Overview

The sixth COSPAR Capacity Building Workshop will address practical aspects of Cluster-II and other spacecraft missions to the magnetosphere. After a concise introduction to the measurement principles of field and particle instruments, the participants will focus on data analysis techniques for single-spacecraft missions and also for multipoint measurements. Selected modeling approaches will be discussed to facilitate the physical interpretation of analysis results.

The workshop will be held in Sinaia, Romania, from June 4-16, 2007. During the first part of the workshop, the participants will be exposed to a number of data analysis techniques as well as to the principles of spacecraft instrumentation and plasma modeling in lectures and hands-on computer sessions. The second part of the workshop will be devoted to project work. The participants will form small teams and work on projects defined by the team members and the lecturers. The project results will be presented at the workshop STIMM-2 taking place in the same hotel from June 12-16, 2007.

Target participants are postgraduate students and postdoctoral researchers from Central and Eastern Europe and the surrounding region, in particular, from Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. In order to make sure that all potential participants have the chance to attend the COSPAR Capacity Building Workshop, the expenses for accommodation and board will be covered, and travel support can also be made available at a level depending on need and status of applicants. Financial constraints and a limited number of hotel rooms introduce an upper limit to the possible number of students and call for an application and a selection procedure. There will be some opportunity for students from more developed countries to attend, but they should be prepared to support a significant part of their expenses.

Scientific Programme and Workshop Schedule

First part: lectures and computer sessions

Three lectures (60 minutes each) will be offered in the morning hours of the first week. The methods and tools introduced in these lectures will be practised in the afternoons during hands-on computer sessions. The allotted time for one computer session is two hours. Here is a tentative list of topics to be addressed during this first part of the workshop.

• Spacecraft missions to the magnetosphere
  (Cluster-II mission aspects, basic analysis techniques and multi-spacecraft data, introduction to public data archives)
• Magnetic and electric field measurements
  (field instruments overview, space magnetometry, AC fields and wave analysis tools)
• Particle spectrometry in space
  (principles of particle spectrometry, conceptual introduction to kinetic theory, interpretation and modeling of particle spectra)
• Modeling magnetospheric structure and dynamics
  (boundary layer coupling and analysis, auroral processes in spacecraft data, conjugate observations and event-based modeling)

Second part: project work

All participants (students and lecturers) are encouraged to contribute to the definition of the team projects. The proposals will be presented to the workshop audience as a whole, the students will indicate their preferences, and the project teams will be defined. The project results will be presented in the context of the STIMM-2 workshop, and the awarding of diplomas will formally conclude this COSPAR Capacity Building Workshop.

Afterwards, the participants will have the opportunity to take part in the STIMM-2 workshop.

Lecturers

• Uli Auster (TU Braunschweig)
• Thierry Dudok de Wit (CNRS Orleans)
• Edita Georgescu (MPE Garching)
• Stein Haaland (Univ Bergen, MPE Garching)
• Tomas Karlsson (Alfven Lab Stockholm)
• Berndt Klecker (MPE Garching)
• Joseph Lemaire (IASB/BIRA Bruxelles)
• Goetz Paschmann (MPE Garching)
• Ondrej Santolik (Univ Prague)
• Joachim Vogt (Jacobs Univ Bremen)

Venue

The workshop will take place in the Hotel COTA 1400 in Sinaia. This hotel was already chosen as the venue for the first STIMM workshop in September 2005 and the second STIMM workshop will also take place there. The hotel offers a comfortable, three stars ambient, combined with the tranquility of a mountain chalet and a panoramic view over the Prahova valley. A good restaurant and a bar, fitness, sauna, and jacuzzi are available. Hiking paths, going up to the top of the mountain, at 2000 meters, or down to the beautiful Royal Sheepfold and further to Peles Castle, pass nearby.

The town of Sinaia is situated on Bucharest - Brasov railway. There are plenty of trains leaving from Bucharest North (Bucuresti Nord) station and the trip takes 1h30 to 2h. For a railway timetable, see www.cfr.ro. Bucharest North can easily be reached from Bucarest Henri Coanda (Otopeni) international airport by taking the RATB express bus 783 to Piata Victoriei or Piata Unirii underground stations, from which you need to take the subway to the 'Gara de Nord' station. More information about airport access is avialable here.

