UK Solar Physics Newsletters Robert von Fay-Siebenburgen & Lyndsay Fletcher, Editors April 2007 Contents o Editorial o News, Views, and Gossip o Reminder - nominations for UKSP chair/secretary o Call for proposals for the first planning cycle of the new Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 plan o News on books: (i) Hardback Reconnection (ii) Softback Reconnection (iii) Astero and helioseismology (iv) Artificial in intelligence in astrophysical image processing o Invitation to participate in a "Topical Issue" of "Solar Physics" on "Challenges in Solar Image Analysis and Visualization" o RHESSI science nuggets o Highlight of Radio Science o Conferences, Workshops, Meetings o Meeting in Honour of Nigel Weiss, Cambridge o First announcement : CESRA workshop "Solar Radio Physics and the Flare-CME relationship" Ioannina, Greece o Positions vacant o PDRA (STEREO/THEMIS RA) University of Colorado at Boulder o Research Astrophysicist at Air Force Research Laboratory o Postdoctoral Research Positions at CNRS o PhD position at Salford o Editors' Notes Dear Colleague, Here are a few items which have come to our attention since the last Newsletter. Robertus (Robertus@sheffield.ac.uk) Lyndsay (lyndsay@astro.gla.ac.uk) *********************************************************************** * * * News, Views and Gossip * * * *********************************************************************** From: Lyndsay Fletcher Please remember, if you would like to nominate someone (including yourself) to be chair or secretary of UKSP for the next 4 years, please send the nominations by 5pm on Friday April 5th to either Lyndsay or Robertus. A vote will take place during the UKSP at UCLan. ***************************** From: Sarah-Jane Pritchard Call for proposals for the first planning cycle of the new Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 plan Dear Colleagues, We are pleased to inform you that the Call for proposals for the first planning cycle of the new Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 plan of the ESA Science Programme is now available from the web at the following address: http://sci.esa.int/cv2015 With my best regards, Valerie A. Lecuraud Directorate of Scientific Programme D/SCI - ESA Headquarters 8-10 rue Mario Nikis F-75738 Paris Cedex 15 France Tel. + 33 (0)1 53 69 74 68 Fax. + 33 (0)1 53 69 72 36 or 7751 E-mail : Valerie.Lecuraud@esa.int www.esa.int ****************************** From: editors News on books 1) New book on Reconnection of Magnetic Fields This is to inform the solar community that a book on Reconnection of Magnetic Fields was published a few weeks ago (J. Birn and E. R. Priest, Editors, "Reconnection of Magnetic Fields, Magnetohydrodynamics and Collisionless Theory and Observations," Cambridge University Press, 2007, ISBN-13 978-0-521-85420-7 or ISBN-10 0-521-85420-2). The book, edited by and with contributions from leading scientists in the field, provides a comprehensive overview of recent theoretical and observational findings concerning the physics of reconnection and the complex structures that may give rise to, or develop from, reconnection. It is intended for researchers and graduate students interested in the dynamics of plasmas. The book is available at www.cup.org. 2) Paperback Version of Book on Reconnection A paperback version is now available of the 600-page monograph entitled "Magnetic Reconnection: MHD Theory and Applications" by Eric Priest and Terry Forbes, published by Cambridge University Press. See http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521033947 3) Text on "Methods in helio- and asteroseismology" The book "Methods in helio- and asteroseismology" that was announced at the last SOHO/GONG/HELAS meeting in Sheffield has now appeared and is available in the UK through a number of bookstores including Amazon. The ISBN-10 is 1-86094-7557. The publishers are Imperial Collge Press and they have a web-page for this book at: http://www.icpress.co.uk/physics/p485.html 4) New book on Artificial Intelligence in Astrophysical Imaging Zharkova V.V. and Jain L. (eds.) 2007, "ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN RECOGNITION and CLASSIFICATION of ASTROPHYSICAL and MEDICAL IMAGES", Studies in Computational Intelligence, v46, , Springer Verlag, Berlin , Heidelberg, pp. 374 . ISBN-10: 3-540-47511-7, ISBN-13: 978 3-540-47511-8 This book presents innovative techniques in Recognition and Classification of Astrophysical and Medical Images. The contents include: Introduction to pattern recognition and classification in astrophysical and medical images; Image standardization and enhancement; Region-based methods for pattern recognition in medical and astrophysical images; Advanced information processing using statistical methods; Feature recognition and classification using spectral method. The book is