Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate

News

Topical Issue "Geomagnetic Storms and Substorm: a Geomagnetically Induced Current perspective", deadline 30 June 2020

Details: Published on 19 December 2019

The Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate (JSWSC) opens a Topical Issue on "Geomagnetic Storms and Substorm: a Geomagnetically Induced Current perspective" to appear in 2020/2021.

This Topical Issue intents to collect contributions on Geomagnetically Induced Currents (GICs) during high solar activity (e.g. geomagnetic storms, sub-storms and storm sudden commencements). It aims to: increase the global knowledge about the magnetosphere-ionosphere processes, driven by space weather events, responsible for creating GICs; understand the role played by ionospheric turbulence and ground conductivity in amplifying GICs; improve the forecasting of GICs.

This Topical Issue arises from the 16th European Space Weather Week held in Liège, Belgium, in November 2019, primarily from the Session 1 entitled “Geomagnetic Storms: a Geomagnetically Induced Current perspective”. However, it is not reserved to papers presented during this session and is open for all submissions within the scope.

During geomagnetic storms and substorms, the principal magnetospheric currents and the connected ionospheric currents intensify causing rapid changes of the ground geomagnetic field. These variations penetrate into the conductive subsurface generating an electric field which drives Geomagnetically Induced Currents (GICs) in large technological infrastructure. The latter can disrupt the optimal operation of power grids as well as damaging oil/gas pipelines. The aims of this topical issue are to highlight the significant improvements in the global knowledge on the following important open questions about GICs: (1) what are the magnetosphere-ionosphere processes driven by space weather events responsible for driving extreme GICs, (2) what are the roles played by ionospheric turbulence, ground conductivity and the features of the affected power networks in amplifying GICs, and (3) what are the main parameters/proxies/indices that could be used to forecast the build-up of intense GICs? This topical issue invites manuscripts about recent progress and current understanding of the physical processes of GICs, their associated impact on technologies as well as the innovative use of mathematical methods that could provide new perspectives on GIC related research and possible mitigation methods (e.g., transformer and network design, or optimisation of cathodic protection for pipelines).

Manuscripts must be submitted via the JSWSC online submission tool. Guidelines for submission of papers are found on the JSWSC web site under the tab "Instruction for Authors"

Deadline: 30 June 2020.

All manuscripts will be peer reviewed according to the quality standards of international scientific journals. The type of contributions must fit the style of JSWSC. All manuscripts should contain enough new insight, present the results against a properly referenced background of existing work, and present adequate evidence that supports the conclusions. Accepted papers are published in electronic format only, and are freely available to everyone via the JSWSC website. JSWSC offers the possibility to include electronic material, such as animations, movies, codes and data.

Topical Editor in Chief (T-EiC):
Mirko Piersanti (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ), INFN – University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Italy

Topical Editors:
Ciaran D. Beggan (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ), British Geological Survey, Edinburgh, UK
Andrew Dimmock (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ), Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala, Sweden
Roberta Tozzi (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ), Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia – Rome, Italy

For questions regarding this Topical Issue, please, contact the T-EiC. For questions concerning the submission process the Editorial Office (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ) should be contacted.

The Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate publishes a strategic European report on understanding and preparing for adverse space weather

Details: Published on 10 October 2019

Image title: Space weather effects
Image credit: European Space Agency / Science Office, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

The Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate (JSWSC) published yesterday a strategic report with recommendations for future consolidated and coordinated European activities in the domain of space weather risk assessment and mitigation, commissioned by the European Space Science Committee (ESSC) of the European Science Foundation (ESF) and compiled by the European Space Weather Assessment and Consolidation Committee.

Space weather refers to the environmental conditions in space as influenced by solar activity. In extreme events, space weather can be highly disruptive, causing radiation hazards for satellites and health risks for astronauts, electric power blackouts navigation problems in satellite and airline operations, interference in radio communication systems , degraded accuracy or total loss of GNSS navigation, to name the most important ones.

How can Europe explore further, understand more and prepare better for adverse space weather effects? This special report from international experts discusses on-going European space weather efforts and issues, and gives recommendations for future coordinated and better consolidated activities.

The first author of the article published in JSWSC, Prof. Hermann Opgenoorth from Umeå University, Sweden, explains: “Space weather is one of these areas where scientific knowledge, societal aspects and economic interest are intrinsically linked”. Commenting on the output of the report, Prof. Opgenoorth, adds: “From observations, modelling and refined understanding of solar, heliospheric and geospace plasma processes on one side and user requirements and the definition of the principles of an operational network on the other, our study committee identified actionable recommendations that would strengthen Europe’s knowledge and preparedness”.

The article summarising the report is published in the new Agora section of JSWSC, a 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, historical accounts, and strategic or programmatic articles. The full report is published as supplementary material to the article.

