The ESPD is known mostly for its organisation of the European Solar Physics Meetings, which bring together European solar physicists and take place every three years.
Since 2017, the ESPD awards four prizes: the Zdeněk Švetka Senior Prize for outstanding contributions over an extended period of time to solar physics, the Giancarlo Noci Early Career Prize for outstanding contributions to solar physics from an Early career researcher, the Patricia Edwin PhD Prize for the best European PhD thesis in solar physics and the Kees Zwaan Inspirational Community Prize for services to the community.
This meeting was attended by more than 200 solar physicists (a remarkable number for the time), and during the meeting it was decided to proceed with the creation of a Solar Physics Section (SPS) as part of the Astronomy and Astrophysics Division of the EPS.
[2] In 1990, the European Astronomical Society (EAS) was founded, and the SPS became a section of the Joint Astrophysics Division (JAD) of EPS and EAS.
The ESPD organises the European Solar Physics Meeting (ESPM), the largest meeting of solar physics in Europe.