Conveners
Outreach in Solar Physics: Outreach in Solar Physics
- Helen Mason (University of Cambridge)
- Hugh Hudson (UC Berkeley / U of Glasgow)
Description
A huge number of solar outreach and educational activities are carried out across Europe (for example linked to European projects such as EST and ESA’s Solar Orbiter) and beyond. Some of these projects are linked to the Arts, visual art (such as STFC’s SunSpaceArt) and music. This session is aimed at both informing the solar physics community about this work, sharing ideas and resources, and encouraging young solar researchers to engage with and develop outreach activities.
It is paramount that we share our knowledge and research about the Sun, solar wind, space weather and the heliosphere with the public, politicians, and the next generation (students and school children). The press and social media are, for example, a great way to reach the public. This is very timely with the Sun approaching solar maximum, large sunspot groups, solar flares and extensive auroral displays. Sharing our ideas and resources will enable us to reach further and have more impact.
This lunchtime session will comprise a few short introductory talks (5 minutes each) and a panel discussion.
The SunSpaceArt project, funded by STFC, comprises a team of scientists and artists. Over the past six years, we have run cross-curriculum (science, art, literacy) STEAM (STEM+Arts) workshops at hundreds of primary schools across the UK, especially those most in need of science enrichment. We have also run ‘drop-in’ activities for families at Science Festivals. These activities reinforce...
The 2024 April 8 total eclipse saw success with the "SunSketcher.org" project. In this effort all of the development was done by a diverse and highly interdisciplinary group of undergraduate students at Western Kentucky University. Their SunSketcher smartphone app was then taken up by tens of thousands of volunteers, aided by NASA publicity, and we are analyzing the data now. The basic...
In this talk we present outreach activities of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Goettingen (MPS, Germany). The MPS regularly organizes outreach events, such as the "night of science" in cooperation with the University of Goettingen, guided tours and public talks for MPS visitors, and "Max Planck goes to school", and also new approaches, like cinematic documentaries, are...
In this presentation we would like to introduce Chat s astronomkou, a series of outreach activities, mostly organised in the framework of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science and extending to International Women's Day. It is a project that aims to show the variety of topics that are researched in the Astronomical Institute of the CAS, so it is a joint effort of female scientists...
In 2021, the European Solar Telescope (EST) consortium organized the international competition “The Sun at a glance” to show the potential of the Sun for teaching science at school. Here we briefly describe the main organizational aspects, and the results of this activity.
The competition was designed to encourage students to research about the Sun and present their results in the form of...
I will talk briefly about the different types of outreach and public engagement opportunities that arose due to the recent severe geomagnetic storm and space weather effects that occurred in May 2024. I will discuss how to handle these opportunities and give advice, particularly for early career researchers, to those who are interested in participating in and developing outreach activities on...
The Solar Physics Group at the INAF-Turin Astrophysical Observatory (OATo) is involved in many Space Weather (SW) projects and missions. In particular, is leading the local project SWELTO-Space WEather Laboratory in Turin Observatory, aimed at the development of new tools and measurements of interest for SW.
After a period of testing based on the creation of weekly SWELTO SW reports, in April...
Sorvegliati Spaziali – looking up to Space to protect our Planet– is a project of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) and represents one of the world's first coordinated, complete and coherent public awareness campaign on the Planetary Defense by a research body.
From near Earth asteroids and comets to space weather, from meteors and meteorites to space debris, Sorvegliati...
