First China-Europe Solar Physics Meeting Accomplished
During May 15 – 19, 2017, the first China-Europe Solar Physics Meeting (CESPM-1) was successfully organised in the city of Kunming, Yunnan Province, China. The European Solar Physics Division (ESPD), on behalf of the entire European solar physics community, strongly endorsed and advocated for this gathering. Contributing to the CESPM-1 organisation, the ESPD was also delighted to participate in its deliberations.
The joint initiative envisions recurring CESPMs on a biennial basis, alternating between Chinese and European hosts. CESPM-1 was made possible via the Yunnan Observatory, Nanjing University, National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The second meeting of the series, CESPM-2, has been already announced for May 2019 and will be held at the island of Hvar, Croatia, hosted by the Hvar Observatory and other European institutions.
CESPM-1 was the decisive culmination of previous bilateral meetings between China and France / Germany, leading to multiple – but with rather limited attendance – solar physics meetings in the 1990s and 2000s. European integration and a vision to involve the wider European solar physics community led to this common forum of scientific interaction. CESPM-1 was attended by a total of 150 participants, about one third of which were of European affiliation.
CESPM-1 showed high standards of organization and scientific excellence. The meeting’s website can be found here while an assortment of the presentations is available at: http://cespm2017.csp.escience.cn/dct/page/70008
Key areas of contemporary solar physics science, instrumentation and strategic planning for both China and Europe were exposed during the discussion, while grounds for synergistic action were identified and investigated. The meeting concluded with the consensus that CESPMs will not only continue, but thrive, in the foreseeable future.
A detailed summary of CESPM-1 was composed and is available for downloading from the ESPD website, at: http://www.eps.org/blogpost/739454/278709/Report-of-the-CESPM-1-Kunming-China
More information about the ESPD is at: http://solar.epsdivisions.org
Information about the forthcoming 15th European Solar Physics Meeting (ESPM-15) is at: http://astro.elte.hu/ESPM-15/
