  Since 1990, the UN Programme on Space Applications leads the United Nations
Basic Space Science Initiative by contributing to the international and
regional development of astronomy and space science through annual
UN/ESA/NASA/JAXA workshops on basic space science, International Heliophysical
Year 2007, and the International Space Weather Initiative. Space weather is the
conditions on the Sun and in the solar wind, magnetosphere, ionosphere and
thermosphere that can influence the performance and reliability of space-borne
and ground-based technological systems and can endanger human life or health.
The programme also coordinates the development of IHY/ISWI low-cost,
ground-based, world-wide instrument arrays. To date, 14 world-wide instrument
arrays comprising approximately 1000 instruments (GPS receivers, magnetometers,
spectrometers, particle detectors) are operating in more than 71 countries. The
most recent workshop was hosted by the Republic of Korea in 2009 for Asia and
the Pacific. Annual workshops on the ISWI have been scheduled to be hosted by
Egypt in 2010 for Western Asia, Nigeria in 2011 for Africa, and Ecuador in 2012
for Latin America and the Caribbean.
