Triennial Earth-Sun Summit 2024 (Eclipse special!): Tips for media

Hilton Anatole
2201 N Stemmons Fwy
Dallas, Texas 75207
7-12 April 2024

Press contact:
Liza Lester, +1 (202) 777-7494, [email protected]

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WASHINGTON — Press registration is open for the 2024 Triennial Earth-Sun Summit (TESS24) sponsored by the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and American Astronomical Society (AAS), to be held 7-12 April 2024 in Dallas, Texas, in the path of totality for the 8 April total solar eclipse.

Space weather impacts satellites, communications, GPS and power grids. TESS unites the community dedicated to the study of the Sun and its interactions with Earth and the other worlds in the solar system.

Reporters and press officers interested in press registration should email [email protected]. Please see press registration below for more information on eligibility or visit the summit’s online press center.

In this advisory:

1. Scientific program
2. Recommended talks and posters
3. Previews of solar missions launching soon
4. Press registration information
5. Save the date for future conferences

Program

Browse by day or keyword search nearly 400 presentations in the online program. Please email [email protected] for assistance contacting presenters. All presentations are in-person and will not be recorded.

Recommended sessions:

Machine learning and expanded measurements update existing tools for nowcasting and forecasting of solar activity
Observations of the Sun’s magnetic field can help scientists forecast solar flares and coronal mass ejections. Machine learning improves the performance of a commonly used solar model, and here, scientists expand its use to forecast solar ionizing radiation that impacts Earth’s upper atmosphere. Talk Tuesday 9 April, 2:15 – 2:30 pm CT in Stemmons A (Hilton Anatole)

NOAA ups intensity forecast for Solar Cycle 25 peak, now expected late 2024
The waxing and waning pattern of solar activity, called a solar cycle, impacts the timing and severity of solar storms, which can interrupt technology on Earth. NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center presents new predictions for the current solar cycle’s peak and variability through 2032. Using this new model, the Center expects the current cycle’s peak to be stronger and sooner than expected when the cycle began in 2019. Talk Tuesday 9 April, 3:15 – 3:30 pm CT in Stemmons C (Hilton Anatole)

Superflares could happen every 6,000 years
Superflares are massive flares that are at least 10 times more energetic than the largest flares observed on the Sun in the past 30 years. Scientists are unsure if such superflares can occur on our Sun, but they have been observed on other Sun-like stars, suggesting it’s possible—and raising questions about what impacts such an event would have on Earth. Talk Wednesday 10 April, 11:30 – 11:45 am CT in Stemmons C (Hilton Anatole)

1,400 undergrads make light work of flare frequency data crunching
Why is the corona so inexplicably hot? One possibility is frequent tiny nanoflares deliver heat to the corona. But a different energy transport mechanism is more likely, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins who organized 1,400 undergraduates to aggregate tens of thousands of solar flare observations. Each needed human attention to be interpretable – a perfect student project for the pandemic, when in-person lab experience was not possible. Lightning talk Wednesday, 10 April, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm CT, Stemmons A (Hilton Anatole)
Poster Thursday, 11 April 2024 : 3:30 – 4:30 pm CT, Stemmons A (Hilton Anatole)

New Korean network provides near-real-time ionospheric monitoring
Accurate forecasts of the total electron count (TEC) in Earth’s ionosphere are important because TEC can indicate space weather that could, in turn, impact ground-to-satellite communications. A new, near-real-time monitoring system uses GNSS data from 40 stations in Korea to generate maps of TEC every 15 minutes, with planned expansion to Micronesia, Antarctica and research ships. These new data allow for improved 24-hour TEC forecasts. Poster Wednesday 10 April, 3:30 – 4:30 pm CT in Atrium (Hilton Anatole)

Ionospheric waves in the wake of dawn, dusk and solar eclipses
The transition between darkness and sunlight at sunrise and sunset can make waves in the ionosphere, a region of Earth’s atmosphere extending from 80 to 600 kilometers above the surface and full of particles charged by collision with the solar wind. Solar storms, volcanoes and other big events can also cause these “traveling ionospheric disturbances” that move energy around in the upper atmosphere and can impact radio communication and navigation. This study tracks the disturbances at the edge of daylight – including the shadow of the moon during the solar eclipse.
Talk Wednesday, 10 April, 5:45 – 6:00 pm CT, Carpenter (Hilton Anatole)

Parker Solar Probe makes first observations inside a coronal mass ejection at the source
On its 13^th close encounter with the Sun in 2022, the spacecraft flew through the fastest coronal mass ejection of solar cycle 25, sending home the first measurements from inside an ongoing magnetic reconnection associated with an eruption in the solar corona. Talk Friday, 12 April, 12:15 – 12:30 pm CT, Carpenter (Hilton Anatole)

Voyager missions send the first observations from interstellar space
Voyager 1 and 2 have both passed through the heliopause, the boundary of the Sun’s enormous magnetic field. The venerable spacecraft are beaming home the first observations of plasma, cosmic rays and the magnetic field from interstellar space, outside the solar wind’s bubble, with some surprises for scientists. Talk Friday, 12 April, 2:00 – 2:15 pm CT, Stemmons C (Hilton Anatole)

