UK Solar Physics Newsletters Robert von Fay-Siebenburgen & Lyndsay Fletcher, Editors January 2007 Contents o Editorial o News, Views, and Gossip o Season's Gift Present from Solar Physics o Reduced THEMIS data in the BASS2000 data base o New Highlight of Solar Radio Physics o New Wavelet LASCO and EIT movies o New RHESSI Science nugget - gamma rays from the corona o Conferences, Workshops, Meetings o 2nd European General Assembly of IHY European Implication to the large infrastructures of the future; 1st announcement Torino, Italy � June 18-22, 2007 o EGU ST4 on "Oscillations of the solar interior and atmosphere", Vienna (Austria), 15-20 April 2007 o Provisional Dates for UKMHD 2007 o Positions vacant o Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowships o Professor of Mathematics, University of Wales Aberystwyth o Postdoctoral researcher, Nobeyama Solar Radio Observatory o Postdoctoral Researcher, Space Plasma Physics, Velizy, France o Editors' Notes Dear Colleague, Here are a few items that have come to our attention since the last Newsletter. We wish you a Joyous Solstice, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Robertus (Robertus@sheffield.ac.uk) and Lyndsay (lyndsay@astro.gla.ac.uk) ************************************************************************ * 2 0 0 6 * * S Novym godom! | Schastlivogo Rozhdestva ! * * -*- * * Merry Christmas ! '|` Happy New Year ! * * *:* * * Froehliche Weihnachten! * . * Ein Gutes Neues Jahr ! * * ** ** * * Joyeux Noel ! *** o ** Bonne Annee ! * * * O * * * Buon Natale ! *** \\ ** Buon Anno ! * * * o \\ * * * God Jul och ! ** O \\** Gott Nytt Ar ! * * ***\\ o \** * * Feliz Navidad ! * \\ o * Prospero ano nuovo ! * * ** o \\ O ** * * Prettige Kerstdagen **** \\ o ** Gelukkig Nieuwjaar ! * * ** o o \\ o ** * * Heid Joulu ! *** O \\ *** Head Uut Aastat ! * * ||| * * * ************************************************************************ *********************************************************************** * * * News, Views and Gossip * * * *********************************************************************** From: John Leibacher Season's Gift Present from Solar Physics The electronic content of the May 2006, double issue, of Solar Physics will be available free online through the end of January, 2007. Just go to the Solar Physics homepage, click on "Online Version", and you will see a green box next to Volume 235 - which indicates that you can access the full electronic content. Among the 25 articles, the "best seller" is a "Nonlinear Force-Free Modeling of Coronal Magnetic Fields Part I: A Quantitative Comparison of Methods", by Schrijver et al., presented here in (free) color. Best wishes for the New Year from Harry Blom, Randy Cruz, Phil Johnstone, John Leibacher, Takashi Sakurai, Lidia van Driel-Gesztelyi and the folks at Springer ****************************** From: Nadege Meunier Reduced THEMIS data in the BASS2000 data base Dear colleagues, THEMIS is a french-italian telescope operating since 1999 in Tenerife. Data from 2 observing modes (MSDP and MTR) are archived at BASS2000 and are publicly available. The MSDP mode (spectro-imagery) is a double passage spectrograph, with polarimetric capabilities. The MTR mode corresponds to multi-line spectropolarimetry (several spectral domains observed strictly simultaneously). Some reduced MSDP-THEMIS data have been available since 2005 the BASS2000 archive (Tarbes - France). We have now started to process the large amount of data obtained in the MTR mode (multi-line spectropolarimetry). The data products are : - Stokes parameters or clean spectra, - intensity maps, - Dopplergrams, - magnetograms, - vector magnetic field maps. The data base will be progressively updated. A description of what is provided can be found here : http://bass2000.bagn.obs-mip.fr/New2003/Pages/help_mtr.html. This page includes a short description of the data processing and of what is available on-line, examples and a list of the periods for which MTR reduced data are available (updated regularly as we reduce data). We remind you that raw data as well as the reduced data are publicly available. We encourage you to request some data and we are at your disposal if you have any questions. It is very important for our service to receive requests on these reduced data if we want to continue to provide them. Furthermore, in order to prepare for future developpements, we would like to know which kind of additionnal data products you would be interested in. We remind you that THEMIS observations cover a wide range of subjects : active regions and filaments, quiet sun (including Hanle effect observations at the limb) and prominences. It is also important to note that they also cover many spectral lines (see our database for more details). Please let us know about your needs. You will also find more details about the telescope on the THEMIS web page at http://www.themis.iac.es/ and some informations on our BASS2000 pages at http://bass2000.bagn.obs-mip.fr/pagef3_ang.html. Requests can be made directly through the form at http://bass2000.bagn.obs-mip.fr/Query/index.php4. Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. ****************************** From: Silja Pohjolainen A new Highlight of Solar Radio Physics is announced at http://www.lesia.obspm.fr/cesra/highlights/ by Claude Mercier, High dynamic range solar radio images by combining visibilities from the Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope and the Nancay Radioheliograph *** new highlight material is always welcome; see instructions at the bottom of the highlights page ****************************** From: Russ Howard Wavelet SOHO LASCO and EIT Movies We are pleased to announce the formation of a new set of MPEG movies for the LASCO/C2 and EIT/195 images from SOHO that greatly enhance the detail in the images. The movies have been generated using a wavelet enhancement technique developed by Guillermo Stenborg, and based on that described in Stenborg & Cobelli, Astronomy and Astrophysics, v.398, p.1185-1193, 2003. The processing starts with the full resolution, full field (1024 x 1024) images and then bins them down to 512x512. At this time the C2 movies have been completed for 1997 to the present as both daily and monthly movies. The first year of the mission does not have sufficient full resolution images to apply the technique. The EIT movies are being generated from the current data back in time. Daily EIT movies are now available back to January 1998, and the monthly back to January 2000, but the earlier times continue to be processed. The other EIT wavelengths will be available once the 195 are finished. If the resultant MPEG file of the monthly movie would be too large, the month was divided into shorter intervals. The movies are available from the LASCO home page (http://lasco-www.nrl.navy.mil ) under “Data Products” or can be addressed directly at http://lasco-www.nrl.navy.mil /index.php?p=content/wavelet. Guillermo Stenborg & Russ Howard Naval Research Lab ****************************** From: Steven Christe This is to announce a new RHESSI science nugget, "Coronal gamma-ray sources in giant solar flares" by Sa"m Krucker and Gordon Hurford Gamma-rays from the corona?! It 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, Dec 21th. Steven Christe Hugh Hudson ********************************************************************** * * * Conferences, Workshops, Meetings * * * *********************************************************************** From: "Harrison, RA (Richard)" Second European General Assembly of IHY European Implication to the large infrastructures of the future First announcement Torino, Italy � June 18-22, 2007 I - Scientific Context The year 2007 will mark the 50th Anniversary of the International Geophysical Year (IGY) and 50 years of space exploration. The world�s science community will come together for an international program of scientific collaboration: the International Heliophysical Year (IHY) 2007-2008. IHY extends the concept of "Geophysics" to �Heliophysics� to embrace not only atmospheric and solar-terrestrial physics but include studies of other planets, the outer reaches of the heliosphere, and its interaction with the interstellar medium. Among the IHY objectives: 1. Develop the basic science of heliophysics through cross-disciplinary studies of universal processes, 2. Foster international scientific cooperation in the study of heliophysical phenomena now and in the future, 3. Communicate unique IHY results to the scientific community and the general public. II- Meeting Goals This meeting aims to foster the European participation and collaboration in the development of the large infrastructures of the future for the exploration and the study of the heliosphere. Space and ground-based major instruments that are presently in their initial design phase will be presented as support for discussions and contacts between scientific teams all over Europe. It will also be a good opportunity to expose new ideas or projects. The domains concerned are: Sun, Solar wind, Solar wind-Planets relationships, Space Weather, Limits of the heliosphere. Students and young researchers are particularly encouraged to participate: the time development of such large infrastructures will make them the actors of the future. It will also be a good opportunity for teams that are not traditionnally involved in instrumental development to participate from the begining to such projects and for