E-SWAN Newsletter
PubCom, E-SWAN Newsletter Editor (
Volume 2026 Number 33 - February 7, 2026
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2026 started with a severe space weather storm. The naming committee has baptised this storm as the "Blue Monday Storm", as it came out of the blue on Blue Monday.
The EB is happy to announce that WG DE&I has been reactivated thanks to Rungployphan Kieokaew and Stijn Calders for their commitment to this.
The Executive Board is working on constructive support of the future European Space Weather Weeks, in close collaboration with the LOC of the ESWW 2026 conference, which will take place in Florence, Italy, from 2 to 6 November this year. We will also try to renew the ICA project with the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research to ensure three more years of substantial support.
We remain a vibrant and active research community. Thanks to all of you!
Enjoy reading this Newsletter.
Stefaan Poedts,
President of E-SWAN
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First Announcement: European Space Weather Week 2026 call for convening of sessions and discussion meetings, 2nd - 6th November 2026, Florence, Italy
European Space Weather Week (ESWW) 2026 will be held in Florence, Italy from 2nd - 6th November in a hybrid format. The overarching theme for ESWW2026 is ‘Data-driven and physics-based cross-scale space weather and space climate’.
The ESWW conference is an excellent opportunity for people from all over the world to gather and discuss the most recent insights in space weather and space climate, and to address the emerging challenges and impacts. Science, observations, data exploitation, data standards and metadata, service development, operational models, engineering and industrial needs are all important aspects of the field that are addressed.
One of the strengths of ESWW is that participants can contribute significantly to its content through Parallel Sessions, Plenary Sessions and Topical Discussion Meetings (TDMs). The ESWW Programme Committee (PC) and Local Organising Committee (LOC) are pleased to announce that the call for the convening of these sessions will be open during the following time window:
Opening date - 16th February 2026
Closing date (plenary and parallel) - 20th March 2026
Closing date (TDMs) - 3rd April 2026
A short synopsis of each element is given below. More information will be made available on the ESWW2026 website in due course: https://esww.eu/
Plenary Sessions
This year, the ESWW will host four plenary sessions.
* Two plenary sessions will be dedicated to topics proposed by the community. Here, the community is invited to submit proposals to convene.
Plenary session proposals are invited covering one or more of the following topics: modelling, data analysis, instrumentation, observations and measurements, end-user needs and applications, and R2O2R. The proposed sessions must fit within the theme of the conference, “Data-driven and physics-based cross-scale space weather and space climate”.
Proposals are sought that are engaging, of a particularly high-standard, relevant to the broader space weather and space climate community, and designed to stimulate discussion and debate.
* The other two plenary sessions will feature distinguished presentations proposed by the convenors of parallel sessions, promoting parallel sessions to a broader audience. As such these sessions will not be part of this call.
Parallel Sessions
This year ESWW PC decided to implement a new format for parallel sessions. Those interested in convening a session at ESWW2026 may submit a proposal to one of the following Topics:
- SOL - The Sun and Solar activity
- HEL - Heliosphere (including , e.g., solar wind, ICMEs, SEPs, GCRs, SW effects on other planets, etc.)
- MIT - Magnetosphere/Ionosphere/Thermosphere
- SWI - SW effects on Infrastructure
- SCL - Space Climate
- IOM - Instrumentation, Observation techniques, and Missions (including, e.g., sessions related to end-users and applications)
- OTH - Other topics
Proposers have the freedom to choose the title for their session. In the session description, the motivation and the reason why the proposed session is relevant for this year should be provided in one or two sentences. The proposed session may be a general one or focusing on a specific subject related to a selected Topic.
A single OPS session is intended, which will welcome submissions on research topics related to Space Weather and Space Climate but not covered by any other focused sessions. The OPS session will be proposed by the PC and a team of conveners to lead such session will be announced later. One member of the PC will join the team to offer support.
The PC strongly encourages those who have not previously proposed a session to do so. In line with our commitment to diversity and inclusion, we welcome and encourage applications from conveners of all backgrounds, including but not limited to, different career stages, geographical locations, ability, genders, and ethnicities.
Topical Discussion Meetings
Topical Discussion Meetings (TDMs) are an important component of the European Space Weather Week (ESWW) – a format meant to facilitate engaging debates within the heliospheric, and space weather and space climate communities. These meetings provide the opportunity for interested participants to address key issues in a community forum style that complements the conference sessions. Potential conveners must describe in dedicated fields of the proposal form the target community, the expected outcome of the meeting, and its potential impact. After the selection of the proposed TDMs is made, the proposers will be informed in Q2 of 2026.
Postdoctoral Scholarship in High-Performance Computing for Space Weather Applications, Umeå University, Sweden
The Department of Physics at Umeå University, Sweden, offers a postdoctoral scholarship (2 years) in high-performance computing (HPC) for space weather applications.
To enable the future development of powerful space weather forecast models, we must first improve our understanding of the rapidly varying currents in the ionosphere and the mechanisms by which they generate geoelectric fields and geomagnetically induced currents (GICs) in the ground and in human infrastructure.
