UK Solar Physics Newsletter Lyndsay Fletcher & Duncan Mackay, Editors June 1st 2009 o News, Views and Gossip o Near Universe Advisory Panel (NUAP) Consultation Process o STFC update to science community on consultation process o RHESSI Science Nugget, "Hard X-ray Pulsations in Flares" o Sun|trek - the next generation o Meetings, Conferences and Workshops o Ninth RHESSI Workshop - Genoa o 2009 STFC Advanced Summer School in Solar Terrestrial Physics o IAU Symposium 273 on "Physics of Sun and Star Spots", August 23-26, 2010 o ILWS Conference in Ubatuba, Brazil, October 4-9, 2009 o Employment Opportunities o Head of 'Magnetohydrodynamics & Turbulence' at AIP o BBSO - Two Post Doctoral Positions o Research Assistant Positions at NWRA in Boulder. o PhD studentship at Lancaster University Dear Colleague, Here are a few items which have come to our attention since the last Newsletter. You can find this newsletter also at the UKSP website: http://www.uksolphys.org Lyndsay (lyndsay@astro.gla.ac.uk) Duncan (duncan@mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk) ********************************************************************* * * * News, Views and Gossip * * * ********************************************************************* From: "Pritchard, S (Sarah-Jane)" Near Universe Advisory Panel (NUAP) Consultation Process Message from Prof. Michele K. Dougherty, NUAP Chair This email is to inform you that the consultation process to update STFC's strategy in the areas covered by the remit of the Near Universe Advisory Panel (NUAP) has now begun. NUAP's remit covers those parts of the astronomy and space science programmes concerned with the Sun, the solar system and the properties of objects in our galaxy. The aim of NUAP is to draft and maintain a roadmap which describes current and future research opportunities, for presentation to and approval by PPAN. The initial step in this process is to consult widely and carefully with the community as well as to ensure that a transparent and representative process is adopted. Towards this end; we plan to make available minutes of all NUAP meetings, please find minutes of the first face-to-face meeting on this link http://www.stfc.ac.uk/About/Strat/Council/AdCom/nuap.aspx In addition you will also find, at http://www.stfc.ac.uk/about/strat/council/adcom/nuapconsult.aspx 6 draft documents which aim to provide a first attempt at summarizing the various NUAP areas as regards science priorities, technology requirements and opinions on approaches to the inevitable prioritization process which we need to undergo. The areas covered incorporate Space Physics; Solar Physics; Planetary Interiors, Surfaces and Atmospheres; Exoplanets; Stellar Astrophysics; and Diffuse Matter and Star/Planet Formation. The information contained within these documents has been collated from an initial consultation with a cross-section of renowned experts in the various fields. Their excellent input has been distilled and reduced for the purposes of the various drafts. It is imperative that the community appreciates that the documents simply serve as a starting point to which reactions from the community are REQUIRED, and that the purpose of the next stage of the NUAP process, which is full consultation with the community, relies on community input in order to derive a complete strategy which MUST be prioritized. If we as a community do not prioritize then PPAN and STFC will do it for us. Eventually the final strategy will emerge through a prioritization across the entire panel remit. You will notice there is some cross-over between the various areas and documents and that is not unexpected ? such cross-over topics will be highlighted in the final documentation. There are parallel consultations taking place from FUAP (the Far Universe Advisory Panel) and the Ground Based Astronomy Facilities Review Panel and there is sure to be some overlap between all three panels; and as a result they will remain in close touch during the consultation process. There is diversity of style between the documents, and that will be harmonized as we put a single strategy document together. We may also have over-looked some research areas within NUAP in our attempt to start the consultation process off and if that is the case then please ensure you inform us of this via the web-based interface described below. We request that you respond within 3 weeks, by Friday 5th June 2009, in order to give NUAP time to put together a first draft at a strategy document in time for the 9th July community meeting in London at which time you will have a further opportunity to comment and feed your ideas into the process. Please go to this link http://www.stfc.ac.uk/about/strat/council/adcom/nuapconsult.aspx in order to download the relevant draft documents as well as to be able to respond via the Web-based questionnaire to this