intended for astrophysicists, medical researches, engineers, research students and technically aware managers in the Universities, Astrophysical Observatories, Medical Research Centres working on the processing of large archives of astrophysical or medical digital images. This book can be used as a text book for students of Computing, Cybernetics, Applied Mathematics and Astrophysics. http://www.springer.com/west/home?SGWID=4-102-22-173695523-0 ****************************** From: Alex Young Invitation to participate in a "Topical Issue" of "Solar Physics" on "Challenges in Solar Image Analysis and Visualization" We solicit manuscripts on this general subject for inclusion in a Topical Issue of Solar Physics, with a deadline of 15 March for submission of statement of interest, title, and abstract, and 30 April 2007 for submission of the completed manuscript. The 3rd Solar Image Processing Workshop (SIPWorkIII) was held late last year in Dublin, Ireland. This latest in a series of successful meetings brought together researchers in image analysis and solar physics, this time to focus on challenges presented by new instrumentation. Topics discussed at the meeting include: - image enhancement - image segmentation - multiscale image analysis - 3D image reconstruction - feature recognition, classification, and machine learning - image deconvolution and reconstruction - realtime analysis, large scale image datasets and feature databases - new instrumentation: STEREO, Hinode, SDO, ATST, SST and DOT This Topical Issue is not a conference proceedings,**is not limited to research presented at the Dublin meeting**, (see: www.solarmonitor.org/sipworkiii) and it will not necessarily contain all of the work presented at this meeting. It will consist of complete research papers on this common theme, which will benefit from being published together. All of the papers will be refereed in the normal manner. The Topical Issue will start off with two or three invited reviews to summarize the subject and frame the work in the research papers which follow. There will be a limit of approximately 250 pages. In order to respect the other contributors, we will be very strict with deadlines for submission, refereeing, and proofing. To expedite the schedule, referees will be identified prior to the submission of the manuscripts on the basis of the abstracts. Papers which are late, either because of delays in submission or protracted refereeing, will appear individually in later issues of the Journal. If you wish to participate in this Topical Issue of Solar Physics, please 1) let us know by 15 March if you would like to be considered for inclusion 2) let us know how many pages you anticipate 3) give us a tentative title, and abstract 4) suggest potential referees. 5) submit the manuscript for refereeing by 30 April 2007. C. Alex Young (Guest Editor) and John Leibacher , co-editors ****************************** From: Melanie Illsley Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2007 09:21:49 +0100 From: Melanie Illsley To: ASTROCOMMUNITY@LISTSERV.CCLRC.AC.UK Subject: Scientist and MP pairing scheme Dear Colleagues Would you like an in-depth insight into how Westminster works and how science policy is formed? Once again PPARC/Science and Technology Facility Council are supporting the Royal Society who are running their "MP-Scientist Pairing Scheme" as part of their Science in Society programme. The objective is to match interested MPs with a post doctoral scientist from within their constituency and to build bridges between parliamentarians and UK scientists. The scheme involves observing and shadowing one another over the course of a couple of weeks during which you could tour Westminster, observe Science and Technology Select Committee Oral Evidence gathering sessions and sit in on constituency surgeries whilst they would get to visit your facilities, meet your colleagues and learn more about your research programmes. The main aims are: to help researchers to better grasp the political system To help researchers to get to know the methods and structures through which they can feed knowledge to the policy makers to help make researchers more familiar with the pressures on MPs to link MPs to scientists in their constituencies To give MPS a greater insight into current research and scientific issues "The Royal Society MP/Scientist Scheme was enlightening, exciting and fun. It taught me more about the influence of science in Parliament and Government - and Parliament and Government in general! - than Newsnight, the Today programme and the Guardian have ever managed. It also taught me more about how things work the other way - how the science we do (and get paid to do) is affected by what goes on in Westminster - than years of grant applications" Dr Andrew Jaffe, PPARC Advanced Fellowship holder, Imperial College