Dear Colleagues,

The 2010 Beacon Satellite Symposium will be held in Barcelona, Spain on June 7-11, 2010. Dr. Manuel Hernandez-Pajares on behalf of the Technical University of Catalonia (gAGE/UPC) had graciously offered to host this symposium.

This meeting will provide a unique opportunity for ionospheric scientists from all over the world to meet and collaborate on the ionospheric effects on radio propagation. This meeting is primarily sponsored by the Beacon Satellite Group of the International Union of Radio Science (URSI) Commission G. The Beacon Satellite Group is interdisciplinary, servicing science, research, application and engineering interests. These interests include all aspects of satellite signals observed on the ground and by receivers on-board satellites.
The Beacon Satellite Studies Group was originally formed in 1972, with the first Symposia at Graz, Austria. Symposia have continued to meet at two to four year intervals with meetings held at various worldwide locations. From the beginning, the two main areas of interest in Beacon Satellite Studies have been Ionospheric Electron Content and Scintillation. With more recent developments in ionospheric tomography, occultation techniques, assimilation models, distributed arrays of ionospheric measurements, IHY and IPY activities and satellite based navigation and communication systems; these studies have gained new momentum and perspectives.
We invite you to submit an abstract for the upcoming symposium. Contributions for oral and poster presentations from all areas connected to beacon satellite investigations will be considered. However, contributions from the primary topics are especially encouraged.

Deadline for submittal of abstracts is 31 January 2010. Details on the abstract submittal process together with all other organizational details will soon be listed on the Beacon Satellite web site at: www.bc.edu/beacon.

It is our intent to waive the registration fee and to assist travel costs for a limited number of students and attendees from developing countries. The total level of assistance will depend on sponsorship funding. To apply for assistance, please send a note describing your interest in this symposium together with a copy of your abstract to Patricia Doherty (Patricia.Doherty@bc.edu) and Manuel Hernandez-Pajares (manuel@mat.upc.edu).

We sincerely hope to see you in Barcelona for the 17th International Beacon Satellite Symposium.

Yours sincerely,

Ms. Patricia Doherty, Western Region Chair

Dr. Manuel Hernandez-Pajares, Local Organizing Chair

Dr. P.V.S. Rama Rao, Easter Region Chair

Dr. Reinhart Leitinger, Honorary General Chair