ILWS History

• Fall, 2000: NASA proposes LWS program which is funded starting fall of 2001

• Interagency Consultative Group (IACG) establishes Task Group to study prospects for developing an ILWS program. The IACG consists of the heads of the space science programs of the European Space Agency (ESA), Japan's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA, USA), and the Russian Aviation and Space Agency (RASA).

• May, 2001: Task Group meets in Tenerife (in conjunction with the ESA Solar Orbiter Workshop)

• Task Group includes:
  - IACG agencies (ESA, ISAS, NASA, RASA) & IACG secretary (International Space Science Institute, Switzerland).
  - Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Communications Research Laboratory, (CRL, Japan), Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radio Wave Propagation (IZMIRAN, Russia), Mullard Space Science Laboratory (UK), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA, USA).

• Task Group concludes:
  - ILWS program has substantial potential for stimulating and enabling a new international effort in solar-terrestrial research.
  - ILWS provides an umbrella for forging necessary international coordination, cooperation, and bi-lateral and multi-lateral agency collaborations.

• January 2002: IACG accepts recommendation of Task Group to establish the ILWS program

• September 2002: ILWS Kick-off Meeting in Washington DC

• January 2003: First Meeting of ILWS Steering Committee in Paris, France

• April 2003: First meeting of ILWS Working Group in Nice, France