If you would like to take this further please visit http://www.royalsociety.ac.uk/page.asp?tip=1&id=4099 The contact at the Royal Society is Ms Chloe Sheppard, Royal Society, London. Tel: 02074512573; email chloe.sheppard@royalsoc.ac.uk The stated closing date on the website is 5th April 2007, however Ms. Sheppard has told us that the absolute deadline is not until the 11th. I hope this is of interest you Regards Gareth James Senior Manager Science and Society Programme Science and Technology Research Council Polaris House North Star Avenue SWINDON Wilts SN2 1SZ Tel: 01793 442175 email: gareth.james@pparc.ac.uk ****************************** From: Steven Christe "Soft-Hard-Harder" by Sa"m Krucker and Hugh Hudson Flares whose spectrum become progressively harder are closely associated with high-energy solar proton events observed in interplanetary space. An analysis of some prominent soft-hard-harder events. "Bouncing Thick-Target Coronal X-Ray Sources" by Linhui Sui and Gordon Holman A bouncing coronal source motion is found in several early-impulsive flares. These can be found on http://sprg.ssl.berkeley.edu/~tohban/nuggets/ We publish these at roughly two-week intervals. The next to appear will be on or around Monday, April 2nd. ****************************** From: Silja Pohjolainen A New Highlight of Solar Radio Physics A solar type N burst at decametric wavelengths by Karl-Ludwig Klein is announced and can be found at http://www.lesia.obspm.fr/cesra/highlights/ ********************************************************************** * * * Conferences, Workshops, Meetings * * * *********************************************************************** From: Michael Proctor Dear Colleagues, A meeting has been organised in Cambridge to celebrate the 70th birthday of Nigel Weiss. The meeting will be on 22 June 2007 in the Centre for Mathematical Sciences. More information and a preliminary programme may be found by visiting the link http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/mrep/weiss07/weiss07.html We hope to see you at the meeting. Michael Proctor on behalf of the organisers ****************************** From: Karl-Ludwig Klein Workshop organized by the Community of European Solar Radio Astronomers (CESRA) : First Announcement "Solar Radio Physics and the Flare-CME relationship" Ioannina, Greece, June 12-16, 2007 Contact : Alexander Nindos (email: anindos-at-cc-dot-uoi-dot-gr) Web page : http://users.uoi.gr/anindos/CESRA2007 Scientific organizing committee: H. Aurass (Potsdam), K.-L. Klein (Meudon, co-chair), A. MacKinnon (Glasgow), A. Nindos (Ioannina, co-chair), G. Poletto (Arcetri ; EPS/EAS Solar Physics Section), S. Pohjolainen (Turku), A. Stepanov (St Petersburg) CESRA, the Community of European Solar Radio Astronomers, organizes workshops on investigations of the solar atmosphere using radio and other observations. Although special emphasis is given to radio diagnostics, the workshop topics are of interest to a large community of solar physicists. The 2007 workshop, "Solar Radio Physics and the Flare-CME Relationship", will address a topic that is at the heart of contemporary investigations of the solar corona and its relationship with interplanetary space, involving phenomena related to explosive energy conversion and large-scale instabilities. Radio diagnostics contributes important information to flare/CME studies because with radio observations one can probe much of the solar atmosphere and the interplanetary medium up to 1 AU and because of the sensitivity of radio emissions to magnetic field and non-thermal particle populations. Exciting new results are anticipated from data obtained by the "Hinode" and "STEREO" spacecraft, as well as from the fleet of ground-based and space-borne instruments that will become available in the near future. These are good enough reasons for solar physicists (not only solar radio astronomers) involved in observations, theory, and instrumentation to meet and discuss recent results on flare/CME research and foster collaborations joining radio and space-borne diagnostics. *********************************************************************** * * * Positions Vacant * * * *********************************************************************** From: Stefan Eriksson Postdoctoral Research Associate (STEREO/THEMIS RA) University of Colorado at Boulder The Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) of the University of Colorado at Boulder has a postdoctoral research associate position available in the field of space plasma physics. This is a one year appointment, renewable contingent upon available funding and satisfactory performance. The successful candidate will join our space plasma physics group, which has extensive interests in solar wind and magnetospheric research. He/she will participate in the analysis and