2012 - Cosmic Ray Division

2012

http://ecrs2012.sinp.msu.ru

23rd European Cosmic Ray Symposium (and Russian Cosmic Ray Conference) Moscow, Russia, 2 – 6 July, 2012

First Circular

The 23-rd European Cosmic Ray Symposium ECRS-2012 will be held at the Lomonosov Moscow State University in Moscow from July 2 through July 6, 2012.

ECRS-2012 is 23-d in a series of European Cosmic Ray Symposia. The official web-site of the Symposium is http://ecrs2012.sinp.msu.ru

InternationalAdvisory Committee:

A.W.Wolfendale (chairman) University of Durham, UK
P.Kiraly KFKI Research Institute for particle and Nuclear Physics, Budapest, Hungary
I. Anicin Faculty of Physics, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro
J.N.Capdevielle Astroparticule et Cosmologie APC, Paris, France
A. Chilingaryan Yerevan Physics Institute, Armenia
J.Dias de Deus IST/CENTRA, Lisbon, Portugal
A. Erlykin Lebedev Institute Moscow, Russia
E.Flückiger University of Bern, Switzerland
M. Giller University of Lodz, Poland
P. Gorodetzky Astroparticule et Cosmologie APC, Paris, France
E. G. Berezhko Institute of Cosmophysical Research and Astronomy, Yakutsk, Russia
K. Kudela Institute of Experimental Physics and Slovak Academy of Sciences, Košice, Slovakia
M. Panasyuk Moscow State University, Russia
P. Picozza University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy
M. Pimenta IST/LIP, Lisbon, Portugal
O. Ryazhskaya Russia Academy of Sciences and Institute for Nuclear Research, Moscow, Russia
O. Saavedra University of Torino, Italy
M. Simon University of Siegen, Germany
P. Spillantini University of Florence, Italy
M. Teshima Max-Planck-Institute for Physics, Germany

Scientific Organizing Committee (?):

M. I. Panasyuk (Russia, chairman)

V. S. Ptuskin (Russia)

A.D. Erlykin (Russia)

L.A. Kuzmichev Russia)
G. A. Bazilevskaya (Russia)

A. A. Petrukhin (Russia)

R.P. Kokoulin (Russia)

A.M. Galper (Russsia)
Yu. I. Stozhkov (Russia)

R.A.Mukhamedshin( Russia)

V.A. Dergachev (Russia) Ioffe PhysicalTechnical Institute (St Petersburg, Russia)

L.I. Miroshnichenko (Russia)

G.V. Kulikov (Russia)

Local Organizingcommittee (LOC):

M.I. Panasyuk (chairman)

L.G. Sveshnikova
A.S. Panov

A.Y.Varkovitskaya

A.K. Managadze

E.E. Korosteleva

A.Yu. Drozdov

O.N. Strelnikova

V. V. Nikitina

A. A. Prohorov

G.P.Shozieev

E.G. Popova

Scientific Program

The main goal of the European CosmicRay Symposium is that of spreading throughout the European Physics communitythe information concerning the status of the research in cosmic rays andrelated fields, the recent results, the new coming idea and the shortcoming new experiments. The symposium will consist of overviews, highlight and rapporteur’s talks as well as oral and poster presentations on the following topics:

PCR ( theory and experiments at all energies)
EAS, muons, neutrino – astrophysical aspect
GeV and TeV gamma astronomy
Energetic particles in the heliosphere (solar CR, anomalious Cts and GCR modulation)
Cosmic Rays and Geophysics. (Energetic particles in the atmosphere and magnetosphere of the Earth)
Miscellaneous (contribution from other areas)

TEPA-2012 conference

The first announcement

The Thunderstorms and Elementary Particle Acceleration (TEPA-2012) conference is the second one devoted to the studies of the extreme atmospheric effects connected with amplification of electric fields in the lower atmosphere. The first TEPA conference was organized in 2010 by Alikhanyan National Science Laboratory of Armenia. TEPA–2012 will be hosted by Lomonosov Moscow State University,Russia.
The conference will be organized by Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics of Lomonosov Moscow State University (SINP MSU), Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IKI),Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (FIAN), Pushkov Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radiowave Propagation of theRussian Academy of Sciences (IZMIRAN), Russian Federation, and Alikhanyan National Science Laboratory, Armenia.

