56

the different studied environments from Sun to

Earth, and stars to planets. The symposium

closed with a joint discussion between all

participants. A public outreach talk was given

in Spanish after the symposium ended.

Amateur astronomers, high school teachers and

students, and the general public were invited to

attend.

The Symposium Scientific Organizing

Committee was chaired by Drs. Sarah Gibson

and Hebe Cremades, the Local Organizing

Committee by Dr. Cristina Mandrini. The

symposium picture, taken in the beautiful San

Martín Park of the city of Mendoza, can be

seen below.

IAUS 286 participants in San Martin Park, Mendoza

Letter to the Editor

Alphabet Soup Revisited [From Murray Dryer]

My intent here is to add some background to

an early compilation of studies described by

Joe Allen in his recent Letter to the Editor

(Allen, 2012, SRT issue 185) that may be of

interest to a history of cooperative international

programmes. This compilation by Joe Allen,

my former NOAA friend and colleague,

motivated me to write this personal experience.

Joe’s ‘alphabet soup’ of acronyms is an

excellent starting point for a younger future

historian of this topic of solar-terrestrial

physics. Hopefully, my role will contribute

some dots in the subset of interplanetary

physics that is leading to scientific and

operational space weather developments.

My story starts with a B.S. in Mechanical

Engineering and an M.S. in Aerospace Science

(Stanford University, 1949 and 1950) on the

G.I. bill. A ’49 summer job in the 40x40-foot

subsonic wind tunnel at the Ames Research

Center (National Advisory Committee for

Aeronautics, NACA, now NASA) introduced

me to fluid dynamics in the flesh, so to speak.

My job in ’50 after that was at NACA’s Lewis

Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, now the

John Glenn Research Center. As a “wind

tunnel jockey”, I worked in various supersonic

tunnels (10x10 foot, 6x6 foot, and 1x1 foot)

with various air inlets, nozzles, and aircraft

configurations (our own designs as well as

others like the X-15—the first to exceed Mach

1.0). I moved to the Martin-Marietta

Corporation (now Lockheed Martin) in

Denver, Colorado, in 1959. After settling down

57

with my wife, Geraldine, I read Gene Parker’s

paper about the solar wind and a still larger

tunnel–the heliosphere. I was hooked and have

been an addict ever since.

The next step, leading to immersion in the

alphabet soup outlined by Joe Allen, came in

1965 when I moved to the Space Disturbances

Laboratory, Department of Commerce (DOC)

in Boulder, Colorado. After a leave of absence,

I earned a Ph.D. in Space Physics at Tel-Aviv

University, Israel, in 1971 with a thesis based

on blast wave theory (Sedov, 1959). Geri and I

had had the honour of hosting this World War

II’s atomic bomb theoretician in the USSR at

our home during my time at Martin.

(Interestingly, he had no “baby sitter” during

those Cold War years!) After returning to my

job in Boulder as the interplanetary physics

branch chief, I met Peggy Shea and her

husband, Don Smart, from the U.S. Air Force

Research Laboratory (AFRL) in Bedford,

Massachusetts (more below). They introduced

me to the role of energetic particles and their

role in terrestrial events. I had also become

aware of the hypothesis about shock waves and

geomagnetic storm sudden commencement

associations.

At that time, I was working closely with

Zdenka Kopal Smith and Devrie Intriligator

(Carmel Research Center) on NASA’s

PIONEER spacecraft observations during the

famous August 1972 solar and interplanetary

events (Dryer, 1976a,b). I was also working

with Prof. Shi Tsan Wu and his Ph.D. student,

Sang Moo Han, at the University of Alabama

in Huntsville (UAH), on a time-dependent 3D

MHD numerical code for shock wave transport

from mimicked solar flares to 1 AU.

At this time, Peggy and Don were associated

with the Special Committee for Solar-

Terrestrial Physics (SCOSTEP), later Scientific

Committee for Solar-Terrestrial Physics as

discussed by Allen (2012). They thought that

my experience might be useful, so they

introduced me to the President, Prof. Hugh

Carmichael, who invited me to chair a sub-

group of the International Quiet Sun Year

(IQSY) and the International Magnetospheric

Study (IMS). We decided, adding to the

alphabet soup, to call this subgroup “Study of

Traveling Interplanetary Physics” (STIP). I

was given the support of my laboratory

(DOC’s Solar Disturbances Laboratory, later

changed to Solar Environment Laboratory,

now the DOC’s National Oceanic and

Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather

Prediction Center). Peggy Shea, chief of her

group at AFRL, also contributed financial

support for my Sedov-based 1D shock wave

work and, indirectly, via a DOC contract to

UAH for the 3D MHD work mentioned above.

