Heliophysics Big Year: Education and Public Outreach Reports

The Heliophysics Big Year is a campaign that celebrates the Sun’s influence across the entire solar system, including Earth. It began in October 2023 with an annular solar eclipse in North America, continued with a total solar eclipse in April 2024, and will run through December 2024, when NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will make its closest approach to the Sun. This campaign fosters a wide range of Education and Public Outreach (EPO) activities aimed at making heliophysics science and information accessible to all, thereby promoting broader awareness of heliophysics.

This Research Topic gathers heliophysics EPO activities conducted before and during the Heliophysics Big Year, with the goals of introducing current EPO efforts, sharing their results and lessons with the heliophysics community, encouraging future EPO collaborations, and maintaining momentum beyond the Heliophysics Big Year campaign. We welcome a variety of article types supported by the Frontiers journal, including, but not limited to, original research, methods, reviews and mini reviews, perspectives, data reports, brief research reports, general commentaries, and opinions. Topics of interest may include:

- Reviews of Heliophysics Big Year activities.

- Citizen science projects and their influence on heliophysics research

- Heliophysics EPO programs: science outcomes, societal impacts, and lessons learned.

- Perspectives and strategies for advancing future EPO activities

- Design, implementation, and performance of low-cost instruments for heliophysics EPO efforts.


Prof. Patricia Reiff is the owner of a portable planetarium company, ePlanetarium, that distributed free a show, "Totality", seen by more than 140,000 people.
All other Topic Editors declare no competing interests.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Heliophysics, Space Weather, Education and Public Outreach, Citizen Science, Low-Cost Instruments, Heliophysics Big Year

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.