UK Solar Physics Newsletter Lyndsay Fletcher & Duncan Mackay, Editors 17th March 2008 o News, Views and Gossip o UKNAM/UKSP 2008 - Important poster information. o Extra discussion session at NAM2008 - Wave power o Opportunities to organise RAS Specialist Discussion Meetings o Transcript of 3rd evidence session in Science Budget Allocations inquiry. o Small Awards for Public Engagements Projects. o ESF Exploratory workshops - 2008 Call launched o RHESSI Science Nugget o Meetings, Conferences and Workshops o 12th European Solar Physics Meeting, 8-12 Sep 2008 o SPD/AGU Meeting Special Session SH06 on Particle Acceleration o International Workshop on "Solar Variability, Earth's Climate and the Space Environment" o UK MHD 2008 Meeting, Salford, Thursday June 5 - Friday June 6, 2008 o High Speed Solar Wind Streams and Geospace Interactions, New Mexico, 24-25 July 2008 o Cool Stars 15 - St. Andrews o Employment Opportunities o POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATE IN SOLAR PLASMAS AT MANCHESTER o Postgraduate position at the UNIVERSITY OF OSLO and at the INSTITUTO DE ASTROFISICA DE CANARIAS within the SOLAIRE NETWORK o Job opening for a SWAP instrument scientist o LYRA Scientist - ROB Belgiu 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: Mihalis Mathioudakis UKNAM/UKSP 2008 - Important poster information UKSP and MIST posters and those in in joint sessions (UKSP/MIST & MIST/NAM) will be in the Great Hall. Poster boards will be available from 14:00 on Monday 31st to 17:00 on Friday 4th. The boards are 100cm wide by 200cm high, so posters can be printed to A0 (841 x 1189 mm) size provided they are portrait format. For more information please visit http://nam2008.qub.ac.uk ************************************ From: Tom Van Doorsselaere (t.van-doorsselaere@warwick.ac.uk) Extra discussion session at NAM2008 Recently, omni-present wave power has been observed in the solar corona (Tomczyk et al., Science, 2007) and chromosphere (De Pontieu et al., Science, 2007). Currently, the nature of these waves is heavily debated. ~ Arguments exist for an interpretation in terms of Alfven waves or fast magneto-acoustic kink waves. This extra discussion session will discuss the nature of these waves in a round-table format. The "Old Staff Common Room" (across Whitla Hall) has been booked on Tuesday 01/04 from 17:45 until 19:00 (immediately after the afternoon session). The maximum capacity of the room is 40 people. Can you please e-mail me if you are planning to attend? Tom Van Doorsselaere ************************************ From: "Sarah-Jane Pritchard (STFC,SPO)" Dear Colleague, There is still time to suggest topics for RAS Specialist Discussion meetings for 2008-9. If you would like to organise an RAS Specialist Discussion meeting for the coming session, please email your suggestion to me at i.crawford@ucl.ac.uk. Guidance for meeting organisers can be found at: http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=235 Best wishes, Ian Crawford RAS Geophysical Secretary ************************************ From: Andrew Kavanagh Dear all, The transcript from the third session of the IUS select committee inquiry into Science Budget Allocations has now been published on-line: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmdius/uc215-iii /uc21502.htm This is the uncorrected transcript, neither witnesses nor Members have had the opportunity to correct the record and is not an approved formal record of the proceedings. If you have anything pertinent to add or take issue with in this, or other sessions, I suggest that you contact the committee (http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/ius.cfm) sooner rather than later. Guidelines for formal evidence submission can be found here: http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/witness.cfm regards Andrew ************************************* From: "Melanie Illsley (STFC,SPO)" STFC announces the spring 2008 round of its Small Awards Scheme. The closing date is 11 April 2008, and applications can be for sums up to 15,000. Results will be announced in mid-June. The scheme is part of STFC's Science in Society programme and provides support for public engagement with STFC science and technology. Details are at http://www.scitech.ac.uk/PandS/Fund/Sml/Contents2.aspx Contact: Chris Woolford. Chris.woolford@stfc.ac.uk. 01793 442098 ************************************* From: "Melanie Illsley (STFC,SPO)" ESF Exploratory workshops - 2008 Call launched Each year the European Science Foundation (ESF) supports approximately 50 Exploratory Workshops across all scientific domains. The focus of the scheme is on projects aiming to open up new directions in research or to explore emerging research fields with potential impact on new developments in science. Proposals should demonstrate the potential for initiating follow-up research activities and/or developing future collaborative actions. Interdisciplinary topics are