EMIW 2022

The 25th Electromagnetic Induction Workshop (EMIW) took place in Çeşme, Turkey.

Initially, the “Electromagnetic Induction in the Earth and Planetary Bodies” community was a IAGA working group and part of IAGA Division-I. Some years ago it was upgraded to Division-VI. The most visible outcome of the Division’s activity is closely linked to the International EM Induction Workshops (EMIW). These conferences focus on all theoretical and practical aspects of investigating the spatial distribution of electrical properties within the Earth's and planetary interiors and particularly electrical conductivity, and their relationship with physical parameters considered in seismology, rheology, petrology, hydrology, volcanology, etc.. The techniques used in this domain are applied to investigate geological structures and processes ranging from meter to mantle scale. The workshops focuses also on training Early career researchers (ECRs).

The Division VI chair, Dr. Ute Weckmann, and the Chair of the Local Organising Committee, Dr. Ahmet T. Başokur, inaugurating the EMIW 2022 workshop in Turkey.

The EMIWs are organized once in two years. The history of these workshops reaches back to 1972 when the 1st EMIW took place in Edinburgh, Scotland. Now the 25th EMIW was held on 11-17 September 2022 in Çeşme, Turkey. Çeşme is a town in the west of Izmir on the Aegean Sea. Exceptionally, the last conference was four years ago (Helsingør, Denmark, in 2018). Due to Covid-19, the 25th EMIW had been postponed from 2020 to 2022. Thanks to the Local Organizing Committee (LOC, Chair: Ahmet Başokur) it was a big success. Approximately 150 people from all over the world attended. Besides the traditional invited review talks, ca. 55 oral contributions and 140 posters were presented. After the Covid pandemic, attending the workshop made everyone feel motivated and inspired. Some ECRs for the first time got a chance to interact and discuss with scientists from all over the world.

On 14th September there was an excursion tour. We visited the UNESCO World Heritage Site "The Ancient City of Ephesus", the Archaeological Museum, and the Basilica of Saint John. It was really good to learn about the architecture and lifestyle of the ancient people seen in the carvings and sculptures. The LOC has done a great job organizing such a wonderful workshop.

 

The participants of the workshop during the excursion to the UNESCO World Heritage Site "The Ancient City of Ephesus".

The EMIW community looks forward to the next workshop in Beppu, Japan, in 2024. The LinkedIn page of Division- VI can be found here.

 

 

Space News

Get ready to look up in the sky in 2 days. September 26th marks the Jupiter Earth opposition. An opposition occurs when a planet is 180 degrees from the Sun. This means that the Earth is between the Sun and the planetary body. This is possible only for planets that are beyond ours. For Jupiter, an opposition occurs every 13 months. But, this year, it is closer to Earth than it has been in over 50 years!

An image of Jupiter's Great Red Spot using data from JunoCam imager onboard the Juno spacecraft. Credits: Enhanced image by Kevin M. Gill based on images provided courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS

In other news, the James Webb Space Telescope has captured the sharpest ever image of Neptune with its rings! The planet being on the far end of our Solar System has not been visited by many satellites. This means our information about it is the least. But the telescope's near-infrared camera just took us a step closer to visiting and understanding the planet. Also pictured are its moons.

Neptune, its rings and its moons captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. Image Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScl. Image Processing Credits: Joseph DePasquale (STScl)

Movies Part 2: Doomsday

After the success of our last post about sci-fi movies, we are back with another movies' blog. This time,
we discuss movies that centre around the world ending, or more enthusiastically, Doomsday! The common point for all disaster movies is that people end up getting successful. How convenient. But then again, who would go watch a movie that shows the world was going to end and it did end. Oh wait....

Life's been thriving on Earth since billion of years, despite major changes over time. No doubt we are increasing the speed for reaching the last day, but you still need a lot of fiction to make up the scenario. And so this list is not going to be a ranking. Just more of a discussion, or rant. And spoilers.

First up, from the comments of our last post, is 'The Core'.

Well, well, well. This movie was a big series of 'If...' most of which I don't really see happening even IF we could get past one or two. The star of the movie unobtainium is definitely unobtainable, at least as far as we know now and probably after we know more too. But I'll give the movie one thing. It brought into highlight the geomagnetic field, which doesn't happen much. Hopefully, people knew a little more about the Earth's interior through the movie.

Next up, from suggestions, is 'Armageddon'.

