Layout 6 SPECIAL ISSUE: FROM THE SUN TO THE EARTH’S INTERIOR PREFACE The International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy (IAGA) is one of the eight Associations of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG). Research activities in the related fields are developed in Italy at several universities and major national research organizations, such as Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR). The IAGA Italian Committee (http://www.iagaitalia.it/it/organi.asp), in cooperation with INGV, CNR and Area di Ricerca in Astrogeofisica, organized the National Conference "From the Sun to the Earth’s Interior" (21−22 February, 2018) with the specific intent to stimulate the participation of young researchers, their mutual knowledge, the possibility to meet and discuss with more experienced researchers. To this end, the Committee has also provided a prize for the best scientific contributions presented by young researchers. The Conference was attended by about eighty researchers. Some of the papers presented during the Conference are collected in this special issue. They deal with a variety of subjects. Some stud− ies have analysed magnetic field measurements with different time resolutions, from milliseconds to hours, to locate the position of polar cusp [Marzocchetti et al., 2019], to reconstruct the plasmaspheric cold plasma density distribution [Del Corpo et al., 2019], to an− alyze the effects on the ground generated by the geomagnetically induced currents during the occurrence of geomagnetic storms [Tozzi et al., 2019], to study the scaling properties of the geomagnetic field’s spatial fluctuations at both high latitudes (in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere) and low and mid latitudes [De Michelis et al., 2019], but also to investigate, along with electric field measure− ments, the anomalous electromagnetic signals generated in response to the propagation of a mechanical perturbation within the subsoil [Romano et al., 2019]. Magnetic measurements are also used by Ghezzi et al. [2019] to perform an analysis of the errors that affect mag− netic anomaly data as regards the archaeological geophysics. Other studies are instead based on ionospheric measurements to investi− gate how the F2−layer critical frequency varied over Rome during the last three solar minima [Ippolito, 2019], to study both the dynamical properties of the electron density and the scaling properties of the electron density fluctuations at high latitudes in response to changes in the geomagnetic activity [Giannattasio et al., 2019], and to carry out an interhemispheric comparison between high−latitude ionos− pheric observations in response to peculiar solar wind conditions [D’Angelo et al., 2019]. Floating potential time series measured by the DEMETER satellite are instead used by Materassi et al. [2019] to characterise plasma irregularities in the equatorward boundary of the auroral oval, relying on the recently proposed ALIF method. Last but not least, a statistical approach for the computation of kinematic propagation of interplanetary coronal mass ejections has been developed and presented in order to forecast in real−time their propaga− tion and arrival at Earth [Del Moro et al., 2019]. The hospitality of the INGV, the support of the Area di Ricerca in Astrogeofisica, and the endorsement of the CNR are gratefully acknowledged. Thanks are also due to the Editorial board of Annals of Geophysics for the publication of this volume dedicated to the Conference. ANNALS OF GEOPHYSICS, 62, 4, GM457, 2019; 10.4401/ag-8166 REFERENCES D’Angelo G., M. Piersanti, L. Alfonsi, L. Spogli, I. Coco, G. Li, N. Baiqi (2019). The response of high latitude ionosphere to the 2015 June 22 storm. Annals of