encouraged. ESF Exploratory Workshops awards are intended for small, interactive and output-oriented discussion meetings of maximum 30 participants and up to a maximum value of 15000 EUR. Awards are for workshops to be held in the calendar year 2009 (1 February - 31 December). Deadline for receipt of proposals: 29 April 2008 (16:00 CET). Full details at http://www.esf.org/workshops. ************************************* From: Steven Christe From : Hardi Peter 12th European Solar Physics Meeting, 8-12 Sep 2008 12th European Solar Physics Meeting to be held in Freiburg, Germany, 8-12 Sep 2008 Web site: http://espm.kis.uni-freiburg.de/ The meeting will cover all aspects of solar physics and is the ideal place for European and international solar researchers to come together. The meeting will begin with a session, where we ask experienced researchers to give a broad view on what the real key questions in our field are. This will give a stimulating start for the discussions during the meeting. The main part of the meeting will be session 2 and 3, where the problems and results in solar physics will be discussed from the observationally as well as from the theory side. This does not mean that observations and theory will be split. In the contrary, we will look at the same problems from two sides: what new observations drive us to run new models and how do new models motivate new concepts of observational approaches. In a way, we twice do the journey from the core of the Sun to the outer edge of the heliosphere. Following these major sessions of the meeting we will have room to discuss how solar work relates to other stars, and vice versa, and how to understand the Sun-Earth system. The final session will deal with plans for future research in our field, including ground-based Observatories at optical and radio wavelengths (e.g. the European Solar Telescope, EST), the status of the Solar Orbiter and activities in theory and modeling. We are looking forward to your contributions to a stimulating meeting in Freiburg. Registration, abstract submission and hotel reservation will open in mid March. Invited speakers (all confirmed) include: Karel Schrijver, Manfred Schussler, Alec MacKinnon, Laurent Gizon, Luis Bellot Rubio, Susanna Parenti, Eduard Kontar, Silja Pohjolainen, Sven Wedemeyer-BÃhm, Tibor Torok, Ineke de Moortel, Viviane Pierrard, Svetlana Berdyugina, Ilja Roussev, Daniel Muller, Marco Velli, Manolo Collados and Gregory Fleishman. For further information, please consult the web page http://espm.kis.uni-freiburg.de/ or contact us via e-mail (espm12@kis.uni-freiburg.de). ********************************************* From: Martin Lee SPD/AGU Meeting Special Session SH06 on Particle Acceleration We would like to draw your attention to the following special session at the 2008 Joint Assembly (including AGU and SPD/AAS) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida (May 27 - 30, 2008). Please note that the abstract deadline is 5 March 2008, 23:59 UT. For abstract submission information go to http://www.agu.org/meetings/ja08/ SH06: Particle Acceleration: Sun and Inner Heliosphere (Co-Conveners: Marty Lee, Christina Cohen, Mihir Desai and Dick Mewaldt) Evidence of particle acceleration can be found throughout the inner heliosphere : including solar energetic particle (SEPs) events, corotating interaction regions (CIRs), energetic storm particle (ESPs) events, and upstream events accelerated at the Earths bowshock. Even during solar quiet times, there is evidence of quasi-continuous particle acceleration contributions to the suprathermal particle population at 1 AU. With the many instruments now available to measure accelerated particles and associated phenomena, these acceleration processes can be examined at a depth and detail not previously possible. This session is devoted to studies of particle acceleration on the Sun and in the inner heliosphere. Invited speakers: Randy Jokipii (U. Arizona), Janet Luhmann (U. C. Berkeley), and Glenn Mason (APL) ********************************************* >From : Judit Pap International Workshop on "Solar Variability, Earth's Climate and the Space Environment", June 1-6, 2008, Bozeman, Montana Website: http://solar.physics.montana.edu/SVECSE2008/index.html Announcement: Financial Support Application deadline extended to March 28, 2008, Registration deadline extended to April 11, 2008 Dear Colleagues, We invite you to participate and present papers at the International Workshop on "Solar Variability, Earth's Climate and the Space Environment", which will be held between June 1 and June 6, 2008 at the Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana, USA. The workshop will cover the following research areas: 1) The Sun as a Star, 2) The Earth's Atmosphere and Space Environment, 3) Solar Influence on the Earth's Atmosphere and Space Environment and 4) Achievements and Future Science Plans. In addition to the above scientific sessions, four interdisciplinary