consultation process. We invite responses on behalf of both individuals and groups. *********************************** From: "Young, R (Rosemary)" STFC update to science community on consultation process Dear Colleagues, I am writing to you to keep you informed on the consultation process that we have put in place to prioritise our programme for 2010/11 and beyond. As I am sure you have heard, our budget for 2009/10 is now final and STFC has been given a near cash allocation of 490.7M. This is made up of the baseline allocation from the Comprehensive Spending Review 2007 (CSR07) with the addition of a previously agreed "loan" (a reprofiling of our allocation within the CSR) of ?20M and compensation for exchange rate movements. This figure does not include the capital budget, which is in addition to the 490.7M. At the end of April, Council agreed in principle a plan on how we can manage the budget for the 2009/10 fiscal year. This will require that we make some internal savings (cuts to programme support, travel, administration, further restrictions on recruitment etc), reductions in facility operations, and slippages to programmes which can be engineered without serious long-term impact to the programme. We are also looking at the possibility of bringing forward the already planned cessation of operations of some of the lower priority items identified in the 2008 Programmatic Review. Our intention is not to close out options for the highest priority programmes in the future, and to avoid making major strategic decisions in advance of consultation and inputs from the advisory panels and from the review of ground-based astronomy facilities. For 2010/11 onwards, we must assume at least equal pressure on our assumed allocation and we aim to develop an understanding of how to address this on the timescale of October 2009. The new advisory panels that we have set up have been tasked to identify the highest strategic priorities in their area, the big science questions over the next 20-30 years, the facilities/technologies that the UK currently has (or has access to) and the facilities and technologies needed to address the identified science questions. We have asked the panels to give us clear input on the priorities and we would expect that they will consult widely with their community in preparing this input, to help us develop our future programme. We expect that the advice from the advisory panels will be presented to PPAN and PALS in the autumn. On the same timescale, we anticipate input from the review of ground-based astronomy facilities and from the international review of our facilities for physical and life sciences. It is also possible that we may need to come to the community with specific questions in the next few months and if we (working with PPAN or PALS) decide that we need additional information about certain projects or activities, we will liaise with the advisory panels to prevent duplication, our aim being to work through the advisory panels and review as much as possible. This will not be a simple or easy process and it is important that your views are fed into the advisory panels and reviews. Thank you for your help. John Womersley Director, Science Programmes Science and Technology Facilities Council ************************************ From: Hugh Hudson Announcing a new RHESSI Science Nugget, "Hard X-ray Pulsations in Flares". This describes coronal seismology of a flare observed in hard X-rays and microwaves. See http://sprg.ssl.berkeley.edu/~tohban/wiki/index.php/Hard_X-ray_Pulsations_in_Flares S. Christe H. Hudson ************************************* From: H.E.Mason@damtp.cam.ac.uk Sun|trek - the next generation Helen Mason (hm11_at_damtp.cam.ac.uk) The Sun|trek website (www.suntrek.org) has had a facelift - new home page, new sections on Hinode and Stereo, new 'young' solar guides, updates on eclipses, safe observations of the Sun, and projects for schools. Thanks to all who have contributed so far. More updates are on the way. Please link to the Sun|trek site from your own websites (especially outreach pages) and spread the news. If you would like to help or contribute in any way, please get in touch. If you need any Sun|trek cards or pens, just let me know. Sun|trek now has over 10,000 users per month worldwide - UK, USA and far beyond to the remotest corners of the world. The Sun is getting active again - so should we - there is lots going on this year, IYA, Eclipse 2009, so join in. ********************************************************************* * * * Conferences, Workshops, Meetings * * * ********************************************************************* From: "Emslie, Gordon" Colleagues: The arrangements for the 9th RHESSI workshop, to be held in Genoa, Italy from September 1-5, 2009 are now fairly well established. The scientific agenda for the workshop, as well as information on local arrangements, travel, etc. may be found on the workshop website at http://www.dima.unige.it/~prato/rhessi09.htm Some important notes: 1. In order to assist in the planning of this meeting, I strongly encourage you to register as soon as practicable, and also to provide a concise summary of the topic(s) you would like to discuss (or witness being discussed) at the workshop. 