ESA Heliophysics Working Group Terms of Reference

Background:

Heliophysics is the science of understanding the Sun and its interaction with the Earth and the solar system. Heliophysics has a large and active international community, with significant expertise and heritage in ESA and Europe. Several ESA directorates have activities directly connected with this topic, including ongoing and/ or planned missions and instrumentation (D/SCI, D/EOP, D/HRE, D/OPS and D/TEC).

Remit:

The Heliophysics Working Group (HWG) is appointed by the Directors of SCI, EOP, HRE, OPS and TEC to provide internal guidance on all scientific aspects in the area of Heliophysics, under the Chairship of the D/SCI representative of the WG.  

The following tasks are assigned to the HWG:

• Provide a scientifically unified view in the area of Heliophysics, in light of the plans of the involved Directorates;
• Act as focus for discussion inside ESA of the scientific interests of the Heliophysics community, including the European ground-based community and data archiving activities;
• Assess potential synergies and provide inputs and recommendations as relevant to the involved Directorates.

To achieve their tasks, the HWG will:

• Convene regularly (every 3-6 months);
• Set up dedicated internal workshops to build on existing synergies;
• Set up dedicated community workshops to build on these internal synergies and receive inputs from the scientific community that cuts across ESA programmes;

The members of the HWG are appointed by the relevant Directors.

The lifetime of the HWG will be 3 years, renewable by decision of all involved Directors.

In the HWG meetings, each member will present their directorates ongoing and future activities in the area of Heliophysics, along with related scientific community related information where relevant (from Directorate level working groups for example).

Each respective member of the HWG will be able to access information relevant to their directorates activities to facilitate this.

The HWG will discuss on the ongoing and planned activities in the Directorates, and will identify any potential science synergies. Minutes and actions (if necessary) will be issued and where relevant, specific information will be consolidated into recommendations to be issued to the ESA Directors and relevant coordination entities. The relevant science advisory groups will be kept informed regularly of the HWG activities.