First ISSI Meeting

The first meeting was hold as planned in Bern on 27–31 January 2020. The 2.5 first days of our meeting were devoted to take knowledge of all individual research actions that were prepared or proposed by each team member. Team members had prepared targeted talks on the science questions or tasks they wanted to address, including a first view of what they would need and what they thought the other team members could bring. The 3.5 next days were devoted to two types of actions: 1- to leverage the individual projects thanks to an immediate feedback of the team members who had something to bring onto a particular individual project (such as simulations to do, other data to compare with, ideas of question to address, tasks to do for better supporting the claim, references, etc. 2-collective studies. The second task about collective studies was obviously much harder than the first task that builds on existing matter. It has to be invented. Collective studies require global consensus as well as a match of the interest and the skills of the involved team members. That was our challenge we addressed fearless. We were lucky that, on Thursday, we could find a “perfect event”, which took place when all selected satellites of the study were at one of their conjunction point. For that event, and contrary to many others, the measurements turned out to be all very clean, interesting, and, on some aspects, stunning. The richness of that event made us capable to break its study into 3 different studies that, each, involves different aspects and different skills or tools for their analysis.

We left ISSI with no less than 35 projects that were all well-defined and assembled at ISSI, with precise tasks to be conducted at people’s lab. Today, each team member leads about 2 studies. Each study involves generally about 5 other team members, sometime more. The goal is to conduct these 35 studies to their end by January 2021, plus or minus 6 months, according to the readiness level of the studies.

Meanwhile, some of us have tried to meet in Paris in September 2020, in an ISSI-related-and –unfunded mini-meeting. That meeting was postponed to end of October 2020 and, finally, canceled due to the worsening of the sanitary condition in France and in the world.

Second ISSI Meeting

The second meeting was held in Bern in April 11-14 2022, two years after the first meeting. In two years, we had already advanced and finalized many studies during the intensive work which scientists experienced during the first and successive confinements. As planned, the meeting was devoted to three types of actions: 1-present the studies that are almost done in order to get the last feedback of the team members and finalize, 2-advance the last study that still require 6 more months of work, 3-work on our group event. We had ideal conditions with the opportunity to use the giant ISSI room fully equiped of cameras and speakers for worldwide connection and telecons with the rest of the team members who could not leave their country. We had a limited team of 6 seniors and 2 young scientists in person at ISSI Bern, which was fully operational to work with our Japanese colleagues in the morning and our US colleagues in the afternoon. 12 hours a day with a small break for lunch. Intensive and good.

We left ISSI with a few new good ideas in mind and studies to do, surfing the last wiggles of this giant electromagnetic wave we started with. Since our second meeting was held with half of the group due to the pandemic situation, we have a little bit of ISSI funding left and with it, the opportunity to organize a third and last meeting in January 2023.

See you soon ISSI Bern ! And let’s hope we will have the opportunity to see these fantastic mountains of the Alps again.