported by the European Commission under its FP6 > program. The overall objective is to consolidate and reinforce the > highly competitive position that European astronomy has attained at > the beginning of this 21st Century. Integral to ASTRONET needs is to > establish a common Science Vision for the next 20 years, followed by > a detailed Infrastructure Roadmap to attain the scientific goals." > > It is obvious that ASTRONET operates at a level distinctly different > from those of Space Weather or EuroPlaNet : ASTRONET is an association > of European funding Agencies which, in many cases (for example, France > and the UK), are also the national agencies which support solar, space > plasma, and planetary physics. Therefore our interests should be > included in the Science Vision document, as indeed they are. I am not > commenting here the content of Chapter 5 of the "Science Vision". > Perhaps this should on the agenda of the brainstorming on January 23 ? > It's a pity that the two meetings are the same day, but at least there > are spare meeting rooms in Paris while the astronomers are in Poitiers ! > > I feel strongly that astronomy can be separated into two distinct but > complimentary parts : the classical (egocentric) astronomy which > observes the distant universe for which the location of the observer is > of relatively little importance, and the solar system astronomy, for > which knowledge of the location of the observer is of primary > importance. This difference has many practical implications, going > from the possibility of in-situ exploration to the organisation of data > (object-oriented or time-series) and the formats and tools required to > analyse it. > > I question is the extent to which the Space Weather community is aware > of the ASTRONET inter-agency initiative, and to what extent the > ensemble of ASTRONET is aware of what is already going on in solar > system astronomy. I was particularly surprised that one comment > concerning the unsuccessful CASSIS proposal (Coordination of Access to > Solar System Information Services) submitted to EU-FP6 last year was > something like "The proposers should ask the astronomers how to do it". > In view of what I have just read about ASTRONET (which was already > being supported by FP6), I understand better this criticism : seen from > Brussels, there appears perhaps to be a lack of communication at the > national level ? > > I think that both Space Weather and EuroPlaNet should be formally > represented at the Poitiers meeting, as may possibly already be > planned. The invitation to attend seems to be public, > http://www.fisica.uniroma2.it/~tovastro/ann/061215-astronet.html > but the HARD DEADLINE FOR REGISTRATION IS JANUARY 7, 2007 > (next Sunday). > > Cheers, > Chris > > > P.S. Please feel free to circulate this message to the SWWT. > >