working groups, open to all participants, will focus on: I) Irradiance Variability, Modeling, and Internal Processes; II) Space Weather Modeling; III) Long-Term Solar Variability, Solar-Stellar Connection and Space Climate; and IV) Solar Influence on Climate. This workshop is sponsored by the SCOSTEP/CAWSES program (Climate And Weather of the Sun-Earth System), NASA's Living With a Star program, Montana State University, Goddard Earth Science and Technology Center, University of Maryland Baltimore County (GEST/UMBC), and the International Heliospheric Year (IHY). Updated information (registration and financial assistance, abstract submission, accomodation, travel and recreational opportunities and preliminary scientific program) is posted at the meeting's website: http://solar.physics.montana.edu/SVECSE2008/index.html Note the extension in the deadlines for financial support application and registration in light of the procurement of new funding for this workshop. Considering that June is a busy tourist season in Bozeman, we urge you to register, submit your abstract and complete your hotel reservations soon. Sincerely, SOC: Judit Pap (Chair), Raimund Muscheler (Co-chair), Werner Schmutz (Co-chair), Susan Avery, Tom Bogdan, Joe Davila, Piet Martens, Kalevi Mursula, Dibyendi Nandi, Dean Pesnell, Doug Rabin, Jan Rybak, Kazunari Shibata, Drew Shindell and Gerard Thuillier LOC: Dibyendu Nandi (Chair), Dana Longcope, Piet Martens, Jiong Qiu, Toni Lee, and Keiji Yoshimura Meeting Contacts: Judit M. Pap (Chair of the Scientific Organizing Committee) Goddard Earth Science and Technology Center University of Maryland Baltimore County c/o NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Mail Stop 671.0, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA Phone: 301-286-7511 Fax: 301-286-1617 Email: Judit.M.Pap.1@gsfc.nasa.gov Dibyendu Nandi (Chair of the Local Organizing Committee) Department of Physics, Montana State University Bozeman, Montana 59717, USA. Phone: 406-994-4470 Fax: 406-994-4452 Email: nandi@mithra.physics.montana.edu ********************************************** From: David Tsiklauri UK MHD 2008 Registration is Open Dear colleagues, Re: UK MHD 2008 Meeting, Salford, Thursday June 5 - Friday June 6, 2008. This email is to let you know that the Meeting website, at http://space.cse.salford.ac.uk/ukmhd2008/ is *now open* for Registration (and also now contains more detailed information about the meeting). Registration will remain open until end of business, Friday May 16. I will send out a final (second) reminder email on 2nd May. It may transpire that there will not be time for all the oral presentations requested -- a maximum of 3-4 talks per group is likely. Thus I would like to encourage groups to coordinate requests amongst themselves (e.g. decided by a current group leader). If one member from each group emails me with a ranked preference list of up to 4-5 requests, then I will try to accommodate those preferences. Every participant should still register independently. Note that there is also provision for poster presentations, in addition to the talks. If you have any queries about this meeting, please contact me directly. Best regards, David Tsiklauri ********************************************** From: Mick Denton Dear all, Following the successful High Speed Solar Wind Streams and Geospace Interactions (HSS-GI) workshop in Ambleside in 2007, the participants settled on two events suitable for co-ordinated study: a) 10-22 October, 2003 b) 10-16 November, 2003 (see http://www.dcs.lancs.ac.uk/iono/hssgi2007/ for a summary of the previous workshop sessions). To facilitate work on these events we have arranged a further two day meeting to be held in New Mexico, USA on *24-25th July, 2008*. The meeting format will be 'informal round-table discussion', and is envisaged to focus particularly on the effects of the rapid fluctuations in the solar wind during HSSs, and subsequent changes in the inner magnetosphere, plasmasphere, ionosphere and neutral atmosphere. How do such rapid fluctuations affect storm processes in these regions? This meeting will likely be held in either Santa Fe or Albuquerque. More details of the location will follow once the venue is finalised. In the first instance could you *confirm your interest* in attending such a workshop *by replying to Mick Denton* (m.denton@lancaster.ac.uk) Questions regarding meeting logistics/venue etc. should be directed to Joe Borovsky (jborovsky@lanl.gov). Best regards, Mick Denton and Joe Borovsky ************************************************* From: Moira Jardine Dear Colleagues, This email is the second announcement of: the 15th Cambridge Workshop on Cool Stars, Stellar Systems and the Sun July 21-25, 2008, St Andrews, Scotland For a preliminary programme and more information see: http://star-www.st-and.ac.uk/coolstars15/ Registration is now open! Deadline for contributed talks or posters: 7 April 2008 The Cool