On October 16-19 2012, the first Sino-German symposium on Solar Physics was held in Nanjing. The meeting was sponsored by the Sino-German Science Center affiliated to the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and to the German Research Foundation (DFG), and was hosted by the Purple Mountain Observatory (PMO). Nearly 70 solar physicists from Germany, China mainland and Taiwan attended this meeting. The participants came from in total 14 different research groups.They are affiliated to five institutes and universities in Germany, and three observatories and six universities in China.

 

"Multi-waveband Observations and Modellings of Solar Activities" was the topic of this meeting. A total of 54 talks covering six sessions were presented. It included the introductions of the solar physics research from both sides; researches on ground-based observations; researches on space and balloon observations; modellings on solar activities; solar cycle, solar interior, and helioseismology; new and future instruments on solar physics. Additionally, future collaborations between Germany and China were discussed.

 

The bilateral collaborations on solar physics have a long history. Statistically, more than one third of the solar physicists in China mainland have the working experience in Germany for long time. And this number has not been exceeded by the exchanges with other countries. Actually, the collaborations between China and German on solar physics could be dated to a very early time, especially on the solar instruments. In the mid-90s of last century, the Solar Space Telescope (SST) was proposed by the scientists from both sides. The solar physics communities in Germany and China have comparable size, complementary research scopes and share common interests in some important research frontiers. As pointed by the coordinator on the Chinese side, the vice director of PMO, Prof. Weiqun Gan in his opening address at the meeting, hosting the Sino-German bilateral meeting on solar physics is very important and necessary.

 

The Sino-German Symposium has deepened and broadened the cooperation between the solar physics communities in China and Germany. The attendees from both sides are very positive on the outcome of this meeting, and are very optimistic and look forward to future collaborations.

 

（Information Source: Purple Mountain Observatory）