UK Solar Physics Newsletter Lyndsay Fletcher & Duncan Mackay, Editors May 15th 2008 o News, Views and Gossip o Congratulations. o STFC ad hoc panel o Sun|trek and the International Year of Astronomy o Fast Milne-Eddington inversion code freely available for Hinode/SP data. o Solar Convection Simulation Results Available. o SOLIS/ISS Spectral Band Data Available. o RHESSI Science Nugget - "Solar Cycle 24 at hand!" o AURA Solar Decadal Lunch-time meeting at the May 2008 SPD/AGU. o SEEDS CME catalog: automated and near-real-time o Meetings, Conferences and Workshops o Final reminder -- UK MHD 2008, Salford, June 5 - 6, 2008. o Solar Activity During the Onset of Solar Cycle 24. o U. Arizona/NSO Summer School in Solar Physics o Employment Opportunities o Post-Doctoral Research Position in Solar Physics at Cambridge University o Research Associate position at JILA, University of Colorado o Postdoctoral Position at the Kiepenheuer-Institut fuer Sonnenphysik o POSTDOCTORAL POSITIONS AT THE RUHR UNIVERSITY BOCHUM WITHIN THE SOLAIRE NETWORK o Research Professor in Astronomy Program, Seoul National University o Space Physics Position at the Solar-Terrestrial Center of Excellence, Belgium. o Job vacancy for Engineer/scientist in SIDC - Brussels 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: Lyndsay Fletcher Congratulations: Congratulations to Philippa Browning who has been elected to the Council of the RAS. And many thanks also to Richard Harrison, who is retiring from RAS Council, for his past service. *************************************** From: Lyndsay Fletcher STFC ad hoc panel: The STFC ad hoc panel on solar physics and STP has now completed its report and sent it to STFC for circulation to PPAN. All of the ad hoc panels are currently under instruction from STFC not to release any of their reports until Council has had its final meeting on the programmatic review in July. We are pushing for this to change. *************************************** From: Helen Mason Sun|trek and the International Year of Astronomy Sun|trek is a website for schools about the Sun and its effect on the Earth's environment. http://www.suntrek.org/ It has been produced using contributions from many UK solar researchers (solar guides). It started life as the SunBlock99 site setup for the 1999 eclipse, almost a decade ago. It is becoming very popular, with many visitors. We are now looking towards v2, which we hope will reflect the younger members of the solar community, and reach out to the next generation of school students. We'd like to include more interactivity, for example 'ask an astronomer', or try to link schools (teachers/students) with local researchers. Also possibly link into other networks like facebook etc. If you are interested in getting involved with Sun|trek, and have some ideas to contribute to the website or about how we could reach out to school students, please contact me. Next year, 2009, is the International Year of Astronomy. We are hoping that the Sun and solar research will feature prominently in IYA activities. If you have ideas, please contact me or Lucie Green (MSSL, lmg@mssl.ucl.ac.uk) and we'll try to co-ordinate some nationwide solar activities. We had thought, for example of having a 'solar week' for schools, as they do in the USA. Please get in touch with us and share your ideas. *************************************** From: Juan Manuel Borrero Fast Milne-Eddington inversion code freely available for Hinode/SP data At the High Altitude Observatory we have developed an ultra fast Milne-Eddington inversion code for the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI). This code's name is VFISV: Very Fast Inversion of the Stokes vector. We are now happy to announce that we have finished an implementation of this inversion code that is able to work with Level-1 data from the spectropolarimeter (SP) in Hinode. The code is written in F90 and parallelized using MPICH-2. It uses CFITSIO to directly read Hinode/SP data. VFISV can perform in quicklook-mode or full inversion mode. In quicklook mode VFISV can invert a 1000x1024 map in less than 5 minutes using one single CPU. In full-inversion mode it takes about 30 minutes running in one CPU. The code has been intensively tested and is ready to go. It is freely available through the Community Spectro-Polarimetric Analysis Center (CSAC) at: http ://www.hao.ucar.edu/projects/csac/ under Inversion Schemes: SDO/HMI VFSIV. ************************************ >From : Robert Stein Solar Convection Simulation Results Available Hydrodynamic convection results for domain 96 Mm wide x 20 Mm deep are now available as IDL save files at steinr.pa.msu.edu/bob/96averages. Sound speed, temperature, density and velocity are given as 4 hour averages at 2 hour intervals. In addition the instantaneous velocity 200 km above the surface is given at 1 minute intervals. 