March 20, 2023
THE 46rd ANNUAL APATITY SEMINAR “PHYSICS OF AURORAL PHENOMENA”

From March 13 to 17, 2023, the 46th Apatity Seminar “Physics of Auroral Phenomena” was held, organized annually by the Polar Geophysical Institute (Apatity). The seminar was devoted to the discussion of the latest results obtained by Russian and foreign scientists in the field of research of geophysical processes that are most intensively manifested at the latitudes of the auroral and subauroral zones.

The seminar was held in the following sections:

1. Storms and substorms
2. Fields, currents, particles in the magnetosphere
3. Waves, wave-particle interaction
4. Sun, solar wind, cosmic rays
5. Ionosphere and upper atmosphere
6. Lower atmosphere, ozone
7. Heliobiosphere

Despite the lifting of restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the seminar was held in a mixed format (face-to-face with the possibility of online participation). This gave the opportunity to participate in the seminar to those scientists who, for various reasons, could not come. At the same time, the number of participants in person was a record for the last few years: more than 50 people from other Russian cities (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Irkutsk, Kaliningrad, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk) came to Apatity. At least half of the participants, as usual, were young scientists. Together with those present online, the number of participants in the seminar was more than 100 people. They represented 9 Russian universities and 14 research institutes. Among the speakers were also representatives of foreign research institutes (from Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Argentina, India). Foreign scientists participated in the seminar online. Information about the conference was published in the SCOSTEP newsletter.

164 reports were presented at the seminar, 114 of them oral and 50 poster. The program was extremely intense, but this did not prevent the participants from watching the beautiful aurora at night.