News
A new “Agora” for non-traditional scientific output in the field of space weather and space climate.
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- Published on 14 June 2019
The Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate (JSWSC), published by EDP Sciences, announces the launch of a new supplement titled “Agora”. The Agora, a term which denoted in ancient Greek an assembly place for various aspects of public life including intellectual exchange and debate, will be the place for the space weather community to discuss, evaluate and distribute non-traditional scientific output in the field of space science and space climate, such as public outreach papers and historical accounts.
The first articlepublished in the Agora section analyses magnetic storms recorded in 1848 and 1872 in the old Clementinum (Prague) and Greenwich (UK) observatories. These events were marked by spectacular auroras recorded by several authors.
In an Editorial published recently in JSWSC, the Editors explain the importance of publishing this type of scientific output, and the need to design a new way to evaluate it.
“The decision to create a supplement to the JSWSC came from our difficulties to evaluate some articles. All Education and Public Outreach papers and papers on historical observations resulted in tense discussions within the Editorial Board, with final decisions always frustrating for some of the editors,” write the Editors. “In consequence, papers in a new supplement should not be subject to the same review process as in the regular issue of JSWSC.”
The creation of a supplement to the journal was discussed with the Associate Editors of JSWSC. These discussions resulted in the specification of the characteristics of the supplement which would accommodate publications fundamentally different from the journal’s regular research, technical, and review papers. Agora will publish papers on Education and public outreach, Historical space weather events and observations, Commentaries, Meeting reports and Project reports.
The articles for the Agora supplement will be internally reviewed by at least four editors, among them the Editors in Chief and the Editorial Advisor. In order to meet the needs of potential contributors, the new articles in the supplement will be indexed similarly to regular JSWSC papers, will receive a DOI and will be citable. However, the supplement will clearly be marked as evaluated by members of the editorial board as opposed to external peer reviewers.
As with all other articles published in the gold open access Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate, Agora articles are published as soon as possible after acceptance, in the current volume. They are also collated in a special Agora collection accessible at: https://www.swsc-journal.org/agora. All articles published in JSWSC are freely accessible to all and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0).
About EDP Sciences
EDP Sciences is a not-for-profit publisher with nearly 100 years of history. Established in 1920 by the French Physics Society and several renowned scientists and industrialists including Louis de Broglie, Jean Perrin and Marie Curie, EDP Sciences is still owned by learned societies and has a mission to participate in the dissemination of important research that accelerates scientific progress and cross-fertilisation of ideas of the society in general. EDP Sciences publishes over 70 scientific journals in the physical sciences, applied mathematics, materials and engineering, life and environmental sciences, health and biomedical sciences. It also publishes open access conference proceedings and books. More information about EDP Sciences.
About the Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate
The Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate (JSWSC) is an international multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary peer-reviewed open access journal which publishes papers on all aspects of space weather and space climate from a broad range of scientific and technical fields. Visit JSWSC online to read the instructions for authors and submit your paper; sign up for email-alerts or to recommend the journal to a colleague.
Topical Issue "Scientific Advances from the European Commission Horizon 2020 projects on Space Weather", deadline 30 September 2019
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- Published on 26 March 2019
The Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate (JSWSC) opens a Topical Issue on "Scientific Advances from the European Commission Horizon 2020 projects on Space Weather".
The editors wish to clarify the following points:
- All EC-H2020 projects, funded by any of the H2020 work programme parts, which address space weather issues, are welcome to submit articles.
- The emphasis should be on novel scientific results. Copies of technical proposals or parts thereof should not be the main thrust of the articles.
Deadline for submissions is 30 September 2019. If you need additional time to complete your submission, please do not hesitate to contact the JSWSC editorial office at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
The type of contributions should fit the style of the JSWSC, which accepts research articles, technical articles, outreach articles, invited topical research and review articles. All manuscripts are peer reviewed according to the quality standards of international scientific journals. It is therefore required that all manuscripts submitted for publication in the JSWSC contain enough new insight, present the results against a properly referenced background of existing work, and present adequate evidence that supports the conclusions. Please write clearly, concisely and comprehensively and include all necessary and appropriate figures and tables but not more. Accepted papers are published in electronic form only, and are freely available to everyone via the JSWSC web site. JSWSC offers the possibility to include electronic material, such as animations, movies, codes and data.
