ISELION 2018 (International School on Equatorial and Low Latitude Ionosphere)

Bandung, Indonesia, 05-09 March 2018

Merlin M. Mendoza

The equatorial and low-latitude ionosphere is a key region in the space around the Earth for safe and
reliable use of space by human beings, such as navigation by GNSS satellites and satellite-ground
communications. This region has a highest plasma density around the earth, and is highly disturbed by
plasma turbulence and irreguralities as well as electric currents. This region is also strongly affected by
the solar radiation and solar wind from above, as well as dynamical and chemical variations of the
neutral atmosphere from below. The Science Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Physics (SCOSTEP)
under ICSU has started 5-year program VarSITI (Variability of the sun and its terrestrial impact, 2014-
2018) to understand the solar variability and its impact on earth. With increasing interest on these
ionospheric dynamics, we will have an international school on the equatorial and low-latitude
ionosphere, in order to make capacity building of young researchers and graduate-course students in
this field in Indonesia and neighboring countries.
● ISELION is a short school wherein the topic of the lectures are

• Basic processes of space plasma

• Basic processes of the Earth’s upper atmosphere
• Ionosphere – structure and dynamics
• Processes in the equatorial ionosphere
• Coupling process atmosphere and ionosphere
• Measurement techniques and applications
• Data Processing

● During our stay, we were given the chance to visit LAPAN (like NASA for Indonesia).

● At their space station, we learned how the different instruments concerning space weather are
being used in terms of their physics and data processing.
● We were also given a group and a task to present an analysis of a solar storm during the day of
our visit.
● We also presented a poster related to our current research.
● The poster that I presented was entitled Response of the Ionospheric Total Electron Content on
Different Solar Storm Events over the Philippine – Taiwanese Region.

● At the last day of our stay, we were awarded our certificates of participation.
● We also got the chance to take a quick stop at Malaysia before heading back in the Philippines.