In this project, we will develop efficient HPC algorithms for analyzing ionospheric data from radar systems such as EISCAT_3D and from the Kiruna ALIS_4D Auroral Large Imaging System. We will also develop efficient HPC algorithm for modeling and identifying geoelectric fields and identifying GIC hotspots in Sweden.
Last day to apply is 19th of February, 2026. Starting date is 1st of April, 2026, or by agreement.
For more information about the position and how to apply, please visit:
https://www.umu.se/en/work-
For further information contact the Principal Investigator of the project, Associate professor
We would like to draw your attention to the upcoming COSPAR Panel on Space Weather Session entitled: COSPAR-26-PSW.8: Ground-Based Observations/Measurements and Networks/Infrastructures for Space-Weather Purposes.
Space weather is essentially the Sun’s influence and impact on our solar system, and in terms of the Earth, it’s the influence and impact on our local Space environment all the way down through our atmosphere with connectivity into the ground. While space-based observations and measurements are undeniably important, ground-based observations and measurements also play a critical role in providing data on both space-weather phenomena, and their impacts. Of connected importance are ground-based networks and infrastructures critical for recording these data, and the models that rely on these data.
This session will explore all aspects of ground-based observation and measurement capabilities from the Sun to the ground, their data, the inputs into key space-weather modelling tools, and also the infrastructures and networks of instruments needed both for the advancement of space-weather science, as well as for the continued and enhanced monitoring and forecasting of space-weather events. In addition, this session should also include data and instrumentation capable of measuring the impacts of space weather such as scintillation in radio-communication signals or ground-induced currents (GICs) travelling through high-voltage electricity lines and into/through the connecting transformers.
Convenors: Mario M. Bisi and Sarah Gibson.
COSPAR will take place 01-09 August 2026 in Florence, Italy.
The abstract deadline for this and all other COSPAR sessions is 13 February 2026 – so please don’t delay too long in your submissions.
We look forward to seeing you in Florence in August.
Deadline: 13 February 2026
We would like to draw your attention to COSPAR 2026 Session PSW.6: What are the critical parameters required to predict solar energetic particle events?
This session aims to get at the heart of the observations and physical processes that are critical to enable accurate SEP predictions:
Numerous solar energetic particle (SEP) forecasting models have been developed with a wide variety of approaches. Recent validation efforts, e.g. SEPVAL and the SEP Scoreboards, have demonstrated that SEP models show some skill at predicting SEP events on average but that models are not yet able to predict the characteristics of any given individual event with high fidelity. In other words, the current state-of-the-art tends to predict the average statistical SEP event associated with a certain set of triggers, whereas end-users need a prediction for THIS SEP event. This session asks which key physical parameters determine the unique characteristics for each SEP event? How do we capture the range of possibilities for a specific SEP event - likely, worst-case, and best-case outcomes? Which existing observations may improve predictive power but are not yet utilized in any schemes? How do solar wind
structures in the inner heliosphere impact SEP outcomes? Are there certain conditions that are always or only present during extreme SEP events? What do human forecasters use to predict SEPs? We encourage talks about the predictive nature (or lack thereof) of available observations or physical conditions, as well as sensitivity studies of SEP forecasting models.
The session PSW.6 convener team: Kathryn Whitman (NASA/JSC/SRAG), Claudio Corti (NASA/GSFC/CCMC).
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Abstract submission deadline for oral contributions: February 22, 2026
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Abstract submission deadline for poster contributions: April 15, 2026
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Early bird registration deadline: March 15, 2026
Call for International Teams at ISSI
The International Space Science Institute (ISSI) in Bern (Switzerland) and ISSI-BJ in Beijing (China) invite proposals for establishing International Teams to conduct collaborative research in the Space and Earth Sciences, including Heliophysics, Space Weather and Space Climate.
To be eligible, research projects must make use of data from space missions. These teams offer a unique opportunity to work collaboratively on a specific problem in space science with a multidisciplinary group of scientists, and in a stimulating environment. Many breakthough results in heliophysics have been obtained by such teams. Early career scientists are particularly encouraged to lead or co-lead such teams.
The deadline is March 13, 2026.
Two virtual Q&A sessions for proposal preparation will be proposed on Wednesday, February 18.
For further information and to download the call, see :
https://www.issibern.ch/scient
Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences – Special Edition - Equatorial Plasma Bubbles
Equatorial Plasma Bubbles: Mechanisms, Variability, and Impacts on Communication Systems
We welcome contributions addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:
- Modelling and observations of physical mechanisms behind EPB formation.
- Analysis of EPB dynamics in different longitudinal zones.
- Investigation of EPB spill-over events and their triggers.
- Effects of EPBs on GNSS, satellite-based, and terrestrial radio systems.
- Development and validation of techniques for EPB detection, nowcasting, and forecasting.
- Mitigation strategies to reduce EPB impacts on technology and infrastructure.
Topic editors
Anna Morozova, University of Coimbra, Portugal
Guozhu Li, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, China
Teresa Barata, University of Coimbra, Portugal
We welcome a range of submissions, including original research articles, reviews, methods papers, brief research reports, and perspectives.
Manuscript Submission Deadline 29 May 2026
https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/74730/equatorial-plasma-bubbles-mechanisms-variability-and-impacts-on-communication-systems
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