Stars meetings have a long tradition of presenting cutting edge science in the fields of cool stars, exoplanets and solar physics. Topics of interest at Cool Stars 15 will include seismology, surface and atmospheric dynamics, angular momentum evolution, dust formation, coronae, magnetospheres and winds. The conference aims to gather scientists working in all these fields in order to stimulate cross-disciplinary exchange. Looking forward to seeing you in Scotland! Moira Jardine, Christiane Helling and Andrew Cameron Cool Stars 15 *********************************************************************** * * * Positions Vacant * * * *********************************************************************** From: Philippa Browning POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATE IN SOLAR PLASMAS AT MANCHESTER The Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics invites applications for a Research Associate in Solar Plasmas. The appointee will work in the Solar Plasmas group of JBCA with Dr Philippa Browning and Dr Gergory Vekstein. The three year position has been awarded as part of the STFC Programme. The appointee will be expected to undertake research into magnetic reconnection applied to solar coronal activity, with the goal of improving understanding of solar flares and of explaining the mechanism by which the solar corona is heated to temperatures of millions of degrees Kelvin. The focus of the research will be on forced magnetic reconnection, in which reconnection is triggered by an external disturbance. The appointee will be expected to run and develop magnetohydrodynamic simulations of forced reconnection in configurations relevant to the solar corona, using the LARE2D and other codes, and to investigate the consequences of including the Hall term and other two fluid effects. The numerical simulations will be supported by analytical studies of MHD and kinetic reconnection. In addition, the appointee will investigate particle energisation by magnetic reconnection, using a test particle approach with electromagnetic fields generated from simulations, in order to understand the acceleration of charged particles to high energies in the solar corona. The University of Manchester invites applications for the above post which is tenable for a period of up to three years starting on the 1st June 2008 or as soon as possible. Canidates are expected to have, or be about to obtain, a PhD in solar physics, plasma physics or a related area. Startng salary will be 25134-26,666 per annum depending upon qualifications and previous experience (Pay Award pending) Informal enquiries may be made to philippa.browning@manchester.ac.uk or g.vekstein@manchester.ac.uk Applications should be returned by 21st April 2008 to: The Directorate of Human Resources Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences The University of Manchester P.O Box 88 Sackville Street Manchester M60 1QD Or by email to: eps-hr@manchester.ac.uk ******************************************** From: F Moreno-Insertis Postgraduate position at the UNIVERSITY OF OSLO and at the INSTITUTO DE ASTROFISICA DE CANARIAS within the SOLAIRE NETWORK The Solaire Network is offering a postgraduate position for a student to do research leading to a doctoral (PhD) thesis on the topic "Diagnostics of magnetic flux emergence in the solar atmosphere". The appointment consists of full-time, fixed-term contracts at the University of Oslo (total 24 months ) and at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (12 months), both financed with the SOLAIRE Network funds provided by the European Commission. The two institutions will act as supervising nodes, with the University of Oslo being the main supervisor. We are looking for a motivated, outstanding recent graduate who wants to receive research training in Solar Physics in a vibrant, international, network-wide framework. The appointed student will receive training both at the local level in the appointing nodes as well as through various network-wide activities like PostGraduate Schools, Network Meetings and Complementary-Skills Courses. Salary and additional benefits will follow the applicable European Union (EU) and national rules. Candidates can be citizens of any country in the world with less than 4 years postgraduate research experience and who do not yet have a PhD. They cannot be appointed in their own country or in a country where they have spent more than 12 months in the past 3 years. Further conditions and exceptions to these rules can be obtained in the contact addresses given below. The Solaire network especially encourages applications from women. For further information (description of the positions, application procedure, address for submission, salary and benefits, etc) visit the Solaire web page: http://www.solairenetwork.eu or write an email to fmi@iac.es. ******************************************** >From : David Berghmans Job opening for a SWAP instrument scientist