ESA's Space Science Department, which used to be called ESLAB, provides the study and project scientists for ESA's scientific satellite programme. Each year this Department organises a symposium and today in Scheveningen we begir the fourteenth such gathering.
We frequently base the programme on the results arriving from one or more of ESA's spacecraft. Sometimes we focus attention on how best to handle the scientific harvest expected from a satellite due for launch in the near future. On occasions we select fields not yet in ESA's programme in order to find out what those scientific communities would like to do and to help us decide how best to steer our internal research programme in Space Science Department.
The symposium beginning here today is of the latter type. ESA has carried very few solar and atmospheric physics experiments in its spacecraft and no ESA spacecraft mission has been dedicated to either discipline. We would hope that, in addition to educating ourselves, we can encourage some dialogue between the atmospheric and solar physics communities. Recent years have seen some interaction but much of this has been in the field of 'Sun-weather relations' which is still looked upon by many as not being entirely 'respectable' science.
I wish you a pleasant stay in Scheveningen and trust that you may leave feeling that your visit was worthwhile.