Geophysics, This issue, doi: 10.4401/ag-7780. De Michelis P., G. Consolini, R. Tozzi, F. Giannattasio, V. Quattrociocchi, I. Coco (2019). Features of Magnetic Field Fluctuations in the Ionosphere at Swarm Altitude. Annals of Geophysics, This issue, doi: 10.4401/ag-7789. Del Corpo A., M. Vellante, B. Heilig, E. Pietropaolo, J. Reda, J. Lichtenberger (2019). Observing the cold plasma in the Earth's magnetosphere with the EMMA network. Annals of Geophysics, This issue, doi: 10.4401/ag-7751. Del Moro D., G. Napoletano, R. Forte, L. Giovannelli, E. Pietropaolo, F. Berrilli (2019). Forecasting the 2018 February 12th CME propagation with the P-DBM model: a fast warning procedure. Annals of Geophysics, This issue, doi: 10.4401/ag-7750. Ghezzi A., A. Schettino, L. Tassi, P. P. Pierantoni (2019). Magnetic modelling and error assessment in archaeological geophysics: The case study of Urbs Salvia, central Italy. Annals of Geophysics, This issue, doi: 10.4401/ag-7799. Giannattasio F., P. De Michelis, G. Consolini, V. Quattrociocchi, I. Coco, R. Tozzi (2019). Characterising the electron density fluctuations in the high-latitude ionosphere at Swarm altitude in response to the geomagnetic activity. Annals of Geophysics, This issue, doi: 10.4401/ag- 7790. Ippolito A. (2019). foF2 variations measured by the Rome observatory during solar minimum in the last three solar cycles. Annals of Geophysics, This issue, doi: 10.4401/ag-7762. Marzocchetti M., S. Lepidi, P. Francia, L. Cafarella, D. Di Mauro (2019). The longitudinal polar cusp displacement from geomagnetic measurements in Antarctica. Annals of Geophysics, This issue, doi: 10.4401/ag-7779. Materassi M., M. Piersanti, G. Consolini, P. Diego, G. D’Angelo, I. Bertello, A. Cicone (2019). Stepping into the Equatorward Boundary of the Auroral Oval: preliminary results of multi scale statistical analysis. Annals of Geophysics, This issue, doi: 10.4401/ag-7801. Romano G., M. Balasco, A. Siniscalchi, A. E. Pastoressa, V. Lapenna (2019). Robust analysis for the characterization of the seismo- electromagnetism signals observed in Southern Italy. Annals of Geophysics, This issue, doi: 10.4401/ag-7811. Tozzi R., I. Coco, P. De Michelis, F. Giannattasio (2019). Latitudinal dependence of geomagnetically induced currents during geomagnetic storms. Annals of Geophysics, This issue, doi: 10.4401/ag-7788. Paola DE MICHELIS Giuseppe CONSOLINI INGV | Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, INAF | Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali, Rome, Italy Rome, Italy Michael PEZZOPANE Umberto VILLANTE INGV | Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Università degli Studi dell'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy Rome, Italy << /ASCII85EncodePages false /AllowTransparency false /AutoPositionEPSFiles false /AutoRotatePages /None /Binding /Left /CalGrayProfile (Dot Gain 20%) /CalRGBProfile (sRGB IEC61966-2.1) /CalCMYKProfile (U.S. Web Coated \050SWOP\051 v2) /sRGBProfile (sRGB IEC61966-2.1) /CannotEmbedFontPolicy /Warning /CompatibilityLevel 1.3 /CompressObjects /Tags /CompressPages true /ConvertImagesToIndexed true /PassThroughJPEGImages true /CreateJobTicket false /DefaultRenderingIntent /Default /DetectBlends true /DetectCurves 0.1000 /ColorConversionStrategy /LeaveColorUnchanged /DoThumbnails false /EmbedAllFonts true /EmbedOpenType false /ParseICCProfilesInComments true /EmbedJobOptions true /DSCReportingLevel 0 /EmitDSCWarnings false /EndPage -1 /ImageMemory 1048576 /LockDistillerParams true /MaxSubsetPct 100 /Optimize false /OPM 1 /ParseDSCComments true /ParseDSCCommentsForDocInfo true /PreserveCopyPage true /PreserveDICMYKValues true /PreserveEPSInfo true /PreserveFlatness true /PreserveHalftoneInfo false /PreserveOPIComments false /PreserveOverprintSettings true /StartPage 1 /SubsetFonts true /TransferFunctionInfo /Apply /UCRandBGInfo /Preserve /UsePrologue false /ColorSettingsFile (None) /AlwaysEmbed [ true /AndaleMono /Apple-Chancery /Arial-Black /Arial-BoldItalicMT /Arial-BoldMT /Arial-ItalicMT /ArialMT /CapitalsRegular /Charcoal /Chicago /ComicSansMS /ComicSansMS-Bold /Courier /Courier-Bold /CourierNewPS-BoldItalicMT /CourierNewPS-BoldMT /CourierNewPS-ItalicMT /CourierNewPSMT /GadgetRegular /Geneva /Georgia /Georgia-Bold /Georgia-BoldItalic /Georgia-Italic /Helvetica /Helvetica-Bold /HelveticaInserat-Roman /HoeflerText-Black /HoeflerText-BlackItalic /HoeflerText-Italic /HoeflerText-Ornaments /HoeflerText-Regular /Impact /Monaco /NewYork /Palatino-Bold /Palatino-BoldItalic /Palatino-Italic /Palatino-Roman /SandRegular /Skia-Regular /Symbol /TechnoRegular /TextileRegular /Times-Bold /Times-BoldItalic /Times-Italic /Times-Roman /TimesNewRomanPS-BoldItalicMT /TimesNewRomanPS-BoldMT /TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT /TimesNewRomanPSMT /Trebuchet-BoldItalic /TrebuchetMS /TrebuchetMS-Bold /TrebuchetMS-Italic /Verdana /Verdana-Bold /Verdana-BoldItalic /Verdana-Italic /Webdings ] /NeverEmbed [ true ] /AntiAliasColorImages false /CropColorImages true /ColorImageMinResolution 150 /ColorImageMinResolutionPolicy /OK /DownsampleColorImages true /ColorImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /ColorImageResolution 300 /ColorImageDepth -1 /ColorImageMinDownsampleDepth 1 /ColorImageDownsampleThreshold 1.10000 /EncodeColorImages true /ColorImageFilter /DCTEncode /AutoFilterColorImages true /ColorImageAutoFilterStrategy /JPEG /ColorACSImageDict << /QFactor 0.15 /HSamples [1 1 1 1] /VSamples [1 1 1 1] >> /ColorImageDict << /QFactor 0.15 /HSamples [1 1 1 1] /VSamples [1 1 1 1] >> /JPEG2000ColorACSImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 30 >> /JPEG2000ColorImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 30 >> /AntiAliasGrayImages false /CropGrayImages true /GrayImageMinResolution 150 /GrayImageMinResolutionPolicy /OK /DownsampleGrayImages true /GrayImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /GrayImageResolution 300 /GrayImageDepth -1 /GrayImageMinDownsampleDepth 2 /GrayImageDownsampleThreshold 1.10000 /EncodeGrayImages true /GrayImageFilter /DCTEncode /AutoFilterGrayImages true /GrayImageAutoFilterStrategy /JPEG /GrayACSImageDict << /QFactor 0.15 /HSamples [1 1 1 1] /VSamples [1 1 1 1] >> /GrayImageDict << /QFactor 0.15 /HSamples [1 1 1 1] /VSamples [1 1 1 1] >> /JPEG2000GrayACSImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 30 >> /JPEG2000GrayImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 30 >> /AntiAliasMonoImages false /CropMonoImages true /MonoImageMinResolution 1200 /MonoImageMinResolutionPolicy /OK /DownsampleMonoImages true /MonoImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /MonoImageResolution 1200 /MonoImageDepth -1 /MonoImageDownsampleThreshold 1.08250 /EncodeMonoImages true /MonoImageFilter /CCITTFaxEncode /MonoImageDict << /K -1 >> /AllowPSXObjects false /CheckCompliance [ /None ] /PDFX1aCheck false /PDFX3Check false /PDFXCompliantPDFOnly false /PDFXNoTrimBoxError true /PDFXTrimBoxToMediaBoxOffset [ 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 ] /PDFXSetBleedBoxToMediaBox true /PDFXBleedBoxToTrimBoxOffset [ 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 ] /PDFXOutputIntentProfile (None) /PDFXOutputConditionIdentifier () /PDFXOutputCondition () /PDFXRegistryName (http://www.color.org) /PDFXTrapped /Unknown /CreateJDFFile false /SyntheticBoldness 1.000000 /Description << /ENU (Use these settings to create PDF documents with higher image resolution for high quality pre-press printing. 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