Applications are invited for a postdoctoral position at the Solar Influences Data analysis Center (SIDC) at the Royal Observatory of Belgium (ROB). The successful candidate will work in the 'SWAP' team that is preparing for the scientific exploitation of the EUV imager "Sun Watcher using APS and image Processing". SWAP is scheduled for launch onboard the ESA technology demonstration mission PROBA2 later this year or early 2009. The selected candidate will participate in 3 equally important tasks: (1) the technical development of the PROBA2 science center that will receive the science telemetry and produce the instrument commanding, (2) the instrument calibration and the study of the performance of the technology demonstrations in the SWAP telescope, and (3) setting up independent scientific research that is specifically related to SWAP, or to EUV imaging in general. Applicants should have a PhD and research experience related to solar coronal activity. In particular, experience with EUV imaging telescopes is a clear advantage. Sufficient computer literacy (SolarSoft, web applications, programming languages) is expected. The ROB is a Belgian federal institute in the southern green outskirts of Brussels. The SIDC (http://sidc.be) is a team of about 30 researchers and technicians from different countries. English is the baseline language spoken within the team. Salary, social security and pension scheme are set according to Belgian civil servant rules. The position is opened in the framework of an ESA/PRODEX research grant and is available immediately. The initial contract is for one year, with possibility of prolongations. Interested candidates should send an application before March 16 containing CV and list of publications, together with e-mail addresses of two contact persons who can provide a recommendation. ******************************************** Positions Vacant From: Jean-Claude Vial Job vacancy for a LYRA scientist Royal Observatory of Belgium Initial application deadline is 9 April 2008 NB: the post will remain open until a suitable candidate is found Profile: We are looking for a junior or senior scientist with the following profile: - Specialization in solar UV spectral irradiance and/or in solar flare research as evidenced by authorship in publications - Experience in (or large interest for) software engineering - Experience in (or large interest for) space instruments and their operations - Advanced knowledge of statistics or signal processing could be a plus - Team spirit as well as autonomy - High proficiency and interest in document writing - Knowledge of English Background information: The Solar Influences Data analysis Center (http://sidc.be) of the Royal Observatory of Belgium (ROB) contributes to solar physics research and to the development of Space Weather monitoring. LYRA is an XUV-EUV-VUV solar irradiance radiometer (http://sidc.be/lyra) onboard the ESA PROBA2 mission to be launched in early 2009. Next to the LYRA radiometer sits an EUV coronal imaging telescope (SWAP, http://sidc.be/swap). The Principal Investigators of both instruments are located at SIDC. The upcoming operations and data exploitation of the SWAP and LYRA instruments promise to fulfill a whole range of interests, from fundamental research to service activities. Job description: Depending on the exact profile and expectations of the candidate, she/he will focus research on one of the potential topics enabled by LYRA: studying and modeling the chronological relationships of flares as observed in the four LYRA channels with high temporal resolution (several 10 Hz); recovering the UV solar spectrum via inversion methods maximizing synergies with other data (e.g. imaging); assessment of its overall performance or novel technologies (diamond detectors); etc. The successful candidate will actively join a small team who is specifying, implementing and who will execute the science operations of LYRA in collaboration with the SWAP team. The list of tasks includes planning and data reduction, but also archiving and data dissemination. Practical information: The Royal Observatory of Belgium is a Belgian federal institute in the southern green outskirts of Brussels (http://www.observatory.be). The SIDC is a team of about 30 researchers and technicians from different countries. French and Dutch are the official language of the country and the Royal Observatory, but English is most commonly spoken at the SIDC. The position is opened in the framework of an ESA/PRODEX project and is available immediately. The initial contract is for one year, with possibility of prolongations. Salary, social security and pension scheme are set according to Belgian rules. Interested candidates should send an application to J.-F. Hochedez (hochedez@oma.be). It must be written in English and contain a motivation letter, a CV, a list of publications, and e-mail addresses of two reference persons who can provide a recommendation.