Dear all,

I would like to advertise an upcoming Specialist Discussion Meeting at the Royal Astronomical Society on the “Understanding the Space Environment Before the Space Age”. The meeting will take place on Friday the 10th of February in Burlington House, London, 1030-1530.

Please find below the meeting abstract.

Abstract submission is open until 1700 on Thursday the 12th of January, and can be submitted via email, or preferably via the google form available here: goo.gl/msbWe4

Please feel free to direct any questions to l.a.barnard@reading.ac.uk

Best wishes,
Luke Barnard

Abstract:
Most of our knowledge about the heliospheric environment is based on the interpretation of observations recorded by spacecraft and terrestrial instrumentation operating since the advent of the space-age. However, several proxy records of the Sun’s magnetic activity all demonstrate that the space-age has coincided with a period of unusually high solar activity, often termed a grandsolar- maximum. Furthermore, predictions have been made that the current grand-solar-maximum is ending, with observations of solar cycle 24 being, so far, consistent with this. Therefore it is reasonable to question how much our knowledge gleaned from these space-age observations is worth upon a return to more average levels of solar activity.

It is well documented that extreme space weather events still occurred before the space age and at more moderate levels of solar activity (e.g. the Carrington event), but our understanding of these events is limited by the availability of observations. However, although the network of observations is much reduced before the space-age, there have been successful investigations of historic heliospheric conditions and space weather events using data from terrestrial magnetometers, neutron monitors, ionisation chambers, ionosondes, cosmogenic isotopes depositions and atmospheric electricity. These data are also supplemented by sunspot drawings, eclipse observations, records of auroral sightings and descriptions of space weather event impacts. We encourage submissions on any investigations that gain historic insight into the space environment and space weather phenomena.