The United Nations, in cooperation with national and international space-related agencies and organizations, organized annually since 1990 workshops on basic space science, particularly for the benefit of scientists and engineers from developing nations. Drawing on nearly 15 years of workshops on basic space science, the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, through the United Nations Basic Space Science Initiative (UNBSSI) will assist scientists and engineers from all over the world in participating in the International Heliophysical Year (IHY). At the 12^th UN/ESA Workshop on Basic Space Science, held in P.R. China in 2004, it was recommended to focus future workshops on the preparations of IHY to be celebrated worldwide in 2007. Comprehensive information on IHY is available at Information on the International Heliophysical Year 2007 is available at official IHY WEB. More about Balkan, Black Sea and Caspian Sea Regional activities. (click here).

Workshops on basic space science have been held in India (1991), Costa Rica and Colombia (1992), Nigeria (1993), Egypt (1994), Sri Lanka (1995), Germany (1996), Honduras (1997), Jordan (1999), France (2000), Mauritius (2001), Argentina (2002), China (2004).

Since 2005, UNBSS has been organizing workshops on basic space science particularly focusing on the International Heliophysical Year 2007. The IHY-UNBSS workshop in Bulgaria (2008) will be the fourth one after United Arab Emirates (2005), India (2006), Japan (2007)..

Workshops on Basic Space Science contribute to the worldwide development of astronomy, particularly in developing nations. The Workshops have been held in the different regions on Earth.

• The 1^st UN/ESA/NASA Workshop on the International Heliophysical Year and Basic Space Sciences
  United Arab Emirates, November 20-23, 2005 (click here)
• The 2^nd UN/ESA/NASA Workshop on the International Heliophysical Year and Basic Space Sciences
  Bangalore, India November 27 - December 1, 2006 (click here)
• The 3^th UN/ESA/NASA Workshop on the International Heliophysical Year and Basic Space Sciences
  Tokyo, Japan June 18-22, 2007 (click here)

The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, through the IHY secretariat and the United Nations Basic Space Science Initiative (UNBSSI) is assisting scientists and engineers from all over the world in participating in the International Heliophysical Year (IHY) 2007. A major thrust of the IHY/UNBSSI program is to deploy arrays of small, inexpensive instruments such as magneto meters, radio telescopes, GPS receivers, etc. around the world to provide global measurements of ionospheric and heliospheric phenomena. The small instrument program is a partnership between instrument providers, and instrument hosts in developing countries. The lead scientist will provide the instruments (or fabrication plans for instruments) in the array; the host country will provide manpower, facilities, and operational support to obtain data with the instrument typically at a local university. Existing data bases and relevant software tools can be identified to promote space science activities in developing countries. Extensive data on space science have been accumulated by a number of space missions. Similarly, long-term data bases are available from ground based observations. These data can be utilized in ways different from originally intended for understanding the Heliophysical processes.

Goals of
the International Heliophysical Year

1. Scientific:
   • To obtain a coordinated set of observations to study at the largest scale the solar generated events which affect life and climate on the Earth
   • Global study of the Sun-heliosphere system outward to the heliopause to understand the external, and historic drivers of geophysical change
2. Social and economical
   • To foster international scientific cooperation in the study of Heliophysical phenomena now and in the future
   • To incorporate developing countries in the exploration of space
   • To raise the technical and scientific level in the area of space exploration
3. Educational
   • To communicate the basic science and the unique scientific results of the IHY to the interested scientific community and to the general public.