2. Note (http://www.dima.unige.it/~prato/rhessi09_file/Program.htm) that although there are four working groups, that will to some extent meet in parallel, no group is scheduled to meet all week long. Thus, you can readily participate in more than one group. (The final details of the group meeting schedule may change as the composition of the groups becomes clearer). For this reason, we ask that you select two groups in which you would like to participate, and to provide short descriptions of your proposed contribution to each group. 3. Summaries of the participant lists, with links to their proposed contributions, will be updated at http://www.dima.unige.it/~prato/rhessi09_file/Participants.htm [www.dima.unige.it] as people register. We hope that this will encourage some pre-workshop activities/coordination that enhances the use of our time together in Genoa. 4. Two of the important pages (the arrangements to pay the registration fee: http://www.dima.unige.it/~prato/rhessi09_file/Registration.htm and the hotel booking form http://www.dima.unige.it/~prato/rhessi09_file/Accommodation.htm are password protected (they include bank details and non-public information on the ridiculously low hotel rates). The password will be sent to you very shortly in a second e-mail. Questions about local arrangements, or about the website, should be addressed to Marco Prato at marco.prato@unimore.it, who has put in a highly commendable effort in assembling the information to date. Finally, please feel free to forward the website address to colleagues who may be interested in participating, and I look forward to seeing you on the Italian Riviera! Gordon ********************************************* From: Bill Chaplin 2009 STFC Advanced Summer School in Solar Terrestrial Physics University of Birmingham, September 7 - 11 Now open for registration "An astrophysical Rosetta Stone: Observational & Theoretical Perspectives of the Sun" The Sun is a Rosetta stone for astrophysics. Its close proximity affords a unique opportunity to study a star to levels of detail and precision not possible for other stars. The Sun is also an "astrophysical laboratory", allowing us to test fundamental physics under the exotic conditions found in the solar atmosphere and solar interior. The influences that the Sun has on the terrestrial environment, and the various links from the solar interior to the Earth, are part of a major theme in the STFC Road Map. The School of Physics & Astronomy at the University of Birmingham will host the annual STFC Advanced Summer School in Solar Physics from Monday 7th to Friday 11th September 2009. The aim of the School is to provide PhD students and PDRAs with a firm grounding in various aspects of solar physics, with talks from subject experts in the UK solar physics community. There will also be an opportunity for attendees to make short presentations on their own work. Full details may be found on the School web pages, at: http://octave.ph.bham.ac.uk/ASSSP2009/ Registration details may be found at: http://octave.ph.bham.ac.uk/ASSSP2009/reg.php ********************************************* From: Debi Prasad Choudhary IAU Symposium 273 on "Physics of Sun and Star Spots", August 23-26, 2010 The IAU Symposium 273 on "Physics of Sun and Star Spots" will be held in Los Angeles during August 23-26, 2010 coinciding with the 400 years of Sunspot observations since Galileo and Harriot, the 100 years of the discovery of sunspot magnetism and the 50 years of discovery of Babcock Model. The symposium will focus on the following topics. Formation and Decay of Sunspots, Solar Magnetism, Origin of Solar Activity, Formation and Evolution of Star Spots, Stellar Magnetism, Star Spots and Stellar Activity, Observational Techniques, Unified Approach in Understanding Sun and Star Spots. Scientific Organizing Committee: Debi Prasad Choudhary (Co-Chair), USA Klaus G. Strassmeier (Co-Chair), Germany Ashoke K. Sen, India Brigitte Schmieder, France Carsten Denker, Germany Cristina Mandrini, Argentina Donald B. Melrose, Australia Edward Rhodes, USA Eric Priest, UK Haimin Wang, USA Jan O. Stenflo, Switzerland Karel van der Hucht, Netherlands Michal Sobotka, Czech Rep Oddbjorn Engvold, Norway Siraj Hasan, India Suzanne Hawley, USA T. Sakurai, Japan Z. Hongqi, China Local Organising Committee: Ana Cristina Cadavid (Chair) Angie Cookson Cristian Damian Debi Prasad Choudhary Dora Preminger Gary Chapman Jan Dobias John Hodgson II John Lawrence For more