Exploring Observational Heliophysics Across All Scales: Reflections and Insights From the 2023 NASA Heliophysics Summer School

Abstract

The field of heliophysics encompasses a diverse range of research areas and rich plasma environments, from the solar dynamo and solar wind turbulence, to the complex terrestrial thermosphere‐ionosphere‐magnetosphere (TIM) system, to investigations of both induced and intrinsic magnetospheres across the solar system. This perspective paper delves into the experiences and outcomes of a summer school held in person in Boulder, Colorado, USA, from 7–11 August, which offered a platform for interdisciplinary learning and collaboration. The event, supported by NASA's Living with a Star program and hosted by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and Cooperative Programs for the Advancement of Earth System Science, assembled a cohort of 26 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers from around the world, all engaged in heliophysics research. The summer school included a series of lectures, interactive activities, and a culminating capstone project. The participants' diverse backgrounds enriched discussions and encouraged novel approaches to traditional problems. The capstone projects spanned an array of topics, including investigating the origins of solar wind switchbacks, dissecting the sequence of events from solar eruptions and their corresponding terrestrial consequences, investigating the energy transfer from solar coronal mass ejections to Earth's magnetosphere, and advocating for the exploration of Coulomb collisions in understanding large‐scale global systems. Through this perspective, we shed light on the value of international and interdisciplinary collaboration in advancing heliophysics research. This perspective paper encapsulates the ethos of the summer school, serving as a testament to the continuing and collective pursuit of unraveling the mysteries of the heliosphere.For 1 week in August 2023, 26 early career scientists and engineers from around the world attended NASA's Heliophysics Summer School to learn about the different ways that the Sun interacts with other heavenly bodies and drives processes in our solar system. We garnered a perspective of our cosmic home from small scale interactions between positively and negatively charges particles, to how giant structures comprised of these charged particles interact with the planets. We not only shared our novel research with one another, but also stories of our homes, cultures, and values. After years of isolation due to the world‐wide COVID‐19 pandemic that took place during many of our graduate and under‐graduate school years, the 2023 Heliophysics Summer School rekindled the joy of collaboration between early career colleagues in the space physics field. In this article, we discuss the topics covered in the summer school, and the final projects and thoughts that emerged as a result of collaboration amongst new friends and colleagues. Cooperative Programs for the Advancement of Earth System Science/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research held the seventeenth annual NASA Heliophysics Summer School both virtually and in person in July and August 2023 Daily collaboration on different projects showed the value in open science practices Early career heliophysicists determined meaningful areas of future research for the entire community