Workshops VLF-2004

ELF/VLF RADIO PHENOMENA:
GENERATION, PROPAGATION and CONSEQUENCES
in OBSERVATIONS, THEORY and MODELLING

A workshop sponsored by URSI Commission H and supported by the VERSIM IAGA/URSI joint working group.

The workshop will be held at Sodankyla Geophysical Observatory (SGO), from 09.00 on Monday, 27th September to 11.30 on Friday, 1st October 2004.

Sources: attention will be paid to lightning, sprites, wave-particle interactions, cyclotron maser action in the magnetosphere, triggering phenomena, heating experiments and other plasma instabilities.
Propagation: ducted and unducted magnetospheric whistler-mode signals, and propagation in the Earth-ionosphere waveguide (including Trimpi effects and Schumann resonances) will be covered.
Consequences: range from wave amplification and charged particle acceleration to pitch angle diffusion, precipitation into the loss cone and the production of excess ionisation in the lower ionosphere.
      Both ground-based and spaceborne results (e.g., from Cluster, Freja, Interball and Magion) will be considered.
      Fundamental theoretical (analytical) studies of all these phenomena, and numerical simulation techniques to investigate them, will be central to the discussions.
      Papers on similar phenomena occurring elsewhere in the solar system, or in the laboratory, will not be excluded.
      It is planned that an overview paper summarising the "state of the art" in the field will be published as soon as possible after the meeting.

Abstracts of around 200 words should be sent to Jyrki Manninen at SGO before Friday, 4th June 2004. These will be considered for oral (preferred) or poster (if necessary) presentation, by a Committee whose members include: U.S. Inan, D. Nunn, Y. Omura, C.J. Rodger, M.J. Rycroft, R. Singh, D. Shklyar, and T. Turunen.

Standard AV equipment will be available for the speakers (computer, data projector, video VHS-PAL, overhead projector, slide projector, DVD and CD players). We can offer a few computers with Internet connections for the participants, and if you have your own computer, we can provide Internet connections for up to 50 computers.

Registration:

Every participant of the workshop is required to pay a registration fee of 150 EUR. It can be paid by credit card (VISA, MasterCard, Eurocard) or by bank transfer. See Payment Information for instructions how to pay the fee.
The registration is done using the Registration Form.

Accommodation:

See alternatives for accommodation in the Accommodation Information page.

General information:

Location:
The Workshop will be held in the main lecture room at Sodankyla Geophysical Observatory (SGO). SGO is located at 67° 22' N, 26° 38' E, which is 130 km north of Rovaniemi and 7 km south of Sodankyla, in the middle of Finnish Lapland on the beautiful banks of the river Kitinen.

About Finland:
Finland is member of European Union and the only local currency is EURO. The population of Finland is a bit more than 5 million.

About Sodankyla:
Sodankyla is one of the biggest centres in Lapland with a population of about 10,000 and a surface area of 12,400 km2. The most important research organizations are the Sodankyla Geophysical Observatory, the Arctic Research Centre of Finnish Meteorological Institute, the EISCAT station, and the Ore Laboratory of Geological Survey of Finland.

Climate:
The time of the midnight sun lasts from 30th May to 15th July, and the polar night lasts from 19th to 25th December. The mean temperature in January is -14°C and in July +15°C. The snow cover usually lasts from 30 October to 15 May. There are about 150 nights of auroral displays per year and the probability to see aurora around the equinoxes is very high - provided the sky is clear.

Access to Sodankyla:
The nearest airport is at Rovaniemi (about 130 km south of Sodankyla; look at the map). There are 5 flights from Helsinki to Rovaniemi and back every day. There might be some additional flights depending on the season. More detailed information will be available in spring and summer 2004. You might also look for more information at Finnair's web pages.

Some flights are linked to bus connections to Sodankyla. All major car rental firms are available at the airport. Here is a link for bus timetables.

It is also possible to come by train from Helsinki to Rovaniemi. There are 2 night trains and 2 day trains every day. See the web pages of Finnish Railway company for more information.

Welcome to Sodankyla!

Jyrki Manninen
Geophysicist, Chairman of LOC

E-mail: Jyrki.Manninen@sgo.fi
Tel: +358-16-619824
Fax: +358-16-619875

Sodankyla Geophysical Observatory
Tahtelantie 62
FIN-99600 Sodankyla
Finland