The outcomes of this support were: (a) 2D

empirical, theory-based Shock Time of Arrival

(STOA) code (Dryer and Smart, 1984; Smart

et al., 1986), and (b) the first 3D MHD

numerical simulation code (Han, Wu and

Dryer, 1988).

Meanwhile, the international STIP project

proceeded with the then-modest NASA “fleet”

of interplanetary spacecraft observations of

solar wind plasma, interplanetary magnetic

field (IMF) and energetic particles and ex post

facto analyses as summarized by Dryer and

Shea (1976) and Dryer (1982). Also, ICSU

(International Council of Scientific Unions)

allowed SCOSTEP to extend the IMS

programme into the Solar Maximum Year

(SMY). Svestka, Rust and Dryer (1982) edited

some of the results of this experience.

Thus, STIP was allowed to extend itself, under

another name, of course, into the SOLar

connection with Traveling Interplanetary

Phenomena (SOLTIP). Three symposia were

held with SCOSTEP financial support in

Slovakia, Japan and China. The proceedings of

the last symposium in Beijing were edited by

Feng, Wei and Dryer (1998).

A by-product of the work with Prof. S.T. Wu,

leading to my interest in operational

forecasting, goes back to his local support of a

meeting in Huntsville in 1970. The meeting,

supported by the American Institute of

Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA where I

was chair of the Space and Atmospheric

Physics Committee) and the American

Astronomical Society (AAS) was simply

named “Solar Activity and Predictions.” We

had excellent support from the Program

58

Committee that included Rolf Faye-Petersen

(my co-worker in Boulder), John Firor of the

High Altitude Observatory (HAO), who invited

me to join AAS’ Solar Physics division),

Robert Howard (National Solar Observatory),

Richard G. Johnson (Lockheed), Herbert

Gursky (Naval Research Laboratory),

Yoshinari Nakagawa (HAO) and Harold Zirin

(California Institute of Technology). The

preface of the proceedings (McIntosh and

Dryer, 1972) mentions the phrase, space

weather, for the first time, I think.

More results from the pioneering alphabet soup

projects were presented at IAU Symposium 91

(Dryer and Tandberg-Hanssen, 1979) at

Harvard University. This meeting was

cosponsored by COSPAR and SCOSTEP. A

wonderful lobster fest on an island in Boston

Harbor was arranged by Dave Rust, chair of

the Local Committee.

The STOA forecast code for shock wave

arrivals, together with two other 2D models,

was put to the real-time test during Cycle 23.

The root mean square error for all of them

(depending on the desired window: 24hr, 12hr,

etc.) was about +/- 10hr. The statistical

population, each of which was triggered by a

solar flare X-ray report and operational metric

wavelength radio burst, was 584 events (Smith

et al., 2009; McKenna-Lawlor et al., 2012).

The average error has recently improved to +/-

7.5hr in Cycle 24 at the NOAA Space Weather

Predictions Center, SWPC (Millward et al.,

2013). The RMS error for 25 events (October

2011 to October 2012) was still 10hr. The

SWPC forecasters used a sophisticated “three

view” of CMEs from STEREO A/B and

SOHO to provide input for improved 3D code

called ENLIL, an early version of which was

published by Odstrcil (2003).

Finally, a suggestion is offered to our younger

colleagues who are organizing future

international programmes with the help of the

existing armada of interplanetary and

magnetospheric spacecraft. Following

solicitation of worldwide participation via the

internet, please record your own alphabet

soup’s results via peer-reviewed publications.

Thus, I hope that a future historian can

continue to draw a meaningful curve through

the dots from our early results through yours.

References

Allen, J. W., “Background story about the

International Magnetospheric Study (IMS)

Central Information Exchange (CIE) Office”,

Space Research Today, n.185, pp. 118-123,

December 2012.

Dryer, M., “The August 1972 Events”

(Preface), Space Science Reviews, 19, 409-410,

1976a.

Dryer, M. (Guest Editor), “The August 1972

Events --A Project of SCOSTEP’s Study of

Traveling Interplanetary Phenomena”, Space

Science Reviews, 19, Nos. 4/5.

October/November 1976b.

Dryer, M., “Study of Traveling Interplanetary

Phenomena” (Preface), Advances in Space

Research, 2, (11), 7-8, 1982.

Dryer, M. and E. Tandberg-Hanssen, Editors,

“Solar and lnterplanetary Dynamics”,

Proceedings of International Astronomical

Union's Symposium 91, 27-31 August 1979,

Cambridge; D. Reidel Publishing Co.,

Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 558 pp. 1980.

