the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
| 15 Aug 2025
Establishing a European Heliophysics Community (EHC)
Abstract. Europe hosts a large and highly active community of scientists working in the broad domain of Heliophysics. This broad discipline addresses plasmas in the regions of space and atmosphere influenced by the Sun and solar wind. Howeverthis community has historically been fragmented, both geographically and thematically, which has limited the potential for strategic coordination, collaboration, and growth. This has recently prompted a grass-roots community-building effort to foster communication and interactions within the European Heliophysics Community (EHC). This white paper outlines the motiva- tion, priorities, and initial steps towards establishing the EHC, and presents a vision for the future of Heliophysics in Europe. As a crucial first step of this endeavour, a dedicated EHC website is now available: https://www.heliophysics.eu/.
Competing interests: Some authors are members of the editorial board of Annales Geophysicae
Publisher's note: Copernicus Publications remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims made in the text, published maps, institutional affiliations, or any other geographical representation in this paper. While Copernicus Publications makes every effort to include appropriate place names, the final responsibility lies with the authors. Views expressed in the text are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher.- Preprint
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Status: open (until 05 Oct 2025)
- RC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2025-3814', Tuija Pulkkinen, 29 Aug 2025 reply
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RC2: 'Comment on egusphere-2025-3814', Sébastien Verkercke, 02 Sep 2025
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While not a scientific contribution, this paper highlights the need for stronger collaboration within the European scientific community regarding heliophysics and is thus an important contribution for the scientific community. It clearly identifies the lack of a current European entity representing this broad field and emphasizes the interdisciplinary nature of heliophysics. It then proceeds to give a list of examples stressing the interdisciplinary aspects of the field, which covers the different scales, bodies, and structures encompassed by heliophysics, and reviews single- or multi-spacecraft, as well as ground-based observation techniques commonly used in the field. The paper concludes with the vision the authors have imagined for the European Heliophysics Community (EHC).
The paper is well structured, and Section 3 provides a clear overview of the interconnections between the different fields, as shown in Fig. 1. However, some missions in Fig. 2 are not discussed in the text. An additional figure or diagram summarizing Section 3 could help the reader, as Section 3 is quite dense. Section 4, which presents the vision for the EHC, seems somewhat hidden by the extent of Section 3. An additional diagram could be added to Section 4 to summarize the vision for the EHC and could be linked to the suggested diagram summarizing Section 3, as this would help the reader better understand the goals of the EHC in light of previous successes of interdisciplinary research in heliophysics.
The paper is well written, but the sentence “Venus, Mars, and Comets, …” (l. 339) is misleading, as it could imply that these are the only bodies in this “special category”. Additionally, “Solar System” is sometimes written as “solar system”, and some acronyms are defined multiple times (e.g., CME at lines 104 and 131).
Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3814-RC2
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This paper is not a scientific contribution, but it reaches out to the European research community for better collaboration and coordination. As such, the paper is a valuable contribution, and my "no" answers above should not be held against publication.
The paper is very well written, I found only one place where the intent was not clear to me, this is the sentence starting on line 509 "Heliophysics relies..." I think I understand what the authors mean, but please check the language.
On the presentation style, I have a few comments that the authors should consider, but I am by no means trying to force them. The first two sections are brief and to the point, stating the history and the need for the EHC. Section 3 is well-written and important, but it is also very long and I fear that it hides the vision section that comes at the end. You might consider having 1) Community efforts (your intro), 2) Gaining impact in organizations (your background), 3) Vision for the future, and 4) Science highlights.
I feel that the science highlights as well as the vision would benefit from a summary diagram that would include all past, present and future missions, which form quite a fleet just reading throughSection 3 (see the NASA corresponding one https://science.nasa.gov/heliophysics/missions/mission-fleet-diagram/). This could serve as part of your vision (what are the upcoming missions) as well as context for your highlights (what has been accomplished with the missions already past or in operation). I think that would also give the community an emotional sense of belonging, which might advance the realization of the vision.
I know that the topic is challenging to address, but one glaring omission in section 4.7 is coordination and collaboration with other national space agencies with substantial resources. I leave it to the authors to decide whether to include a short mention how to keep track of what missions are planned globally, and how to prepare to take advantage of emerging opportunities for collaboration.