interpretation of in situ solar wind plasma, magnetic field and plasma/radio wave data from the twin STEREO A-B spacecraft. Topics of current interest to our group include, but are not limited to, plasma acceleration and heating in connection with solar wind shocks and reconnection events and the origin and generation mechanisms of type II and III radio bursts. The space plasma physics group of LASP is also associated with the THEMIS magnetospheric mission to understand the mechanisms of substorms as well as with the FAST auroral physics satellite mission. Data from these missions are available for further analysis. We anticipate ample opportunities for the candidate to get involved in instrument preparation for the planned multi-spacecraft MMS mission to investigate the micro-physics of magnetopause magnetic reconnection and/or the radiation belt storm probes(RBSP) mission. Hardware involvement requires US citizenship or permanent resident status. Please visit http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/ to learn more about STEREO and its instruments. For more information about the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics and our personnel, please visit http://lasp.colorado.edu/ . The home page of the University of Colorado is at http://www.colorado.edu/ . Candidates should submit a CV and a cover letter describing your research experience and interests, and names and contact information for two references by March 31, 2007 electronically to hrads at lasp.colorado.edu , reference STEREO/THEMIS RA. Submit questions to Dr. Stefan Eriksson (Stefan.Eriksson at lasp.colorado.edu ). We encourage any PhD student with an anticipated graduation during 2007 to apply for this position that will remain open until filled. The University of Colorado at Boulder is committed to diversity and equality in education and employment. ****************************** From: Richard Radick Research Astrophysicist at Air Force Research Laboratory Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate Solar and Solar Wind Disturbance Prediction Section Research Astrophysicist The Solar and Solar Wind Disturbance Prediction Section (VSBXS) of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is seeking applicants to fill a Research Astrophysicist position with its detachment at the National Solar Observatory in Sunspot, NM. The salary range is $76,678 to $108,359 per annum plus 12.52% locality pay, depending on experience and qualifications. The position will involve basic and applied solar research on the physical processes that lead to eruptive phenomena such as flares and coronal mass ejections that disrupt and/or degrade Air Force operational systems, and development of innovative optical, radio, or space instrumentation for solar and/or heliospheric observations. The ideal candidate would possess (1) authoritative knowledge of solar physics, including in-depth understanding of the physics of solar magnetic activity; (2) skill in conducting ground- and/or space-based observations of the Sun and/or heliosphere, such as measurements of solar magnetic fields using spectropolarimetric instruments, tunable filters, and advanced imaging techniques; (3) skill in modeling the evolution and dynamics of the solar atmosphere, using large data sets from diverse instruments; and (4) ability to transition results of basic and applied research to Air Force and civilian space operators. A baccalaureate in astronomy, physics, mathematics, space sciences, or electronics with 12 semester hours in astronomy and/or physics, or a combination of education and experience, is required; a PhD is desired. The job announcement will be posted on the http://www.usajobs.com website. For further information please contact Tracie Hidalgo, AFRL/HR Human Relations Office, at (505)853-6269 and for technical information contact Dr. Richard Radick, AFRL/VSBXS, at (505) 434-7035. The Department of Defense is an Equal Opportunity Employer. ****************************** From: Nicolas Labrosse There are postdoctoral research positions available in France. See https://www2.cnrs.fr/DRH/post-docs07/?pid=1&dpt=13 for a list of positions. These short-term contracts are for one year – or renewable for a further year. Monthly pay is 2500 euros gross. Applicants must: •- have a Ph.D. or equivalent degree at the time of employment; • - not have worked previously in the lab applied for. The only exception to this rule is for someone returning to the lab after a period of absence of at least one year; • There are no nationality restrictions. -• Be in possession of your diploma for less than two years How to apply: 1 – applicants must look through the job descriptions on the web site for open positions in their field of expertise (an English version exists for all job descriptions). 