their students to acquire experience on that field. A specific session will be dedicated to outreach and communication activities. We can then assess the impact of the �Open doors day (June 10, 2007)� and present the manifestations organized by the different countries. The web page of the meeting will be opened very soon. In the meantime, information will be available on the IHY European web page: http://www.lesia.obspm.fr/IHY/ C. Briand and J.L. Bougeret, on behalf of the European Steering Committee of IHY ****************************** From: Istvan Ballai CALL FOR PAPERS: European Geophysical Union General Assembly Meeting, Vienna (Austria), 15-20 April 2007 Dear All, Contributions are invited for the ST4 session of the EGU meeting entitled "Oscillations of the solar interior and atmosphere" Motivation of the session: Waves and oscillations in solar and space plasmas are an obvious manifestation of the dynamical character of space plasmas. Waves can transport energy and momentum which can heat the plasma. They can also transport information about the medium in which they propagate. One of the most exciting branches of solar and space plasma physics is the seismology of the solar interior and atmosphere where wave characteristics (frequency, amplitude, phase, lifetime) are used to derive plasma and field parameters which cannot be measured in the solar atmosphere (magnetic field, density, transport coefficients, substructure of the medium) or in the solar interior (temperature inhomogeneities, plasma flows, subsurface structure of active regions and sunspots). The aims of this session are to review recent theoretical and observational findings in this field with special emphasis on the interdisciplinarity between the seismology of the solar interior and solar atmosphere. In addition, we will explore the many connections that exist between helioseismology and the seismology of the Earth (studies of wave propagation through complex media, finite-wavelength tomography, large-scale inverse problems, etc). Abstracts can be submitted via the meeting's webpage http://meetings.copernicus.org/egu2007/ until 15 January 2007. Convenors: Istvan Ballai (University of Sheffield, UK, i.ballai@sheffield.ac.uk) Laurent Gizon (Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Germany, gizon@linmpi.mpg.de) **************************************** From: Graeme Sarson Dear colleagues, Re: Provisional Dates for UK MHD 2007 Meeting, Newcastle As you may well be aware, the annual UK MHD meeting will be held in Newcastle in 2007. After preliminary enquiries, it seems that the best dates for this are: Thursday June 7 -- Friday June 8, 2007 . We appreciate that these dates may not be ideal for everyone, but the alternative dates, at that time of year, appear to be ruled out for various reasons. (In particular, the corresponding days on the two previous and two following weeks appear significantly less convenient.) If there are reasons why you think the above dates are not suitable, please let us know as soon as possible. Otherwise, we propose to hold the meeting on these days, so please note these provisional dates in your diaries, and pass them on to any colleagues who may not have received this email. We'll confirm the dates in the New Year, when we'll also have set up a web site with further information, registration details, etc.; we'll circulate another email at that time. In the meantime, we wish you all a Happy Christmas and New Year... Best regards, Carlo Barenghi, Andrew Fletcher, Graeme Sarson, Anvar Shukurov *********************************************************************** * * * Positions Vacant * * * *********************************************************************** From: Peter Gallagher Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowships The Solar Physics Group at Trinity College Dublin welcomes candidates wishing to apply for the above-mentioned Postdoctoral Fellowship scheme. The scheme is open to researchers of all nationalities who are at an early stage of their postdoctoral career, and who wish to further their research at an Irish institution in 2007. We are particular interested in hearing from candidates with experience in analysing and interpreting multi-wavelength observations of active regions, solar flares and CMEs using data from SOHO, TRACE and RHESSI. The Group will be also be actively involved in the STEREO and Hinode missions. Candidates will be expected to prepare a short research proposal, which will be assessed based on the track record of the candidate and quality and impact of the project. Inquiries to Dr. Peter Gallagher (peter.gallagher@tcd.ie). Information on the Solar Group can be found at http://www.physics.tcd.ie/astrophysics. Further information