COSPAR

Understanding Solar Disturbances
This COSPAR Capacity Building Workshop provides an intensive, hands-on training experience focused on the physics of Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), Solar Energetic Particles (SEPs) 'solar wind high-speed streams', and their impact on the Sun-Earth system. Participants will learn to track solar disturbances from their origin in the solar corona to their eventual impact on Earth's magnetosphere and space- based technological systems.
The COSPAR Capacity-Building Workshops aim to promote the scientific use of space data by researchers in developing countries. They provide hands-on training using extensive archives from past and current space missions, along with online data analysis tools. This two-week workshop will focus on analyzing space-based observations of coronal mass ejections, solar flares, solar energetic particle events, solar radio bursts, and the solar wind, complemented by ground-based data on radio bursts and geomagnetic storms. Participants will work with data from the CDAW Data Center at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, including missions such as SOHO, STEREO, Wind, and ACE. Type II radio burst data from the e-CALLISTO network and the global Radio Solar Telescope Network will also be used, together with contextual data from NOAA’s GOES and NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The workshop is designed for scientists and students from developing countries. The workshop is designed for scientists and students from developing countries, especially from African nations. By the end of the workshop, participants will have the skills to conduct correlative analyses of Earth-impacting solar transients, thereby contributing to research on Sun–Earth connections. We expect to host 35–40 participants. The target audience includes primarily young scientists, PhD candidates, advanced Master’s students, postdoctoral researchers, and early-career professionals or junior staff members. Non-local participants will be fully accommodated in the university residence at no cost. Meals will be provided for all selected participants, and travel expenses will be partially covered. The school is free of charge.The program includes introductory lectures on the Sun, Solar Corona, Interplanetary medium, Solar Eruptions, Shocks, and Solar Radio Bursts, training in Python and web-based tools, and team projects that may lead to scientific publications. Participants may also apply for COSPAR fellowships to continue collaboration after the workshop.
Scientific Themes
The curriculum is divided into three core pillars:
(i) CME Dynamics and Shock Formation in the Solar Corona
- Physics of solar eruptions: CME initiation, acceleration, and interaction with the coronal environment.
- Magnetosonic shock formation and conditions required for shock development in the corona.
- Radial evolution of CME-driven shocks and their observational signatures using EUV imaging, coronagraph data, and solar radio emissions.
(ii) Particle Acceleration, Radio Signatures, and Spacecraft Effects Acceleration of SEPs by CME-driven shocks and flare-associated reconnection processes Solar radio diagnostics of particle acceleration (Type II and Type III bursts) Effects of SEPs on spacecraft materials and electronics.
(iii) Geomagnetic Storms and Space Weather in the Sun–Earth System Interplanetary magnetic field structure (especially B_z​) and its role in geomagnetic storm initiation Flux rope configuration and propagation of CMEs in interplanetary space Impacts of geomagnetic storms.