2 – applicants have until April 30 2007 to make contact with the labs listed and send them a completed application form. 3 – a local selection committee under the instructions of the lab director selects one candidate from the application forms received. The relevant regional offices are responsible for drawing up the contract. 4 – selected candidates begin work on September or October 1st 2007. This date can be postponed in exceptional circumstances. ****************************** From: Peter Gallagher Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Trinity College Dublin The Astrophysics Research Group (http://www.physics.tcd.ie/astrophysics) at Trinity College Dublin seeks a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in solar physics. The successful candidate will be responsible for the development of Interactive Data Language (IDL) software for the analysis of data from the SWAP (Sun Watcher with APS detectors and image Processing; http://swap.oma.be) and LYRA (http://lyra.oma.be) instruments onboard ESA’s PROBA2 satellite, to be launched in September 2007. We are particularly interested in applications from candidates with experience in IDL (or a related language such as Matlab, C, etc.), signal/image processing, and solar physics. The starting salary will be €40-45k, and will also include a pension contribution. Please send inquiries and/or formal applications to Dr. Peter Gallagher (peter.gallagher@tcd.ie). ****************************** From: David Tsiklauri PPARC PhD Studentship Space and Solar Plasma Physics University of Salford Applications are invited for a Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC) PhD Studentship within the Space and Solar Plasma Physics Group, Institute for Materials Research, University of Salford. The project involves numerical modelling and analytical investigation of wave dynamics and magnetic reconnection in space plasmas in broad, inter-disciplinary context. Applicants should have a good Honours degree in Physics or Applied Mathematics (at least 2:1 or equivalent) or a lower second class plus a Master's (MPhys) qualification. Programming experience in any high level language is highly desirable. Candidates should be UK or EU citizens and will receive full fees and stipend of £12,300 per annum for three years. For details and eligibility, see http://www.pparc.ac.uk/Pg/Stu/Studentships.asp Please send your CV and completed PhD application form, which is available from the Postgraduate Office of the University (Web site: http://www.pg.salford.ac.uk/pdfs/PGR-app.pdf), two letters of recommendation directly to: Dr. David Tsiklauri IMR & CSE, Newton Building University of Salford Greater Manchester, England M5 4WT The deadline for applications is the 1st July 2007. Dr. David Tsiklauri may be contacted by Email: D.Tsiklauri@salford.ac.uk or Tel. 0161 29 55383 for informal discussions. University of Salford is located in Greater Manchester, only 1 mile away from the Manchester city centre. For further information, please visit URL links below: Space and Solar Plasma Physics Group -- http://space.cse.salford.ac.uk/ Institute for Materials Research -- http://www.imr.salford.ac.uk University of Salford -- http://www.salford.ac.uk *********************************************************************** * * * Editors' Notes * * * *********************************************************************** The UK Solar Physics Newsletters will be distributed on a monthly basis, with occasional extra issues for breaking news. Please note, the UK Solar Physics Web is now back, at http://www.uksolphys.org/ Submissions to the UK Solar Physics Newsletters should be e-mailed to Robert von Fay-Siebenburgen (copied to Lyndsay Fletcher). Any suggestions and ideas are welcome. Please keep meeting and workshop announcements to a reasonable length of typed text with a max of 72 characters per line, with a Web address for further information. Also notify Robertus of any Email address changes. You may always unsubscribe from this list by sending an email to either of the editors with the words 'UKSP-unsubscribe' in the subject line. The Editors http://www.uksolphys.org ************************************************************************ *Robert von Fay-Siebenburgen Lyndsay Fletcher * *University of Sheffield University of Glasgow * *Department of Applied Mathematics Dept. of Physics and Astronomy * *Space & Atmosphere Research Center Astronomy and Astrophys. Group * *Hicks Building, Western Bank The Kelvin Building * *S10 2TN, Sheffield G12 8QQ, Glasgow * *Tel.: +44-(0)114-2223832 Tel.: +44-(0)141-330 5311 * *Fax : +44-(0)114-2223739 Fax : +44-(0)141-330 5183 * *Email: Robertus@sheffield.ac.uk Email: lyndsay@astro.gla.ac.uk * *http://robertus.staff.shef.ac.uk www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/lyndsay/ * *************************************************************************