information please contact Debi Prasad Choudhary California State University Northridge Phone: 818 677 7113 Debiprasad.choudhary@csun.edu ********************************************** ILWS Conference in Ubatuba, Brazil, October 4-9, 2009 From: W. Gonzalez , J. Spann , D. G. Sibeck This year's ILWS conference addresses the influence of solar variability on geophysical and heliospheric phenomena. The meeting will be held from October 4-9 on Brazil's Atlantic coast. The deadline for pre-registration, hotel reservations, and abstract submission is August 15. For further information, please see the conference WWW pages at http://www.dge.inpe.br/maghel/ilws/ or contact one of the organizers below. Walter Gonzalez (gonzalez at dge.inpe.br) Jim Spann (jim.spann at nasa.gov) David Sibeck (David.g.sibeck at nasa.gov) *********************************************************************** * * * Positions Vacant * * * *********************************************************************** From: Rainer Arlt The Astrophysical Institute Potsdam (AIP) is located in the beautiful Potsdam/Babelsberg area at the south-western border to Berlin. About 140 personnel work on a variety of astrophysical and engineering topics. The AIP is a member of the Leibniz-Association and is partner of the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) and the GREGOR and LOFAR projects and owns and operates the new robotic facility STELLA in Tenerife. It is currently engaged in the construction of the Potsdam Echelle Polarimetric and Spectroscopic Instrument (PEPSI) for the LBT and the MUSE 2nd generation instrument for the ESO/VLT. The AIP coordinates the German AstroGrid and features excellent computer facilities and has access to national and international supercomputers. Potsdam further hosts the Albert-Einstein Institute for Gravitational Physics, the Physics & Astronomy Department of the University of Potsdam, part of the Alfred-Wegener Institute, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and the GeoForschungsZentrum of the Helmholtz Association. We are looking for a new Head of the 'Magnetohydrodynamics & Turbulence' program at AIP. Applications are invited for a tenured research position as head of the MHD & Turbulence program at the Astrophysical Institute Potsdam (succession Prof. Rudiger). Together with the programs on Stellar Physics and Solar Physics, MHD is part of the Cosmic Magnetic Fields branch of the AIP. The MHD program currently focuses on numerical computations of the magnetic tachocline of solar-like stars, protostellar core collapse, star-disk interactions, stellar and galactic dynamo problems, interstellar turbulence and participation in analyzing laboratory dynamo and MRI experiments. Particular emphasis is given the framework of the "solar-stellar connection". Our main criterion is scientific excellence. The appointee should have some management experience, has a strong research profile on its own, has experience in fund raising and public relation issues, and has some interdisciplinary interests across the many fields in astrophysical magnetohydrodynamics. For further questions please contact Prof. K. Strassmeier (kstrassmeier@aip.de). The position will be available as of 2010. Salary is based on the German TV-L E15 level but is negotiable depending upon professional experience. Women are especially encouraged to apply; preference will be given to handicapped persons with equal competence. The deadline for the receipt of applications is flexible but shall be no later than August 2009. Applications together with the usual documents and the names of five references should be addressed to Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam c/o K. Goetz An der Sternwarte 16 D-14482 Potsdam Germany ***************************************** From: Vasyl Yurchyshyn BBSO, USA POSITION Post Doctoral (2) CONTACT Phil Goode CLOSING Ongoing Postdoctoral Positions at Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO): BBSO has enjoyed scientific first light with its 1.6 m clear aperture solar telescope. This summer, high resolution, adaptive optically corrected, infrared photometric and polarimetric data will begin to flow. We seek Postodoctoral Associates who will be able to take advantage of the unique scientific opportunities that these data will allow. Research may be done in collaboration with scientists in Big Bear. Please send applications to Phil Goode (pgoode@bbso.njit.edu). Search will begin in May 2009 and continue until two positions are filled. BBSO/NJIT is committed to equal opportunity through affirmative action in employment and we are especially eager to identify minority persons and women with appropriate qualifications. Thank you, Best, Vasyl ******************************************** From: David McKenzie Research Assistant Positions at NWRA/CoRA (Boulder, CO) NorthWest Research Associates