Someday we’ll find it, the Mars magnetic reconnection
The magnetic field generated by Earth’s internal dynamo protects the surface from radiation and the atmosphere from erosion in the solar wind. Present-day Mars is not enveloped in a global magnetic field like Earth, but some regions of Mars’ surface generate strong magnetic fields. The complex interaction of these “crustal fields” with the solar wind can produce energetic events called magnetic reconnection and is believed to contribute to loss of atmosphere at Mars. A new study uses observations of magnetic reconnection at Mars globally to better understand the geological evolution of the planet. Talk, Friday, 12 April, 3:15 – 3:30 pm CT, Stemmons C (Hilton Anatole)

AI aims to forecast solar storms
Activity on the Sun’s surface can generate heavy weather in the space environment around Earth, causing trouble for satellites, power grids and other technology. With early warning, managers can mitigate complications from solar storms. Scientists are using a big dataset of emerging active zones and quiet regions on the Sun to train a machine learning algorithm to forecast activity on the Sun 24 hours in advance and provide early warning of oncoming bad space weather. Talk, Friday, 12 April, 3:15 – 3:30 pm CT, Stemmons B/D (Hilton Anatole)

Preview upcoming missions:

Musing on the forces heating the Sun’s corona: the Multi-slit Solar Explorer
The Multi-slit Solar Explorer (MUSE), to launch no earlier than 2027, will use a special spectrograph and imager for extreme ultraviolet radiation to study coronal plasma at a wide range of spatial scales. Results will help improve our understanding of fundamental processes in the low solar atmosphere, including coronal heating and the driving mechanisms of solar flares and coronal mass ejections. Poster Wednesday 10 April, 1:30 – 2:30 pm CT in Atrium (Hilton Anatole)

PUNCH satellites will observe young solar wind in 3D
How does mass and energy in the Sun’s corona become the solar wind? The four small satellites of the Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission, set to launch in April 2025 aim to find out. Learn about the mission goals, capabilities and participation of kids and curious people from underserved communities. Poster Thursday, 11 April, 3:30 – 4:30 pm CT in Atrium (Hilton Anatole)

Where (in the Sun) does the hot plasma for solar flares come from?
CubeSat Imaging X-ray Solar Spectrometer (CubIXSS) will train its instruments on the active regions of the sun to learn how flares heat plasma from 6,000 degrees Celsius at the Sun’s surface tens of millions of degrees Celsius. The nanosatellite’s one-year mission is planned to launch mid-2025 to coincide with SunCET and PUNCH and the perihelia of Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter. Talk Friday, 12 April, 4:30 – 4:42 pm CT in Stemmons A (Hilton Anatole)

Press registration

Staff, freelance and student journalists are eligible to apply for complimentary press registration through the end of the conference. Press officers and institutional writers covering the meeting are also eligible. Learn about AGU’s press eligibility requirements.

Reporters and press officers interested in press registration should email [email protected]. Please include a link to your institution’s staff page, byline or masthead listing your name and position. Freelancers should provide a link to a portfolio or links to at least three bylined science news stories published in the last 12 months.

Media access to the meeting is issued at the discretion of TESS24 Media Relations. All press registrants must provide credentials regardless of whether they have attended in the past. Please email us at [email protected] if you have a question about eligibility, what group you should register under, or other conference questions.

Save the date for more 2024 science

• Astrobiology Science Conference, 5 – 10 May in Providence, Rhode Islans, USA (registration open!)
• Water Science Conference, 23 – 28 June in Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA
• AGU24 Annual Meeting, 9 – 13 December in Washington, D.C., USA

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The Triennial Earth-Sun Summit (TESS) is a joint meeting of the Space Physics and Aeronomy Section of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and the Solar Physics Division (SPD) of the American Astronomical Society. TESS takes place every three years, with the lead organization rotating each meeting. AGU is the lead for the 2024 meeting

AGU (www.agu.org) is a global community supporting more than half a million advocates and professionals in Earth and space sciences. Through broad and inclusive partnerships, AGU aims to advance discovery and solution science that accelerate knowledge and create solutions that are ethical, unbiased and respectful of communities and their values. Our programs include serving as a scholarly publisher, convening virtual and in-person events and providing career support. We live our values in everything we do, such as our net zero energy renovated building in Washington, D.C. and our Ethics and Equity Center, which fosters a diverse and inclusive geoscience community to ensure responsible conduct. 

AAS (https://aas.org/) is the major organization of professional astronomers in North America. The AAS was established in 1899 and is based in Washington, DC. Our membership of about 8,200 individuals also includes physicists, mathematicians, geologists, engineers, and others whose research and educational interests lie within the broad spectrum of subjects now comprising the astronomical sciences. The mission of the AAS is to enhance and share humanity’s scientific understanding of the universe as a diverse and inclusive astronomical community.