March 12, 2026
The 49th Apatity seminar “Physics of Auroral Phenomena” was held at the PGI

From March 2 to 6, 2026, the 49th Apatity Seminar “Physics of Auroral Phenomena” was held, organized annually by the Polar Geophysical Institute (Apatity). The seminar was devoted to discussing 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 traditionally took place in the following areas:

1. Storms and sub-storms
2. Fields, currents, particles in the magnetosphere
3. Waves, the interaction of waves and particles
4. The sun, solar wind, cosmic rays
5. Ionosphere and upper atmosphere
6. Lower atmosphere, ozone
7. The Heliobiosphere

Several reports on the results of data analysis from the new Russian Ionosphere-M satellites were combined into a thematic block.

According to the tradition that has developed in recent years, the seminar was held in a mixed format (face-to-face with the possibility of online participation). This gave an opportunity to those scientists who could not attend the seminar for various reasons. The number of people who came to Apatity for face—to-face participation has become the largest in recent years (more than 60 people from other Russian cities – Moscow, St. Petersburg, Irkutsk, Kaliningrad, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Yakutsk). 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, and together with the participants from the PIU — 139. They represented 8 Russian universities and 19 research institutes. Among the speakers and participants were also representatives of foreign research institutes and universities (from Bulgaria, Brazil, Germany, USA). Foreign scientists participated in the seminar online. Information about the conference was posted in the SCOSTEP newsletter.

149 reports were presented at the seminar, of which 105 were oral and 44 were poster presentations. The scientific program, as always, was very intense, but those who wished found time to visit the planetarium, museums and the Stone Flower exhibition, go skiing and snowboarding. During the flight, some participants were able to admire the aurora borealis above the clouds.