has multiple openings for research assistants starting summer 2009 in its Boulder, Colorado (CoRA) division. NWRA is a small company with research activities including solar and heliospheric physics, oceanography, meteorology and upper atmospheric research (http://www.nwra.com). Positions are available for three different focus areas 1) data processing and analysis (helioseismology), 2) numerical simulations (MHD wave propagation), and 3) general scientific programming/database development. While these positions primarily target software development, there will also be opportunities to participate in original scientific research with the NWRA solar physics staff. The positions are preferably full time; applicants must have a Bachelor's Degree in computer science, physics, applied math or a related field, with demonstrated knowledge of Linux and experience in a scientific programming language, preferably Fortran. Knowledge of shell scripts and IDL is an advantage; experience with SQL database and script programming (PHP, Ruby/Rails, Python) is needed for the database position. Applications should include a cover letter indicating the position(s) of interest (data processing, numerical simulations, and/or database development), include a curriculum vita or resume, a copy of the most recent transcript, a code sample for which the applicant had primary responsibility, and names of two professional or academic references whom we may contact. Consideration will begin in June 2009 with a starting date in summer 2009. Salaries and benefits at NWRA are very competitive, and the work environment is flexible, similar to an academic institution. For further questions, please contact Dr. Birch at aaronb@cora.nwra.com. Applications should be sent by email only to hiringforoffice@yahoo.com; (no phone calls please). NWRA is an Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/V/D. ******************************************** From: Dr Jim Wild PhD Studentship in Solar System Science The Space Plasma Environment and Radio Science Group in Lancaster University?s Department of Communication Systems is pleased to invite applications for a 3-year PhD research studentship. The Space Plasma Environment and Radio Science Group is internationally-recognised and is at the forefront of the interdisciplinary field of space research. A PhD with the SPEARS team promotes critical and creative thinking and is an opportunity to make a significant contribution to cutting-edge science in a field that is exciting and potentially both societally and economically relevant. Applications are invited to carry out research on any of the following projects: - The investigation of solar wind - magnetosphere - ionosphere coupling during geomagnetic storms and the storm/substorm relationship - Modelling radio wave propagation in the martian ionosphere and assessing the implications for over-the-horizon communications for future Mars missions - The comparison of activity in our solar system and other solar systems with Sun-like stars to better quantify the upper limits to solar activity and thus quantify the threat that extreme space weather poses to life and to technological civilisation The studentship will be supervised by Dr. Jim Wild and is funded by the Department of Communication Systems. It provides resources to cover fees plus a stipend in line with current research council studentships (set at ?13,246 for the 2009/10 academic year). As part of the studentship, it is expected that the student will undertake up to 150 hours of departmental duties (e.g. teaching laboratory demonstration) per academic year. The closing date for applications is 30th June 2009. It is anticipated that the studentship will commence no later than 1st October 2009. Applicants should hold (or expect to achieve) a first or upper second-class degree in physics or a related subject. In the first instance, informal enquiries should be directed to Dr. Jim Wild (j.wild@lancaster.ac.uk). Application forms are available to download at http://www.lancs.ac.uk/users/admissions/postgrad/pgform1.htm [www.lancs.ac.uk]. The same site includes links to Lancaster University?s online application system. In either case, applicants should indicate on the form that they wish to be considered for the studentship with Dr. Jim Wild. For further information regarding the application process, please contact the Department Secretary, Mrs. Janet Wiggins (j.wiggins@lancaster.ac.uk). -- Dr Duncan H Mackay Mathematical Institute, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Fife, KY16 9SS, Scotland. Tel 01334 463760 Fax 01334 463748 The University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland : No SC013532 _______________________________________________ uksp mailing list uksp@physics.gla.ac.uk http://www.physics.gla.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/uksp