Guidelines for submission of papers are on the Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate web site under the menu item "Author information/Instructions for Authors"
The Topical Editor-in-Chief (T-EiC) is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , Institute of Atmospheric Physics CAS, Czech Republic.
For questions regarding this topical issue, please contact the T-EiC. For questions concerning the submission process, the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. is at your disposal.
Topical Issue "Space Weather research in the Digital Age and across the full data lifecycle", deadline 30 September
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- Published on 09 January 2019
The Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate (JSWSC) plans a Topical Issue on "Space Weather research in the Digital Age and across the full data lifecycle" to appear in 2019.
The onset and rapid advance of the Digital Age have brought challenges and opportunities for scientific research characterized by a continuously evolving data landscape reflected in the four V’s of big data: volume, variety, veracity, and velocity. The big data landscape supersedes traditional means of storage, processing, management, and exploration, and requires adaptation and innovation across the full data lifecycle (i.e., collection, storage and processing, analytics, and representation). Despite this dramatic paradigm change Space Weather research has not fully embraced available approaches and techniques to facilitate new discovery and knowledge from data. Space Weather research in the Digital Age and across the full data lifecycleem> offers a tractable compendium that illustrates the latest computational and data science trends, tools, and advances for Space Weather research.
Topical Issue "System Science: Application to Space Weather Analysis, Modelling, and Forecasting", deadline 15 June 2018
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- Published on 15 December 2017
The Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate (JSWSC) plans a Topical Issue on "System Science: Application to Space Weather Analysis, Modelling, and Forecasting" to appear in 2018.
The construction of accurate dynamical models is fundamental to forecasting the many aspects of space weather. The process of deducing models for forecasting traditionally involved breaking the system into component parts and applying the laws of physics to each part to build up a description of that system. However, for complex space weather systems we do not have enough knowledge about some of the processes involved to build an accurate model solely from first principles. Alternatively, complex systems science based methods have been developed to deduce dynamical models from input-output data. The techniques developed in system science, such as system identification, machine learning, data assimilation, information theory, signal processing, among others, are applicable to any system that has large amounts of data available. With the increasing amount of space weather data we are able to make use of these tools and techniques to analyse, model and forecast the complex systems of space weather.
Topical Issue "Planetary Space Weather", deadline 15 July 2018
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- Published on 14 December 2017
The Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate (JSWSC) plans a Topical Issue on "Planetary Space Weather" to appear in 2018. Space weather – the monitoring and prediction of disturbances in our near-space environment and how they are controlled by the Sun - is since long recognised as an important aspect of understanding our Earth and protecting vital assets such as orbiting satellites and power grids. The concepts of space weather and space situational awareness have also been extended to other planets in our Solar System and in particular to spacecraft that voyage through it.
This Issue aims to detail available methods and tools developed in order to make services for planetary space weather and space situational awareness operational. Papers on the validation of the services, availability of data relevant to the field, as well as research on forecast and modelling of the planetary environments and their response to solar or meteor disturbances are welcome.
Topical Issue "Space weather effects on GNSS and their mitigation", deadline 15 June 2017
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- Published on 07 March 2017
The Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate (JSWSC) plans a topical issue on "Space weather effects on GNSS and their mitigation" to appear in 2017. One of the most dominant error sources for GNSS applications is the Ionosphere. It does not only affect standard GNSS applications and differential GNSS but also high-accuracy demanding applications like the Precise Point Positioning (PPP) and Real Time Kinematics (RTK). Next to the common signal delay, the Ionosphere can cause e.g. loss of lock in case of scintillation events or produce hazardous misleading information in augmentation systems due to strong ionospheric gradients. Higher order ionospheric effects limit the PPP. Today, a large variety of products and models is already in place to reduce the ionospheric error on GNSS applications. However, often there is still a gap between the currently available products and their actual usage in GNSS applications.
