National Committee of the Scientific Committee on Solar Terrestrial Physics (NC SCOSTEP)

SCOSTEP aims at bringing together scientists with an interest in solar-terrestrial physics, covering the topics of fundamental solar physics, solar variability, Sun-Earth relations, and future missions and observations. The committee regularly organizes workshops to foster collaborations between the Swiss institutes, to promote a lively exchange between workshop participants, and to strengthen the Swiss solar-terrestrial community.

Several universities/institutes in Switzerland work on solar-terrestrial physics:

• The Istituto ricerche solari Aldo e Cele Daccò, Locarno (IRSOL) studies fundamental solar physics and operates a 45 cm solar telescope in the South of Switzerland. It is affiliated to the Università della Svizzera italiana.
• The Astronomical Institute of the University of Bern hosts a research group on space weather, which studies the physics of eruptions on the Sun and stars and investigates their predictability using machine learning.
• The Physikalisch-Meteorologisches Observatorium Davos / World Radiation Center (PMOD/WRC) focuses on research of the Sun, climate modeling, and measurements of the solar irradiance and has an affiliation with ETH Zurich.
• The Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz has a large expertise on high-energy solar physics and built STIX, the X-ray instrument that launched on board Solar Orbiter in 2020.