16 hours of data are available. Files are labled by time in units of 100 sec. Resolution is 96 km horizontally and 12-75 km vertically. The vertical scale is in the file ym.txt. Note : Y is vertical, positive downward. X is East and Z is North. Contact: stein @pa.msu.edu. ************************************* >From : Carl Henney SOLIS/ISS Spectral Band Data Available The daily synoptic spectral observations recorded by the SOLIS Integrated Sunlight Spectrometer (ISS) are now available. In addition to previously available Ca II H & K and He I 1083.0 nm, the ISS spectra for 388.4 nm (CN bandhead), 538.0 nm (C I), 539.4 nm (Mn I), 656.3 nm (H-alpha), and 854.2 nm (Ca II) are on-line at: http://solis.nso.edu/iss Along with the spectral data, Ca II K-line parameter time series data are now available at: http://solis.nso.edu/iss/iss_timeseries.html For additional information about the ISS & SOLIS, see: http://solis.nso.edu/ ************************************* From: Steve Christe Announcing a new RHESSI Science Nugget "Solar Cycle 24 at hand!" by Hugh Hudson The new solar cycle is coming fast and so are the solar conferences! It can be found on http://sprg.ssl.berkeley.edu/~tohban/nuggets/ We publish these at roughly two week intervals. Please send any questions regarding the RHESSI science nuggets to rhessi.nuggets@gmail.com or directly to the nugget authors (simply click the authors name when reading the nugget). S. Christe H. Hudson ************************************* From: Sarah Gibson AURA Solar Decadal Lunch-time meeting at the May 2008 SPD/AGU What: The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) Board and the AURA Solar Observatory Council (SOC) have constituted a small committee that will solicit input and synthesize a summary report regarding ground-based solar-astronomy issues relevant to the Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey. Our goal is to identify the key growth areas of solar physics, with a focus on those areas that 1) are particularly relevant to the wider field of astronomy and that 2) require ground-based observational input. Why: The National Research Council (NRC) Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics is in its early planning stage. Although many of the needs of solar astronomy and its community will be addressed via the later Solar and Space Physics Decadal Survey process, there remains a significant overlap with the broader field of astronomy that will be addressed by the Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey. In particular, ground-based solar astronomy is embedded within the NSF astronomy program and thus requires attention within the Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey. Who: All members of the solar community are welcome. Ours is not a narrow field, but one that has long benefited from a vibrant interplay of observational (ground- and space-based), modeling, and theoretical efforts. In order to thrive over the coming decade, we must continue to balance and integrate all aspects of solar physics/astronomy. When: Wednesday May 28, 12:15 ^S 13:15. Some light refreshments provided. Where: Fort Lauderdale Grande (meeting headquarters hotel): Atlantic I and II room. *Note that even if you will not be able to attend we welcome your input/suggestions: please contact Sarah Gibson (sgibson@ucar.edu )* ************************************* >From : Jie Zhang SEEDS CME catalog: automated and near-real-time We are pleased to announce the arrival of the SEEDS CME catalog. It is a fully automated catalog, using computer vision to detect, track and characterize CMEs. It is available at http://spaceweather.gmu.edu/seeds/index.php . SEEDS stands for Solar Eruptive Event Detection System. It has been developed by the Space Weather Lab at George Mason University, and financially supported by NASA LWS program. At its current development stage, it has two working modules: (1) A Near-Real-Time module of CMEs observed by LASCO C2. The latency is as short as 2 hours. (2) A LASCO C2 CME catalog starting from 1996. A CME catalog based on STEREO SECCHI observations is forthcoming. We welcome your usage of the catalog. For questions and suggestions, please contact Jie Zhang at jzhang7@gmu.edu and/or Oscar Olmedo at oolmedo@gmu.edu. The team: Jie Zhang; Kirk Borne; Oscar Olmedo; Art Poland; Harry Wechsler. ********************************************************************* * * * Conferences, Workshops, Meetings * * * ********************************************************************* From: David Tsiklauri Dear Colleagues, Re: UK MHD 2008 Meeting, Salford, Thursday June 5 - Friday June 6, 2008. This is the final and gentle reminder from me about this conference. Thanks to those who registered already. If you have not, there are still two weeks to do so at: http://space.cse.salford.ac.uk/ukmhd2008/ Registration will remain open until Friday May 16. Soon after this date each registered participant (if you are presenting) will be notified about talk/poster acceptance on individual basis. The final program and final list of registered participants will be posted on the conference website on 23 May. *Please check with the website after 23 May that you are in the list of participants and have not been accidentally omitted.* It is likely that I miss email addresses of some grad students and post docs. Group leaders: please circulate this email to them if appropriate. Thank you. Best Regards, David Tsiklauri ********************************************* >From : Hugh Hudson Solar Activity During the Onset of Solar Cycle 24 This is the first announcement of an international conference entitled "Solar Activity During the Onset of Solar Cycle 24," a workshop-style meeting in Napa Valley, California, the week of December 7-12, 2008. The main goals are to assess our current knowledge of solar activity and to prepare for observations during the onset of Carrington Cycle 24. There will be special emphasis on coordinating ACE, Hinode, RHESSI, SOHO, STEREO TRACE/SDO, and Wind observations, among other space- and ground-based observatories. The conference will have a mixture of invited and contributed talks in plenary sessions, plus significant time devoted to focused working groups. Please mark your calendars now and see the conference Web pages at http://sprg.ssl.berkeley.edu:80/RHESSI/napa2008. ********************************************* >From : John Leibacher U. Arizona/NSO Summer School in Solar Physics University of Arizona and National Solar Observatory's 2008 Summer School in Solar Physics June 16-20: NSO/Sacramento Peak, Sunspot, NM The deadline to apply to this summer school is approaching and we still have a few available slots! We are offering an intensive one-week "short" course on solar physics aimed at graduate and advanced undergraduate students. The purpose is to provide a basic introduction to solar physics for students that do not have an opportunity to take such a course at their home institution, or who have an interest in the physics of the Sun and may possibly want to pursue a career in solar physics, space physics, or related field. Topics to be covered include solar radiative transfer, helioseismology, solar interior, solar MHD, chromospheric and photospheric magnetic fields, corona and solar wind, solar flares and coronal mass ejections, and high-energy charged particles. There will be tours of NSO's facilities, opportunities to observe the Sun, and other activities. Confirmed speakers include: Gene Parker, University of Chicago Spiro Antiochos, NRL Joe Giacalone, University of Arizona Irene Gonzalez Hernandez, NSO Tucson Randy Jokipii, University of Arizona Sam Krucker, SSL, UC Berkeley Aimee Norton, NSO, Tucson Matt Penn, National Solar Observatory Tami Rogers, High Altitude Observatory / University of Arizona Chuck Smith, University of New Hampshire Han Uitenbroek, National Solar Observatory Additional information and application material can be accessed at the Summer school's website: http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/SummerSchool08. The deadline to receive all applications is May 2nd. We anticipate to be able cover the costs for travel (airfare within the continental United States, plus local transportation), meals, and lodging for most students. Requests for travel grants can made on the application form. Please submit such requests as soon as possible because the funds available for travel support are limited. Please direct all inquiries to: Prof. Joe Giacalone Department of Planetary Sciences University of Arizona Tucson, AZ 85721 Ph: 520-626-8365 Fax: 520-626-8250 Email: giacalon@lpl.arizona.edu Partial support for this school is provided by grant from NSF *********************************************************************** * * * Positions Vacant * * * *********************************************************************** From: Helen E. Mason Post-Doctoral Research Position in Solar Physics at Cambridge University There is a vacancy for a PDRA position (for 3 years) within the Atomic- and Astro-physics group at DAMTP (Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics), University