NASA Heliophysics Summer School - Apply for 2025!

UCAR Cooperative Programs for the Advancement of Earth System Science (CPAESS) partners with NASA to hold the Heliophysics Summer School each year. We are seeking students to join us this coming summer for a unique professional experience. They will learn about the exciting science of heliophysics as a broad, coherent discipline that reaches across space from the Earth’s troposphere to the depths of the Sun, and extends through time from the formation of the solar system to the distant future.

2025 Theme: Data-Driven Heliophysics Exploration and Discovery

The focus of the 2025 Heliophysics Summer School will be on the connection between our understanding of fundamental physical processes throughout all domains of the heliosphere and the observational methods and subsequent data analysis to uncover those principles. Processes across the heliosphere - such as solar wind evolution and interactions with planetary bodies, solar EUV emissions, or atmospheric outflows from planets -  are described by the evolutions of physical parameters, for example: temperature, magnetic field, energetic particle, or UV spectra. These parameters can be measured through ground or space based remote sensing, and in-situ observations, using instruments that detect even more fundamental parameters such as particle counts or deposited energy. 

Through expert lectures and interactive experiences, participants will explore the fundamental observation strategies and emerging data analysis used to infer the physical parameters and how they are used to address scientific questions throughout the domains of heliophysics. Emerging approaches and algorithms that extract information from data produced by physical sensors, discover patterns and causations, make predictions and advance foundational understanding using a variety of tools including artificial intelligence and machine learning will be explored.

The school will include lectures, laboratories, and recitations from world experts, and will draw material from the textbook Principles of Heliophysics: a textbook on the universal processes behind planetary habitability, available online with free access. It will also make use of data from past and ongoing NASA missions and model results such as those from the NASA Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC).

Approximately 25 students will be selected through a competitive process organized by CPAESS/UCAR. The 2025 Summer School will be held in person, August 11 - 20, 2025, in Boulder, Colorado, and each participant will receive travel support to Boulder.

Student Application Requirements

• Currently an advanced graduate student enrolled in a PhD program, or an early career researcher, including postdoctoral researcher, within the first two years of obtaining a doctorate.
• Studying space physics, other space and planetary science, astronomy, engineering, and other fields related to heliophysics.
• Pursuing a research career in heliophysics, astrophysics, or a related field.
   

Go to the NASA Heliophysics Summer School webpage to apply.

Deadline for Application Submission: January 31, 2025