on the Postdoctoral Fellowship scheme can be found at http://www.ircset.ie/grant_schemes/postdoctoral.html. Closing date for full proposals is 5.00pm on Friday, 26th January, 2007. ****************************** From: Andy Breen The University of Wales Aberystwyth is seeking to appoint a Professor of Mathematics, who will play a major role in the development of Mathematics at Aberystwyth. The successful candidate will show strong leadership qualities in the three main areas of Research, Teaching and Administration, and will have an internationally outstanding research record in Mathematics, with a proven record in obtaining research funding. A Lectureship and PhD studentship accompany this position and the successful applicant will advise on these appointments. The Institute of Mathematical and Physical Sciences has three main areas of research activity: Mathematics, Materials Physics and Solar System Physics, particularly Plasmas. Research in Mathematics is in complex fluids, applied nonlinear analysis, algebraic combinatorics and dynamical systems. Applicants having research interests that relate to these areas will be welcome. More details may be found at: http://www.aber.ac.uk/human-resources/en/vacancies/MAPS/MP.06.11.doc ****************************** From: K. Shibasaki We are seeking for a postdoctoral researcher in Nobeyama Solar Radio Observatory. The position is for studies of solar radio astronomy. Applicants should have a PhD in astronomy or physics or related field. Preference will be given to applicants with experience in the use of IDL or other similar data reduction and analysis package in the UNIX environment. Observatory duty is half and the rest is for research. The position is available for one year, from April 1st of 2007 and extendible up to three years. The monthly salary is about 300,000 Japanese Yen depending on experience. Applicants should send their CV, publication list, and research plan, by e-mail to K. Shibasaki (shibasaki@nro.nao.ac.jp ) by December 29, 2006. For further information, contact K. Shibasaki (shibasaki at nro.nao.ac.jp), director of Nobeyama Solar Radio Observatory. ****************************** From: Ludwig Klein Post-doctoral position opportunity at Centre d'étude des Environnements Terrestre et Planétaires, CETP, Vélizy, France CETP (Centre d'étude des Environnements Terrestre et Planétaires) invites applications for a two years post-doctoral position in space plasma physics. The team offering the job is actively working on magnetic turbulence and reconnection in magnetospheric physics, and is involved in a wide international collaboration in theoretical, numerical and in data analyses, in particular from the Cluster mission. The successful candidate will have to develop a new theoretical and numerical approach of turbulent reconnection. Reconnection phenomenon is known to be a "cross-scale" phenomenon in the sense that its causes and consequences concern large scales while the mechanisms that allow it are based on small scales confined in a much localized region where strong gradients and kinetic effects are effective. The purpose is to study the role of large scale turbulence on this phenomenon, its triggering and its stationary rate. This could be done by implementing realistic non constant boundary conditions in the existing numerical codes, mimicking for instance the scaling laws of turbulence obtained from recent observation on Cluster data. Applicants should have a PhD in plasma physics, astrophysics or related fields and should have a strong background on numerical simulations. Skills on turbulence and/or magnetic reconnection will be well appreciated. The position is funded by ANR grant (French science foundation), with a net salary of about 40,000 euros/year. Applications must be sent before 1st of March 2007. The decision will be taken in March or April and the effective work should begin in September 2007. Please send a Curriculum Vitae, list of publications, statement of research interests and experience, and arrange for three letters of reference to be sent to: Dr Gérard Belmont CETP-CNRS 10-12, avenue de l'Europe 78140 Vélizy, France Tel: 33 (0)1 3925 4920 Fax: 33 (0)1 3925 4922 For any additional information: See the WEB sites of CETP (http://www.cetp.ipsl.fr/) and of the "MAGNET" ANR project (http://magnet.ens.fr/) or contact one of the scientists in charge of the project at CETP: G. Belmont, F. Sahraoui, R. Smets, L. Rezeau and G. Chanteur (e-mail addresses on the Magnet WEB site in the item "Personnes") *********************************************************************** * * * 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/ * *************************************************************************