of Cambridge. This post is supported by an STFC Rolling Grant. This research project focuses on the determination of the physical properties of small and large scale dynamic structures in the solar atmosphere: eg micro-flares, bright points, active regions, flares and CMEs etc, using recent UV and X-ray spectroscopic and imaging data. Particular attention will be paid to the recent Hinode observations (SOT, XRT and EIS) which enable the consequences of changes to the magnetic field in the lower atmosphere to be traced through to the corona. The Hinode observations will be supplemented where appropriate by those from other solar observatories (eg SoHO, TRACE, STEREO and SDO). Spectroscopic diagnostic techniques will be developed using the CHIANTI atomic data package for forward modelling. Theory and observations will be combined to gain a better understanding of the complex and dynamic nature of the solar atmosphere. Applicants should hold a PhD in a scientific discipline. Experience in the analysis of astrophysical data would be valuable, together with a basic understanding of spectral line formation. Application forms and further information will be available soon on the DAMTP web pages. Informal enquiries can be made to Helen Mason ********************************************** >From : Bradley Hindman Research Associate position at JILA, University of Colorado JILA, at the University of Colorado at Boulder, seeks a full-time research associate to work in the field of local helioseismology. In particular, the research will focus on the formation and evolution of magnetic active regions as well as the impact that active-region subsurface dynamics may play in flares and coronal mass ejections. Responsibilities will include the development and application of local helioseismic procedures for use with data from the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) which will be launched as part of the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The researcher will be working with a well-established research group with diverse interests within solar and stellar physics, including helioseismology, MHD wave propagation, stellar-interior modeling and the numerical simulation of turbulent convection and dynamo processes. The group places a strong emphasis on using observations to constrain theory and theory to guide observations. A PhD in astrophysics, physics, or applied mathematics is required. Review of applications will begin on 15 May 2008 and proceed until the position is filled. For application and contact information see http://lcd.colorado.edu/Jobs.html. The University of Colorado is committed to diversity and equality in education and employment. ******************************************** >From : Wolfgang Schmidt Postdoctoral Position at the Kiepenheuer-Institut fuer Sonnenphysik The Kiepenheuer-Institut für Sonnenphysik (KIS) in Freiburg, Germany, offers a postdoctoral position in the Section "Experimental Solar Physics". The successful candidate should conduct her/his own research program in the field "Magnetic fields in the solar atmosphere", and is supposed to participate actively in the scientific life at the KIS. We furthermore expect contributions to the commissioning and scientific use of the new 1.5 meter solar telescope GREGOR that will be completed in the near future. Preconditions for the position are a diploma or master degree in physics, and a PhD in physics with focus on astrophysics. Knowledge in spectroscopy and spectro-polarimetry is desireable. The position is initially limited to two years, with a possible extension by another year. Remuneration is according to the public tariff TV-L (E 13). The KIS conducts basic research in the area of astronomy and astrophysics, with special focus on solar physics. The main research area of the KIS is solar research with experimental and theoretical methods. The experimental work is concentrated on the solar telescopes, operated by the KIS, at the Observatorio del Teide on Tenerife. In addition, data from space-borne and other ground-based telescopes are used. The KIS wants to increase the fraction of female employees, especially among the scientists and therefore encourages qualified women to apply for this position. Female candidates with equal qualification and professional skills shall have preference. The KIS supports the employment of handicapped persons. Therefore handicapped applicants will be preferred if they have suitable qualifications. Applications, including a copies of relevant certificates, a summary of the past research work, a detailed description of the planned research