ISTP Splinter Group - Chair: Manuel Grande (Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, University of Warwick)

Session Synopsis:

The ISTP flotilla of spacecraft offer us a means of tracing composition changes through the coupled solar-terrestrial system. These changes happen on a number of timescales. The longest scale is the overall change in magnetospheric composition, and hence possibly response, which takes place with the solar cycle. Shorter events take place on the timescale of CMEs and substorms. Compositon data, especially from ACE, SOHO, Polar and Geotail, enable us to track these events unambiguously through the system, and hence understand the connectivity of individual events, as well as some the reasons for the long term change. We can focus both on following composition signatures through individual events, as a process analagous to pouring dye into a stream and watching and timing where it goes, and also on looking at the major cyclic changes, and their relevance for geoeffective activity.

Session Aims:

• To use composition changes as a tracer of connectivity in the Solar Terrestrial System.

• To elucidate the nature of composition changes in the Solar Wind and The Magnetosphere during the Solar cycle.

• To consider their possible effect on the geoeffectivity.

• To identify fruitful areas for scientific studies and collaboration.

• To put the changes into the context of approaching solar maximum.