Solar Heliospheric and INterplanetary Environment (SHINE) Workshop, 2023-2027

Solar Heliospheric and INterplanetary Environment (SHINE) is an affiliation of researchers within the solar, interplanetary, and heliospheric communities, dedicated to promoting an enhanced understanding of the processes by which energy in the form of magnetic fields and particles are produced by the Sun and/or accelerated in interplanetary space, and on the mechanisms by which these fields and particles are transported to the Earth and elsewhere in the heliosphere. This project continues the highly successful series of SHINE workshops for the next five years; SHINE workshops have been held annually since 1995 and annually as stand-alone meetings since 1999. The SHINE workshop has a strong participation by students and post-doctoral researchers, representing about 30% of the whole participant population. SHINE students supported by NSF funding have been organizing a student-only student day on the Sunday preceding the workshop, which will continue with this award. Overall, SHINE provides a unique opportunity for students to participate and organize a workshop in the solar, interplanetary and heliospheric communities. SHINE research focuses in particular upon: (i) the connection between events and phenomena on the Sun and their relation to solar wind structures in the heliosphere; (ii) the origin and evolution of the solar wind; (iii) the nature of turbulence in the interplanetary medium; and (iv) the production and transport of solar energetic particles from the Sun through the heliosphere. The goal of SHINE activities is to enrich and strengthen both the physical understanding and predictive capabilities for these phenomena. Further details about SHINE can be found at http://www.helioshine.org/. The goals of SHINE are parallel to those of NSF’s GEM and CEDAR programs. This project will contribute in creating collaborations between researchers to move towards more advanced studies of the solar-terrestrial system. These collaborations made possible by the workshop are expected to improve our present understanding of the basic physical processes underlying the Sun-Earth system. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.