I am pleased to inform you that a dedicated scientific session has been officially accepted for COSPAR 2026, to be held in Florence, Italy, from 1–9 August 2026. I would like to warmly invite Korean researchers, postdoctoral fellows, and students to participate actively in this session through abstract submissions and attendance.

Your active participation through abstract submissions and attendance will greatly contribute to the scientific success of this session and enhance the visibility of Korean solar and space plasma research within the global community.

I would appreciate it if you could also share this announcement with interested colleagues and students.

Thank you very much, and I look forward to your participation in Florence.

Please find below the official session description and details. 

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COSPAR-26-E2.5: Symbiosis of Waves and Reconnection (SWAR): a New Physical Insight into Understanding Heating and Plasma Dynamics at the Sun

Description:-

The Sun’s corona is maintained at mega-Kelvin temperature and fills the heliosphere with the supersonic outflowing wind. The dissipation of magnetic waves and electric current are well known for the heating and dynamics of the various layers of the solar atmosphere. However, a substantial debate still exists on the relative role of waves and reconnection in heating the localized plasma structures and generation of the mass cycles and flows. Recently, the ground-based and space-borne observations, as well as theoretical/numerical models collectively imply a compelling existence of the “Symbiosis of WAves and Reconnection (SWAR)” leading to the dynamics and heating of the solar-like plasmas. SWAR is more than just a concept of the interaction of waves with the reconnection favourable magnetic topologies and vice-versa. The interactions of these two candidates have been studied in the past since decades, however, the recently proposed “symbiosis” depends on the episodic co-existence of waves and reconnection processes, which help to reinforce each other during their roles in heating and plasma dynamics. What we are calling SWAR (a Symbiosis of WAves and Reconnection) represents a “mutualism” between waves and reconnection primarily in the solar plasma, however, this could have its physical significance in various other plasma systems also at the diverse scales. The waves and reconnection may drive each other, and so together play a role in causing localized heating and plasma dynamics in-particular in the solar atmosphere. There are several scientific findings in part in the past depicting how the magnetic reconnection initiates waves and oscillations or vice-versa in the context of the solar plasma. On the contrary, SWAR presents an overview of their origin, likelihood in space and time, physical co-existence (dependence of one’s properties on the other), and mutualism (reinforcement and support). There are also some recent experiments in the laboratory plasma, which exhibit similar processes, therefore, indicating their presence at diverse spatio-temporal scales.

Given the multitude of physical scenario in place, where the symbiosis of waves and reconnection may play a vital role in understanding the dynamics and heating of the plasmas, we organize a COSPAR-26 session to generate a platform for extensive scientific discussions among the researchers working on the physics of magnetic waves and reconnection; building various research collaborations, and framing the future plans to develop and test the idea of “SWAR” at disparate plasma scales including solar/stellar atmosphere and laboratory plasmas. The new ideas will be invoked in the frame-work of existing and upcoming solar observatories/space-missions, as well as various plasma experiments. The session will possess invited talks, contributed talks, and poster presentations.

Scientific Organizing Committee:

A.K. Srivastava (SOC, Co-chair); E.R. Priest (University of St. Andrews, UK); K. Shibata (Kyoto University, Japan); James A. Klimchuk (NASA-GSFC, USA); David Berghmans (Royal Observatory, Belgium); Hardi Peter (Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Göttingen, Germany); V.M. Nakariakov (CFSA, Warwick University, UK); P.-F. Chen (Nanjing University, China); Mark P. Rast (University of Colorado, USA); Paul M. Bellan (California Institute of Technology, USA); R.-Y. Kwon (KASI, S. Korea; SOC Co-chair)

COSPAR-2026 Weblink: https://cospar2026.org/

Abstract Submission Deadline: 13th February 2026

Early Bird Registration Deadline: 17th May 2026