Dates

TEPA-2012 conference will be held from July 9 till July 11, 2012, just after the 23rd European Cosmic Ray Symposium also organized by MSU (http://ecrs2012.sinp.msu.ru)

Organizers

The conference will be organizedby Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics of Lomonosov Moscow State University(SINP MSU), Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IKI),Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (FIAN), PushkovInstitute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radiowave Propagation of theRussian Academy of Sciences (IZMIRAN), Russian Federation, and AlikhanyanNational Science Laboratory, Armenia.

Overview

Recently new observations of the electromagnetic waves, X-rays,gamma-rays and particle fluxes, connected with thunderstorm activity have significantly altered the traditional picture of the Earth's atmospheric environment. Strong electrical fields inside thunderclouds give rise to fluxes of high energy electrons and, consequently, gamma rays and neutrons. Gamma rays are currently detected by the facilities of low orbiting satellites comprising the, so called,Terrestrial Gamma Flashes (TGFs). Intense particle fluxes, coinciding with thunderstorms, are also detected on Earth’s surface (mostly on mountain altitudes) by networks of particle detectors (Thunderstorm ground enhancements- TGEs). Enhancement of the fluxes of electrons and gamma rays usually coincide with large negative electric field between cloud and ground and with negative inter-cloud lightning occurrence in vicinity of particle detectors. Energy spectra of gamma rays measured during most intense TGEs prolonged up to 100MeV. Huge Enhancements of the particle fluxes point on relativistic runaway electron avalanches (RREA) process in the thunderclouds. Satellite measurements had shown that thunderstorm electrical effects extend into the upper atmosphere and ionosphere (also known as Transient Luminous Effects (TLE) and TGF). Correlation of intensive fluxes of electrons, gammas and neutrons measured by means of ground-based particle detectors with thunderstorm activity pointed on the new phenomena of Relativistic Feedback Breakdown (RFB) process initiated self-sustaining particle acceleration process in the atmosphere. All of these phenomena are probably interrelated, therefore it’s necessary to conduct coherent andmulti-components-bands measurements of all parameters connected with variability of atmospheric electricity.

Further studies of the Energetic Atmospheric Particle Events &Transient Luminous Effects in the low, upper atmosphere and in space are extremely important for our understanding of the nature of these new and very exiting physical phenomena for several reasons:

They provide unique information about particle acceleration and multiplication in the lower atmosphere during thunderstorms.
Generation and propagation of huge fluxes of electrons, positrons, gammas and neutronsnear the Earth's surface which probably directed upward to space (TGFs, etc…) form new global physical phenomena should be studied by new experimental and theoretical methods.
Electromagnetic emissions connected with thunderstorms trigger various dynamic processes in the Earth’s magnetosphere, causing global geo-effects and changing electrodynamic properties of the ionosphere.
The huge values of energy (up to several gigajoules in impulse) corresponding for upper atmospheric discharges can be really dangerous for high–altitudes flights.

The main goals of the conference

The aims of the TEPA-2012 are the following:

To organize a large forum for discussing of the recent observations and simulations of the extreme events in the atmosphere using both ground-based and satellites measurements in the different layers of the Earth’s atmosphere;
To discuss possible directions for the future researchand projects, and for international cooperation between scientific groups using different experimental methods and models.
To develop outreach programs in this field.

According to these goals the following topics will be covered:

Ground-based and space measurements of electrons,neutrons and gammas from the “Thunderstorm Particle Accelerator”;
Terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs) observations by gamma-ray observatories in-orbit;
Broadband electromagnetic signals detection from thunderstorms;
Transient luminous effects of thunderstorms and lightning in the upper atmosphere;
Runaway breakdown and relativistic positron/gamma-ray feedback;
Connections with space weather issues;
Joint observations by space-born and ground-based facilities;
Outreach topics.

Social program

The organizing committee plans to announce a very interesting sightseeing program including museums, theatres, historical placesof our beautiful capital and its suburban for our guests just before and after TEPA -2012.

Program Committee (preliminary)

1. Leonid Babich, Russian Federal Nuclear Center-VNIIEF, Russia

2. Ashot Chilingarian, Alikhanyan Physics Institute, Armenia, co-chair

3. Norma Crosby,Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy, Belgium

4. Lev Dorman,Israel Cosmic Ray Center and Emilio Segre' Observatory, Israel

5. Joe Dwyer,Florida Institute of Technology, USA

6. GeraldFishman, NASA, USA.

7. Aleksandr Gurevich, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia

8. Umran Inan, Stanford University, USA

9. Boris Khrenov, Moscow State University, Russia,

10. Karel Kudela,Institute of Experimental Physics, Slovakia

11. Vladimir Kuznetsov, IZMIRAN, Russia