IAGA Workshop Experience: Dr. Amoré Nel

The 19th IAGA Workshop on Geomagnetic Observatory Instruments, Data Acquisition and Processing was held in Tihany and Sopron in Hungary from May 22nd to 26th 2023. Dr. Amoré Nel (in picture at the South African Antarctic base), one of the attendees from the South African National Space Agency tells us about herself and her experience of the workshop.

Friday morning the 19th May, armed with my poster for the 19th IAGA Workshop on Geomagnetic Observatory Instruments, Data Acquisition and Processing I boarded my flight from Cape Town to Vienna. This year it was hosted by the Tihany Geophysical Observatory and the Institute of Earth Physics and Space Science in Sopron, Hungary. There was a short layover in Doha, Qatar, which made my journey to Vienna, Austria 17 hours in total. From there it’s a hop, skip, and a Flixbus to Tihany in Hungary, where the IAGA summer school was held.

This is a long way from where I was born and raised; on a farm in the Free-State, South Africa. There I would spend hours on top of our barn at night with my Cambridge star atlas, becoming familiar with the seasonal patterns of the constellations. This instilled in me a lifelong passion for science. Years later I obtained my PhD in Space Physics: I studied black auroras by analysing EISCAT incoherent scatter radar and optical data and for this I had to do a brief stint in Tromsø, Norway, to get hands-on experience with the instrumentation. During this time I had the most irrational fear of meeting a rabid moose on that isolated road between the optical hut and our accommodation in the dead of night (It never happened of course).

After my PhD I traded in my laptop for an ice pick, and joined the 2018/2019 Antarctic summer takeover team to assist with the maintenance of the South African research base SANAE. Since 2019 I cut my teeth in Geomagnetism with a research visit to the Helmholtz GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, where my focus was on recording and analysing magnetometer observatory data and developing Southern African regional geomagnetic field models, under the mentorships of Drs. Jürgen Matzka and Achim Morschhauser. This prepared me for my new position as geomagnetic researcher at the South African National Space Agency in Hermanus.

Group photos from the 19th IAGA Workshop in Tihany (left) and Sopron (right) held in Hungary.

We were met with lovely spring weather in Tihany, and on Sunday we hit the ground running with a lecture on geomagnetic measurements presented by Jürgen Matzka. Detailed talks on observatory instrumentation was given by Hegymegi Lászlo and Domján Ádám on the second day of the programme. Another lecture that stood out was that on Data Processing, presented by Christopher Turbitt from the British Geological Survey. Practical sessions were held by Alan Berarducci at the Tihany observatory, which included DI measurements and Sun shots. Barbara Leichter from GeoSphere Austria and Balazs Heilig from the IEPSS did a fantastic job in organising everything, and guiding us from event to event. Hats off to them, I think it must’ve felt like herding cats! Monday evening we were treated with goulash and some of the local wine at Ferenc Pince overlooking Lake Balaton. Here I could’ve easily stayed for the rest of the week, absolutely marvelous food and company, the Hungarians are fabulous hosts.

Throughout these lectures and social events we had the chance to engage with other members in the geomagnetic observatory network, and I cannot overstate how important these face-to-face interactions are for those still new in the field: The knowledge and connections I’ve gained pertaining to the development and maintenance of geomagnetic observatories are invaluable, and I want to thank the organisers for creating this opportunity for us.

International Day of Women and Girls in Science

The International Day of Women and Girls in Science happened on the 11th February. Did you know, women are typically given smaller research grants than their male colleagues and, while they represent 33.3% of all researchers, only 12% of members of national science academies are women. So… let’s take a look at some of the awesome women connected to IAGA! Remember, all jobs undertaken by IAGA members are on a purely voluntarily basis alongside their full time jobs. 

Mioara Mandea is the current IAGA President, meaning that she oversees all 6 divisions of IAGA and represents IAGA on the international stage. Originally born in Romania, Mioara studied engineering and geophysics in Bucharest and Paris. Currently she works at Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, where she is head of Science Coordination in the French Space Agency. She has won multiple distinctions over her career, most recently the Officier de l’Ordre National du Mérite, a French order of merit awarded by the President. Her research is centered investigating the Earth’s deep inner structure from magnetic field data and has been responsible for a number of scientific advances in ground- and satellite-based observations. Among her most noteworthy contributions are her work on geomagnetic jerks, sudden changes in the magnetic field generated by Earth’s core, and on short-term variations in the magnetic field. 

Monika Korte is the current Secretary General for IAGA and assists Mioara with all administrative duties for IAGA, including overseeing the IAGA Newsletter and assemblies. Monika has been involved with IAGA leadership since 2001! Monika is German and has worked as the scientific head of the Niemegk Geomagnetic Observatory at GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam. Currently, she heads the Geomagnetism section at GFZ. She specialises in modelling the Earth’s global magnetic field on historical to paleomagnetic time scales, with a particular interest in geomagnetic excursions and reversals, and separating magnetic field sources. 

Barbara Leichter is the Chair of the Interdivisional Commission on Education and Outreach. The main goal of the ICEO is to simplify international cooperation by organizing IAGA schools and workshops, international networking, encouraging young scientists, and promoting the work of IAGA to the general public. Barbara is Austrian and based at GeoSphere, Austria. She is also the Austrian Delegate of IAGA. One of her tasks is the data check of the geomagnetic Conrad Observatory in Austria, geomagnetic survey of Austria the repeat station measurements and Geomagnetic map calculations, and to keep the IAGA blog and social media team in order!

We’re so thankful for the hard work of all the volunteers in IAGA, especially the women! One thing that Wikipedian Kelly Doyle has been doing to improve the gender balance in science is by organising Wikipedia “Edit-a-thons”, where volunteers sit down to add more female entries. Less than 19% of Wikipedia biographies in English represent women. We can’t wait for the day when there is no need for promoting these brilliant women anymore.

Vote! Vote! Vote!

UNESCO organised a film festival in collaboration with various geoscience partners to promote and showcase sustainable future. It is an international film and video festival that hopes to inspire and educate others about the Earth and its past as well as future. The Earth's Future Festival accepted movies from anywhere between 3 to 90 minutes. 

IAGA member Katia Pinheiro, along with other colleagues submitted the movie 'Magnetic Mosaic'. The movie talks about the geomagnetic field with an all women cast from GFZ Germany. The cast are all scientists from 10 different countries who work in geoscience. Click the link to watch the movie on YouTube and take a journey into the magnetic fields of Earth starting from the core and reaching beyond the atmosphere.

'Magnetic Mosaic' made it to the top 20 finalists out of 972 submissions in the festival and to the top 3 in the category "Woman in Geoscience".

Congratulations to the cast and everyone involved in the making behind the scenes! We now eagerly await the jury's decision, on October 15, 2022 at the Awards Ceremony in Sydney, Australia. In the meantime, you can show your support by voting for the movie for the 'People's Choice Awards'. Vote on the link below. All you need to provide is an email address.

https://www.earthfuturesfestival.com/peoples-choice

 

Cast-

Sanja Panovska 

Kuan Yu 

Monika Korte 

Tatiana Savranskaia  

Poulami Roy 

Elodie Kendall 

Katia Jasbinschek Pinheiro 

Sahar Sobhkhizmiandehi  

Julia Himmelsbach  

Marina Garcia Penaranda

 

Please feel free to share the link with your colleagues/groups or on social media.