Future Public Outreach Activities

B.Fleck introduced Jean-Francois Hait to the SWT. J.-F.Hait is a freelance science journalist who was contracted by ESA to help popularize SOHO science results, particularly in Europe.

The following four items were briefly discussed:

• SOHO Results Poster
  Should have been available for the SOHO extended mission celebrations at RAL. Unfortunately, the resolution and color of the poster front in the final proofs from the film negatives were not satisfactory . In addition, some minor points on the back side needed correction. The corrected version should be available end of May.

• AGU/SPD
  There will be two SOHO press releases at the AGU/SPD meeting:

  1.

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  2.

  Solar flare leaves Sun quaking (MDI results)

  3.

  Solar ``cat scan'' provides most detailed look to date at corona (results from the ``Whole Sun Month'' campaign)

  A. Title suggested to ship thousands of poster to science museums in Boston and distribute them for free. To attract a large croud, this should be widely advertized in newspapers. J.Kohl offered to look into this matter with the press officer from SAO.

  A. Title stressed the paramount importance of reaching the broad masses, not just colleagues in the wider scientific community (``mass marketing'').

  One of the prime tasks of the ESA science journalist will be to help bring SOHO into science museums in Europe, such as the Cité des Sciences et de L'Industrie, La Villette, Paris, France, or the German Museum in Munich, Germany. Both permanent as well as temporary exhibitions are considered.

• Future Space Science Updates (SSUs)
  There are vague plans to have another SSU on MDI results later this year. Topic: 3-D tomography of action regions (birth, sub-surface flows etc.).
• 1999 Eclipse
  This is a unique chance to bring solar physics to the attention of the broad masses, in particular in the European countries which lie in the path of totality. Preparations for some major outreach activities should be started soon.