It was not a science fiction. The genre was drama and NASA was in the background playing Cupid. There was friendship, there was love, there was car racing in space, but most important of all, there were drillers. Who trained in 18 days. Because that's possible. And saved the planet. Because why not. When all logic fails you do the next best thing- star studded cast. Now everything checks out.

Okay. For this one I'll be serious and I won't nitpick. It's 'The Day After Tomorrow'.

This movie shows the possible outcomes of climate change, though a bit extreme. But if you thought, 'Oh my!' watching this, you were right, you should think that. Because we don't realise it but climate change is going to blow up in our faces and then we wouldn't be able to do anything. We might still have a chance now. Not saying it was a scientifically accurate movie, but does leave you to think about something that is of concern right now.

We now have the 'world going to end and it did' movie, 'Don't Look Up'.

It's true. Don't look up. You'll end up seeing something you shouldn't. I mean, what's the point of the world ending if we already know about it. It would be fun if its a surprise. But at this rate, everybody would just know the exact time of that damned asteroid hit. I mean the dinosaurs already did it. It's not cool anymore. But alas, history repeated itself in this movie, but with a comet. At least they did not pretend to be a sci-fi. It was clear from the very beginning that it was a satire.

And finally,  the 'world going to end and it did but still managed to revive life' movie, 'Knowing'.

This was a very different kind of science fiction which made it fun. Of course like all other movies it had a supernatural element but it was shown as a mystery which piqued interest even if you found it illogical. Though at times you do wonder if you are watching a horror movie. But the real question here is would you willingly go with some random dudes to another world?

Congratulations, you reached the end. I didn't intend it to be this long but it's okay. More movies for next time! Keep commenting.

Image credits: The mighty Internet (sorry, couldn't find the right credits)

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Shivangi Sharan is a third year PhD student at the Laboratory of Planetology and Geosciences in France. Her research focusses on the study of the magnetic field of planets and to infer their internal structure from it. She is an active member of the IAGA Blog Team and can be contacted via e-mail here.

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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.

Europlanet Public Engagement Funding Program 2022

The Europlanet Society has set up a funding scheme for funding outreach projects. The prize, awarded annually, varies from 1000 to 5000 euros depending on the project selected. The aim is to widen the reach of the scientific community. It is awarded to individuals or groups that come up with innovative ideas along with a social impact.

This year's award has been awarded to Katia Pinheiro and her team for the creative project 'Bimbim's Team: A Journey to the Planets'. Katia is an active member of our IAGA social media, responsible for video creation and production. She is also the co-chair of the Geomagnetic Observation Working Group. Along with two more members of the IAGA social media and her other colleagues, she plans to introduce little kids to the interesting world of planets and the solar system. 

 

Congratulations to the team! 'Bimbim's Team' will do sets of stories about planetary science through the use of puppets. This will make education fun as well as knowledgeable. To get a sneak peak of the puppets, watch this video.

To get all updates about the project and the final movies, stay tuned on IAGA social media channels!

On This Day #1

If we look back on this day in history, it marks the birth anniversary of Hans Christian Ørsted. He was a Danish physicist and chemist born on 14th August 1977 who formed the foundation of electromagnetism.

A portrait of Hans Christian Ørsted by Christian Albrecht Jensen (1842). Source: Wikipedia

The presence of an electric current deflects a compass needle was the starting point of this discovery. Now, we apply it to objects as big and far away as the planets and space. Much of what the IAGA community does is based on the interaction of electric and magnetic fields.

In his honour, Ørsted (Oe) is the unit of magnetic field strength in the CGS (centimeter-gram-second) system of units. The first Danish satellite was also named after him. The Ørsted satellite launched in 1999 provided magnetic field data around Earth. Many geomagnetic field models make use of this data even today.

6th IAGA Summer School

The 6th IAGA Summer School will be conducted from 6th to 11th July 2023 in Niemegk Observatory, Germany. As always, it is conducted in the week before the General Assembly. The IUGG Assembly will take place in Berlin, Germany from 11th to 20th July 2023.

IAGA will sponsor around 20 early career researchers (ECRs) to attend and stay at the summer school. The school provides a chance to interact with fellow ECRs in the community and gives an understanding about a wide range of topics relating to magnetism and aeronomy.

Images from the IAGA 2017 summer school hosted by SANSA Space Science, Hermanus in South Africa.

The last date to apply is 30th September. ECRs need to fill the application form and submit it to the head of the IAGA Division they belong to. To know more about the application process, click here.

To know more about IAGA and its Summer Schools, look for our blog series 'All things IAGA' in the right hand panel, or click here.