Dryer, M. and M. A. Shea, “Cooperation with

the SCOSTEP Project: Study of Traveling

Interplanetary Phenomena (STIP)”, Solar

Physics, 47, 473, 1976.

Dryer, M. and D. F. Smart, “Dynamical

Models of Coronal Transients and

Interplanetary Disturbances”, Advances in

Space Research, 4, 291-301, 1984.

Dryer, M., “Study of Traveling Interplanetary

Phenomena (STIP) Report”, Solar Physics,

114, 407-411, 1987.

Feng, X. S., F. S. Wei, and M. Dryer, Editors,

“Advances in Solar Connection with Transient

Interplanetary Phenomena”, Proceedings of the

Third SOLTIP Symposium, 14-18 October

1996, International Academic Publishers,

Beijing, Peoples' Republic of China, ISBN

7-88883-424-0, (Hardback) xiv + 4 colour

plates + 583 pp., 1998.

59

Han, S. M., S. T. Wu, and M. Dryer, “A Three-

Dimensional, Time-Dependent Modeling of

Super-Sonic, Super-Alfvenic MHD Flow”,

Computers and Fluids, 16, (1), 81-103, 1988.

McIntosh, P. S., and M. Dryer, Editors. “Solar

Activity Observations and Predictions”, AIAA

Progress in Astronautics and Aeronautics

Series, 30, MIT Press, Cambridge, 1972.

McKenna-Lawlor, S.M.P., C.D. Fry, M. Dryer,

D. Heynderickx, K. Kecskemety, K. Kudela

and J. Balaz, “A Statistical Study of

Circumstances under which the Hakamada-

Akasofu-Fry (HAFv.2) Numerical Model

Performed Well / Poorly in Predicting Solar

Shock Arrival Times at Earth during Different

Phases of Solar Cycle 23”, Ann. Geophys., 30,

405-419, 2012.

Millward, G., D. Biesecker, V. Pizzo, and C.A.

de Koning, “An Operational Software Tool for

the Analysis of Coronagraph Images:

Determining CME parameters for Input into

the WSA-Enlil Heliospheric Model”, Space

Weather, 11, 1-12, doi:10.1002/swe20024,

2013.

Odstrcil, D., “Modeling 3-D Solar Wind

Structures”, Advances in Space Research,

32(4), 2003.

Sedov, L. I., Similarity and Dimensional

Methods in Mechanics (English translation by

M. Holt and M. Friedman), (4th edition),

chapters 4 and 5, Academic Press, New York,

1959.

Smart, D. F., M. A. Shea, M. Dryer, A.

Quintana, L. C. Gentile, and A. A. Bathurst,

“Estimating the Arrival Time of Solar

Flare-Initiated Shocks by Considering Them to

be Blast Waves Riding over the Solar Wind” in

Proceedings of the Symposium on Solar-

Terrestrial Predictions, (P. Simon, G. R.

Heckman, and M. A. Shea, Eds.), Meudon,

France, 18-22 June 1984, U.S. Gov't Printing

Office, Washington, D.C., 471-481, 1986.

Smith, Z.K., R. Steenburgh, C.D. Fry, and M.

Dryer, “Predictions of Interplanetary Shock

Arrivals at Earth: Dependence of Forecast

Outcome on the Input Parameters”, Space

Weather, 7, S12005, doi:10.1029/

2009SW00050, 2009.

Svestka, Z., D. M. Rust, and M. Dryer, Editors,

Advances in Space Research: Solar Maximum

Year Proceedings of Committee on Space

Research (COSPAR) Symposium No. 7, 16

May-2 June 1982, Ottawa, Pergamon Press.

Oxford, UK, 2, No. 11. 294 pp. 1982

Publications

Advances in Space Research: Top

Reviewers of 2012

As with any established scientific journal,

Advances in Space Research (ASR) insists on a

rigorous peer review process to maintain the

integrity and quality of published papers. An

essential part of this process is the reviewer,

spending his or her valuable time and using

unique expertise to evaluate the scientific

quality of a manuscript and help the Editor

make a correct decision.

To further highlight the crucial importance of

reviewers to the quality of ASR, the Editors

have selected their 10 top reviewers for the

year 2012, looking at criteria such as the

number and the quality of the referee reports.

By publishing the names and short biographies

of these selected reviewers in this issue of

Space Research Today, we acknowledge their

valuable efforts.

At the same time we feel deeply obliged to all

ASR reviewers who have contributed this past

year who are not mentioned here, and we

sincerely thank all of them for bringing the

journal up to its current high standard.

Jan Laštovička

ASR Editor-in-Chief

José Stoop

Publisher, Advances in Space Research