On October 24, 2012, Dr. John Foster and Dr. Zhang Shunrong from MIT Haystack Observatory delivered talks on “Monitoring and Understanding Global Space Weather Effects in the Ionosphere” and “Comparative midlatitude ionosphere over US and China: a longitudinal variation perspective” respectively, at State Key Lab on Space Weather, National Space Science Center.

When it comes to space weather monitoring, John Foster emphasized the need for “global observation” and after a technical tour of the field stations, such as Mohe station, Qujing station and Hainan station, he commented that NSSC has a “powerful observation array”, leaving ground for cooperation. In the end, Dr. John Foster expressed the hope to work with NSSC to make the observation international in the coming years.

The visit of the MIT delegation brings along opportunities for collaboration between MIT and NSSC. In the framework of Meridian Project, on a meeting prior to the talks, both parties discussed the possibility of cooperation in a global scale by establishing regular exchanges and involving scientists from other countries.