US-Africa International Workshop: International Heliophysical Year in Africa: Space Weather and Its Effects, Addis Ababa Nov. 15/2007

北卡罗来纳农工大学的Abebe Kebede将带领一个由10名美国科学家和两名学生组成的团队，与国际太阳物理年-非洲联合举办一个为期一天的研讨会，这是一个更大的关于空间天气及其影响的会议。科学家来自不同的组织和机构，包括NOAA、NASA、波士顿大学、美国空军、北卡罗来纳州立大学、亚的斯亚贝巴大学和巴赫达尔大学。讲习班将由亚的斯亚贝巴大学和巴赫达尔大学联合主办。讲习班的目标是发展空间科学家之间的国际合作，这些科学家的研究兴趣包括：(1)总电子含量的纵向和季节变化，(2)电离层等离子体参数的变化，以及(3)中低纬度的闪烁。这种协作使用各种地面工具来收集数据。讲习班将侧重于太阳现象及相关的磁层、电离层和地磁效应对近地空间环境的影响。有关这些现象的数据被用来预报太空天气。到目前为止，从非洲收集的数据相对较少。由于开发可靠的预测模型需要来自世界各地的数据，因此从非洲大陆获得更多数据至关重要。通过该讲习班建立的协作网络将调查在安静和受干扰的空间天气条件下的现象，并有助于更好地了解空间天气和太阳活动低峰期和高峰期的高层大气过程。地磁风暴可以通过在电网中感应破坏性电流来造成电力停电，形成可对卫星造成损害的高能粒子，使人类在空间和高空飞行器中遭受辐射的风险增加、改变卫星的大气阻力、造成全球定位系统和甚低频导航系统出错、造成高频通信中断以及超高频卫星链路中断。改进对这些风暴的预测将对民用和军事社区大有裨益。研讨会将加强美国和非洲在空间天气领域的合作，允许在非洲更多地收集数据，这对美国在该领域的建模非常重要，它将给美国学生提供全球参与的经验。研讨会由国际科学与工程办公室和大气科学部共同资助。

Abebe Kebede of North Carolina A&T University will lead a team of ten US scientists and two students to conduct a one-day workshop in conjunction with International Heliophysical Year-Africa, a larger conference on space weather and its effects. The scientists are from various organizations and institutions including NOAA, NASA, Boston University, the U. S. Air Force, NC A&T State University, Addis Ababa University and Bahir Dar University. The workshop will be jointly hosted by Addis Ababa University and Bahir Dar University. The goal of the workshop is to develop international collaborations among space scientists whose research interests include (1) longitudinal and seasonal variations of total electron content (TEC), (2) variations in ionospheric plasma parameters, and (3) scintillations at mid and low-latitudes. This collaboration uses various groundbased instruments to gather data. The workshop will focus on the impact of solar phenomena and associated magnetospheric, ionospheric and geomagnetic effects on the near-earth space environment. Data on these phenomena are used in forecasting space weather. To date, relatively little data from Africa has been collected. Because data from all over the world is needed to develop robust forecasting models, obtaining more data from the continent is vital. The collaborative network developed through this workshop will investigate the phenomena during quiet and disturbed space weather conditions and contribute to a better understanding of space weather and upper atmospheric processes during low and high solar activity periods. Geomagnetic storms can cause electric power blackouts by inducing damaging currents in the electric power grids, form high energy particles that cause damage to satellites, present an increased risk of radiation exposure for humans in space and in high- altitude aircraft, change the atmospheric drag on satellites, cause errors in Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and in VLF navigation systems, cause loss of HF communications, and cause disruption of UHF satellite links. Improvements in the prediction of these storms will be of great benefit to the civilian and military communities. The workshop will strengthen US-African collaboration in this field of space weather, allow for greater data collection in Africa that is important for US modeling in this field, and it will give US students experience in global engagement.The workshop is co-funded by the Office of International Science and Engineering and the Division of Atmospheric Sciences.