The 10th International HEPPA-SOLARIS Meeting will be held 11–15 January 2027 at the University of Otago in Dunedin — the first Southern Hemisphere edition of a long-running international series on energetic-particle precipitation and solar variability, confirmed on both the HEPPA-SOLARIS working-group site and the University of Otago host blog.
A specialist slice of international solar-terrestrial and atmospheric physics is coming to the deep south of New Zealand: the 10th International HEPPA-SOLARIS Meeting will run from 11 to 15 January 2027 at the University of Otago in Dunedin. It is the tenth gathering in a long-running series that brings together researchers working on how energetic particles from the Sun and near-Earth space feed into the atmosphere, and how solar variability shapes climate and the middle and upper atmosphere. The 2027 edition marks the first time the series has been hosted in the Southern Hemisphere, after recent meetings in the United Kingdom, Norway and the United States.
The HEPPA-SOLARIS series is run by two linked international working groups operating under SPARC/WCRP (the World Climate Research Programme): HEPPA (High Energy Particle Precipitation in the Atmosphere) and SOLARIS (the solar-irradiance data initiative). The 2027 meeting is being hosted by the University of Otago, through its Space Physics group in the Department of Physics, which has a long track record in energetic-particle precipitation and radiation-belt research. The meeting is also supported by the SCOSTEP programme COURSE (Cross-scale cOUpling pRocesses in the Solar-tErrestrial system).
The meeting is a working scientific gathering aimed at atmospheric physicists, space physicists, solar-terrestrial and climate modellers, and observational scientists studying particle precipitation, solar irradiance and their atmospheric and climate effects. It is the kind of mid-sized, abstract-driven research meeting where modelling groups and observational teams compare results and coordinate community data efforts, rather than a trade-facing congress.
The meeting is set at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand's oldest university and a campus known for its heritage bluestone buildings close to the city centre. Dunedin sits on the Otago coast in the South Island. Dunedin Airport, around 30 km southwest of the city, connects to Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch for onward domestic and international links; the airport is reached from the city by shuttle, taxi or rental car, with the drive taking roughly 30–40 minutes. Accommodation ranges from city-centre hotels to university-managed and budget options within walking distance of the campus, and January falls in the Southern Hemisphere summer, during the New Zealand university break, which typically eases pressure on campus-area accommodation.
Hosting the tenth edition of an established international scientific series is a marker of New Zealand's standing as a credible destination for specialist research meetings. It brings an internationally distributed community of atmospheric and space scientists to Dunedin in the summer season, generating academic visitor nights and associated spend, and it reinforces the University of Otago's role as an anchor institution capable of drawing globally coordinated research gatherings to the South Island.
The 10th International HEPPA-SOLARIS Meeting, the latest in the open science meeting series of the international SOLARIS-HEPPA solar-terrestrial research network, is hosted by the University of Otago in Dunedin on 11–15 January 2027, bringing solar, atmospheric and climate scientists to New Zealand's southernmost university.
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