Hotel Cota 1400 is located at 10 km from the city of Sinaia. Once you are in Sinaia, either take a taxi to the hotel, or take the cable car (telecabinei), which ends next to the hotel. See here for a map of Sinaia.

Practical information

Currency : The local currency is Romanian Lei (RON). On May 29th 2007, the exchange rates were 1 RON = 0.30 EUR and 1 RON = 0.41 US$. For various transactions and money exchange, we strongly recommend that you contact only authorized institutions, such as banks or exchange offices. Foreign exchange facilities are available at the Henri Coanda (Otopeni) International Airport, in the railway stations, and in most hotels in Sinaia. Bank opening hours: Monday to Friday: 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, closed on weekends. Visitors are advised to bring cash with them, or to exchange some money when entering the country. Credit cards (VISA, MasterCard) and Traveller's Cheques are accepted by most banks.

Language: whilst Romanian (a Latin family language) is spoken throughout Romania, you will easily find English speakers. Most of the hotel and restaurant staff speaks English.

Electricity is supplied at 230 volts / 50 Hz.

Organisation

Sponsors

• Romanian Space Agency (ROSA), the
• Romanian Ministry for Education and Research (RMER), the
• European Space Agency (ESA),
• ITT Visual Information Solutions (ITTVIS),

Organising Committee

• Adrian Blagau (ISS Bucharest-Magurele, Romania, and MPE Garching, Germany)
• Mircea Ciobanu (ISS Bucharest-Magurele, Romania)
• Horia Comisel (ISS Bucharest-Magurele, Romania)
• Dragos Constantinescu (IGEP Braunschweig, Germany, and ISS Bucharest-Magurele, Romania)
• Thierry Dudok de Wit (CNRS Orleans, France)
• Marius Echim (BIRA-IASB Bruxelles, Belgium, and ISS Bucharest-Magurele, Romania)
• Dumitru Hasegan (ISS Bucharest-Magurele, Romania)
• Octav Marghitu (ISS Bucharest-Magurele, Romania, and MPE Garching, Germany)
• Marius-Ioan Piso (Romanian Space Agency)
• Joachim Vogt (International University Bremen, Germany)
• Peter Willmore (University of Birmingham, UK)
• Bernard Zufferey (European Space Agency)

Application Procedure and Timelines

The application deadline has passed.

Timelines:

• October 1, 2006: First announcement.
• December 1, 2006: Second announcement with information on the application procedure.
• March 20, 2007: Deadline for receiving applications through the online application form.
• March 31, 2007: Confirmation of acceptance.

COSPAR Capacity-Building Workshops

In 2001, COSPAR initiated a series of Capacity-Building Workshops, designed to create lasting bridges between researchers in developing and developed countries in a variety of space related domains. For information about the workshop objectives, scientific programs, funding, practical requirements, and how to submit proposals, please see the COSPAR Capacity Building Workshop guidelines. Workshops held to date are listed below.

• Regional Workshop for African Oceanographers: Ocean Remote Sensing: a Tool for Ocean Science and Operational Oceanography, 19 - 30 September 2005, Rabat, Morocco.
• Regional Workshop for African Astronomers and Space Scientists: Data Processing from the Chandra and XMM-Newton Space Missions: An Advanced School for Multi-wavelength Astrophysics, 28 June - 9 July 2004, Durban, South Africa.
• Regional Workshop for Space Physicists from South-East Asia: Analysis of Data from Multisatellite Magnetospheric Missions, 4 - 13 May 2004, Beijing, China.
• Regional Workshop for Asia-Pacific Astronomers: Data Processing from the Chandra and XMM-Newton Space Missions: An Advanced School for Astronomers Working at all Wavelengths, 13 - 24 January 2003, Udaipur, India.
• Regional Workshop for Latin American Astronomers: Data Processing from the Chandra and XMM-Newton Space Missions: An Advanced School for Astronomers Working at all Wavelengths, 4 - 13 December 2001, São José dos Campos, SP - Brazil.