Topical Issue "Developing New Space Weather Tools: Transitioning fundamental science to operational prediction systems", deadline 15 June 2017
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- Published on 16 January 2017
The Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate (JSWSC) plans a topical issue on "Developing New Space Weather Tools: Transitioning fundamental science to operational prediction systems", to appear in 2017. This interdisciplinary issue is an outcome of Session 5 and Session 7 at the 13th European Space Weather Week (ESWW13) conference in November 2016 that brought together solar, space and Earth scientists, statisticians, operational forecasters and industry stakeholders. This Topical Issue will focus on the creation of new space weather prediction tools and highlight best practices applied in transitioning existing research tools to operational systems.
Topical Issue "Measurement, Specification and Forecasting of the Solar Energetic Particle Environment and GLEs", deadline 15 June 2017
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- Published on 16 January 2017
The Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate (JSWSC) plans a topical issue on “Measurement, Specification and Forecasting of the Solar Energetic Particle (SEP) Environment” to appear in 2017. SEPs arrive in bursts known as Solar Particle Events (SPEs) which are penetrate into the Earth’s magnetosphere to an extent depending on the magnetic rigidity of the particle. SPEs with significantly large high energy components induce an atmospheric cascade leading to an enhancement of count rate of ground-based detectors, specifically neutron monitors (NMs). This special class of SEP events, known as Ground-Level Enhancements (GLEs). Characterisation of the SEP environment and its effects is important for several industry sectors including civil aviation, human space flight, satellite design and operations.
Topical Issue "Flares, coronal mass ejections and solar energetic particles and their space weather impacts", deadline 31 May 2017
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- Published on 16 January 2017
Flares, Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) and their interplanetary counterparts (ICMEs) remain topics of important research in the field of solar-terrestrial relations. Flares can have an important impact (UV radiation, particles) on the Earth's atmosphere. Recent remote observations and modeling studies have shown that coronal mass ejections (CMEs) can drive shock waves very low in the solar corona, which, in turn, may produce significant fluxes of solar energetic particles (SEPs). Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejections (ICMEs) are the main drivers of large geomagnetic storms.
Proposal for a Topical Issues based on ESWW13 sessions
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- Published on 18 August 2016
If you are convening a session at the ESWW13 and would you like to be a Topical Editor in Chief for a Topical Issue (TI) in SWSC, you can send us your proposal for a TI. You are allowed to combine with other conveners whose sessions are close to yours. Your TI would be open to non-participants to the ESWW.
From your propositions, the SWSC Editorial Board will select the two most promising. In order to do so, please
1) Send us a mail before September, 15th to tell us whether you are interested in participating
2) If so, provide by November 30th (during or just after the ESWW13):
- A list of papers that are expected to be submitted if the TI is selected
- A list of 2 to 4 colleagues who will help you in handling the TI as « Associate Editors »
Finally, if you have a really outstanding presentation (oral or poster) in your session, you may propose that a corresponding manuscript is submitted to SWSC and quoted as "invited" even if your TI is not selected. It will follow the regular review process and if accepted will be stamped "invited".
Please, do not hesitate to contact Anna Belehaki (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ) or Jean Lilensten (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ) for any question
Best regards
Anna and Jean
Note:
If your proposal is selected, you will serve as "Topical Editor in chief". Upon acceptance of your TI, you will be given access to our Manuscript Management System, which handles the following steps automatically (with templates asf). Our editorial office will provide support during the process.
Any time a paper is submitted to your TI:
- It is read by Anna Belehaki, Jean Lilensten and the Topical EiC. If the 3 of us decide to reject it immediately, we send a mail to the authors with our arguments for rejecting it. If at least one of us thinks that it should proceed to a peer review, we send it to an AE after discussion between the three of us (handling a journal is a lot of discussions).
- An AE is invited to handle the manuscript. (S)he may deny or accept, (s)he may also recommend to reject it . If (s)he handles it, (s)he looks for 2 reviewers (2 are mandatory) and follows the process until the final decision.
- The AE makes a recommendation for the final decision to the Topical editor, to Anna and to Jean: legally, the EiCs are the authority to decide. When a paper is rejected, we write a mail to the authors on behalf of the EiCs. When it is accepted, we send a mail on behalf of the AE (so that when an author is angry, we get all the bitter words but when an author is happy, the nice words go to the AE).