The International Space Science Institute in Bern, Switzerland, will be hosting the second International Heliophysical Year Conference in November 2008. The first one was held in Bad Honnef, Germany, in May 2007. The second one was originally foreseen to be held in Warsaw in June 2008 but later was moved to ISSI.

Scientific Objective

The upcoming international meeting at Bern is to be seen as the successor of the first international event organized in the frame of the International Heliophysical Year, the IHY-2007 meeting at Bad Honnef (Germany). The main scientific idea for this successor meeting is to advertise for the heliosphere with all its observationally accessible plasma structures as an exceptional proving ground for upcoming new theories of distant astrophysical plasma sites. Therefore the connection of the heliosphere with its changing galactic environments, i.e. the interstellar - heliospheric interaction, will be a center of special interests at this meeting. While MHD shocks and energetic particles appear everywhere in the universe and are ubiquitous phenomena in astrophysics, their genuine microphysics and their origins can only be studied in detail in the heliosphere, where the needed basic in-situ observations can be made. We expect multiple contributions from a broad scientific community to sessions on collision-less shocks, particle acceleration, turbulence generation, NLTE, physics of the interstellar medium, and matter exchanges between the solar system and the ambient interstellar medium. In this respect the IHY-2008 is very much hoped to establish an active scientific forum of mutually fertilizing ideas from many different disciplines which in this competence circle do not often meet. We look forward to many stimulating discussions and innovative views.

Topics

The conference will be structured into the following sessions:

1. -Keynote lecture: Past and future of the heliosphere
   

2. -Collisionless shocks
   

3. -Cosmic rays and particle acceleration
   

4. -Turbulence generation and dissipation
   

5. -MHD phenomena in the heliosphere
   

6. -Chaotic phenomena in the solar system
   

7. -Physics of the galactic interstellar medium
   

8. -1 or 2 public evening lectures
   

Scientific Organisation Committee (SOC)

Hans Fahr (chair), Univ. of Bonn, Germany (hfahr at astro dot uni-bonn dot de)

Vladimir Baranov, RAS, Moscow, Russia (baranov at ipmnet dot ru)

Maciej Bzowski, PAS, Warsaw, Poland (bzowski at cbk dot waw dot pl)

Len Fisk, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI, USA (lafisk at umich dot edu)

Hans Rickman, Univ. of Uppsala, Sweden (hans dot rickman at astro dot uu dot se)

Klaus Scherer, Ruhr-Univ. Bochum, Germany (klaus dot scherer at dat-hex dot de)

Jonathan Slavin, CfA, Cambridge MA, USA (jslavin at cfa dot harvard dot edu)

Rudolf von Steiger, ISSI, Bern, Switzerland (vsteiger at issibern dot ch)

Gary Zank, UC Riverside CA, USA (gary dot zank at ucr dot edu)

Local Organisation Committee (LOC)

Brigitte Fasler, ISSI, Bern, Switzerland (fasler at issibern dot ch)

Saliba F. Saliba, ISSI, Bern, Switzerland (saliba at issibern dot ch))

Rudolf von Steiger, ISSI, Bern, Switzerland (vsteiger at issibern dot ch)

Participation

This conference is open to all interested scientists.

The SOC has compiled a draft program with a number of invited talks in each session. These speakers have been contacted in April 2008. A draft program will be published online as it takes shape.

The program allows for a number of contributed presentations. The SOC will assign contributed talks or posters as the program is finalized after the registration deadline.

Venue

The conference will take place in the new course center of the University of Bern located in the same building as ISSI on the second floor. The center comfortably seats 60-70 and is equipped with all modern technical facilities.

Travel

Please consult the ISSI website for travel information to Bern.

Accommodation

Block bookings have been made at several hotels in Bern. All hotel reservations should be made through Bern Incoming using this link (click English in the top-left corner if needed). The reservation deadline is 17 October 2008. Payments will be due directly to the hotels.

Registration

Registrations to this conference may be made by email to the LOC specifying the following:

1. -Name:
   

2. -Affiliation:
   

3. -Address:
   

4. -Email:
   

5. -Presentation title:
   

6. -Abstract:
   

The registration deadline is 30 September 2008.

Fees

A registration fee in the amount of 240 CHF / 220 US$ / 150 Euros will be charged to all participants. The fee will be due in cash at the conference; credit card payments are not possible. This fee includes full participation at the conference, the social program, and the cost of the conference publication (see below).

Social program

An icebreaker will be offered on Monday after the sessions. On Wednseday a free afternoon is foreseen for sightseeing in and around Bern (Zentrum Paul Klee, Einsteinhaus, Historical Museum with Einstein exhibition, etc.). This will be followed by a conference dinner at the Old Tram Depot next to the bear pit.

Publication

The workshop papers will be published in Astrophysics and Space Sciences Transactions (ASTRA), a new, full open access journal. The publication costs of a 4-page paper are included with the registration fee; additional pages will be charged to the authors.