For more information see the European Science Foundation/ESSC press release or contact Anne Ruimy at EDP Sciences This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Topical Issue "Scientific Advances from the European Commission Horizon 2020 projects on Space Weather", deadline 30 April 2020

Details: Published on 23 September 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 April 2020. 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 climate: The past and future of solar activity", deadline 31 March 2020

Details: Published on 16 September 2019

The Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate (JSWSC) opens a Topical Issue on "Space climate: The past and future of solar activity" to appear in 2020.

This is an open call for papers discussing any aspect of Space Climate, i.e., the long-term change in the Sun and its effects in the heliosphere and the near-Earth space environment, including solar effects on the atmosphere and climate.

Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate announces change of editorial system

Details: Published on 12 September 2019

Earlier this month, the Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate(JSWSC) switched its editorial submission and management system, from MMS (an in-house system developed by EDP Sciences) to Editorial Manager (EM). The change took effect on 3 September and we are pleased to say that the submission site is live and performing well.

EM is an industry standard editorial system from Aries Systems. JSWSC Editors made the decision in 2018 to adopt EM as the editorial system for the journal. Since then, the new submission site has been intensively tested and adjusted by the editorial office of the journal and the EDP Sciences technical team.

Among the new features and functions, EM will help to streamline the invoicing and payment of Article Processing Charges for authors. This will move from a manual invoicing system to an online payment system, namely Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink® for Open Access platform.

JSWSC authors can submit their new submissions to EM using the direct link: https://www.editorialmanager.com/jswsc/ or via the JSWSC home page. For manuscripts currently in the editorial process, these will continue in MMS until a final decision has been made on the manuscript.

For further information, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , Senior Publishing Editor, EDP Sciences.

2nd article published in the Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate Agora section

Details: Published on 22 July 2019

What can art bring to science? Historically, Japanese amateur painters have painted northern lights, and these “data” are useful for scientists to study past magnetic storms. The new Agora supplement of the Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate is the place for the space weather community to discuss, evaluate and distribute papers on historical space weather events and observations, and other non-traditional scientific output.

2018 Impact Factors - significant increase for the Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate

Details: Published on 27 June 2019

The Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate is an international open access journal which has seen a rise in its Impact Factor to 2.821 from 2.333 in this year’s Journal Citation Reports® (JCR). This represents an increase of 20.9%. Notably, it also enjoys a strong five-year Impact Factor of 3.368. (“A 5-Year Impact Factor shows the long-term citation trend for a journal.” Clarivate Analytics ) It has moved up in all three categories in which it is tracked and is now ranked 30/86 (Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences), 25/69 (Astronomy and Astrophysics) and 30/84 (Geochemistry and Geophysics).

The journal continues to innovate to meet the needs of its audience and recently launched the " Agora " supplement for papers on public outreach, historical accounts, commentaries, and meeting and project reports. Agora papers are reviewed by members of the Editorial Board, indexed similarly to regular JSWSC papers, and citable.

This year’s Impact Factor confirms the Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate’s position as an important voice in the discipline.

Interview with Jean Lilensten (JSWSC)

Details: Published on 18 June 2019

EDP Sciences now offers masterclasses on scientific writing aimed at the next generation of authors. To support the masterclasses, EDP Sciences is producing a series of video interviews with Editors-in-Chief of journals published by EDP Sciences and beyond. These videos aim to help early career researchers and PhD students understand what journals are looking for in academic papers.

The first video produced by EDP Sciences is a video interview with Jean Lilensten - Editor-in-Chief of the open access Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate

In this interview, Jean Lilensten gives his advice to early career researchers, discusses the editorial process at JSWSC, and shares common reasons for acceptance or rejection of articles.

“When a paper is rejected, I always try to find good things in the paper that would help the author to resubmit something which will have chances to be published,” said Jean Lilensten in the video interview. “It happens that some papers lack maturity. Any time this happens I try to help the authors, so that the papers become more mature and they are able to submit a successful paper.”

Jean Lilensten works at the Institute for Planetary sciences and Astrophysics, Grenoble, and participates in exploratory expeditions to the Arctic. He founded the Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate (JSWSC), published by EDP Sciences, of which he is now the Co-Editor-in-Chief. He is the author of several books on space meteorology for the general public, and regularly participates in radio and television programs including on French Channel 5.

Watch the video

About JSWSC
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.

About EDP Sciences’ Masterclasses
EDP Sciences is pleased to offer masterclasses on scientific and academic writing for early career researchers and PhD students. Our workshops can be tailored to the needs of your institution: from a 1-hour focussed session, to a 2-day extended workshop. These masterclasses are delivered by experienced senior publishing editors from EDP Sciences with the support of senior editors representing journals from across the scientific spectrum.

Please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for further information, or to arrange a masterclass.

A new “Agora” for non-traditional scientific output in the field of space weather and space climate.

Details: 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 "Space Weather research in the Digital Age and across the full data lifecycle", deadline 30 September

Details: 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.