activities at KIS, and the names of two referees should be sent to Kiepenheuer-Institut für Sonnenphysik Stichwort: Postdoc SchöneckstraÃ%GŸ%@e 6 79104 Freiburg or via electronic mail to secr@kis.uni-freiburg.de Electronic applications will only be considered if they contain all requested documents in .doc or .pdf format. ******************************************** >From : Horst Fichtner POSTDOCTORAL POSITIONS AT THE RUHR UNIVERSITY BOCHUM WITHIN THE SOLAIRE NETWORK In the framework of the SOLAIRE Marie Curie Network, a position is available to carry out research at the recent postdoctoral level: The position will last for 12 months, with a possible extension by another 6 months. Topic: This postdoctoral position is for a researcher with experience in computational physics and numerical MHD modelling. We are looking for a candidate with interest in solar and plasma physics, who will continue and extend our present numerical modelling of the physics of coronal mass ejections. In particular, the task is to modify our Centrally Weighted Essentially Non-Oscillatory (CWENO)-based MHD code to spherical polar coordinates and, subsequently, to embed it into the existing adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) framework ``racoon''. Basic knowledge of parallelization and C++ will be of advantage. The "Fakultät für Physik und Astronomie" hosts the "Lehrstuhl für Weltraum- und Astrophysik" and the "Lehrstuhl für Plasma-, Laser-und Atomphysik", whose members have high expertise in the theory and modelling of space and laboratory plasmas as well as in computational physics. Their participation in various international collaborations involves frequent visits of internationally recognized scientists thereby providing a stimulating research environment. The research of the appointee will benefit from the networking activities within SOLAIRE. The latter include network-wide research and research training, postgraduate schools, network meetings and complementary-skills courses. The Solaire network (http://www.solairenetwork.eu) is a joint initiative of 12 European Universities and Research Institutes and a private R&TD company. Salary and additional benefits will follow the applicable national and European Union rules. The basic gross salary for this employment contract will be roughly 34150 Euro/year, plus a mobility allowance depending on the marital status of the applicant. Local taxes and the employee's contribution to social security must be deducted from that amount. In addition, the appointees will receive career exploration, travel and mobility allowances in accordance with the European Commission's rules for Marie Curie Networks. Details about salary and benefits can be obtained through the contact address given below. Candidates can be citizens of any country in the world with more than 4 years and less than 10 years of postgraduate research experience at the time of the appointment. 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, etc) visit the Solaire web page: http://www.solairenetwork.eu Contact email addresses: -- Further details about the position: Horst Fichtner, hf@tp4.rub.de -- General information about the Solaire Network: F. Moreno-Insertis, solaire@iac.es ******************************************** From: Jongchul Chae Research Professor in Astronomy Program, Seoul National University Applications are invited for a contract professor position in Astronomy at the BK21 Frontier Physics Research Division, Seoul National University. Applicants from all fields of Astronomy are encouraged to apply. All applicants must have a Ph.D. in a related field with one year or more of postdoctoral experience, and meet all the requirements of the Seoul National University hiring policy. The appointment is initially for 2 years, but extendable for additional 2 years contingent upon the research productivity. Interested applications must send CV with current e-mail address and a full list of publications, two copies of the application form (available at the job announcement web page), statement of major research accomplishments and awards, statement of research objectives, two letters of recommendation, and other documents as described in the job announcement which provides more details on the position (http://astro1.snu.ac.kr/home/eng/Introduction/popup.html). The application deadline is May 31, 2008, and the expected date of appointment is September 1 (negotiable). The application materials must be submitted to BK21 FrontierPhysics Research Division, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University, NS59, Seoul 151-742, KOREA. The recommendation letters may be mailed directly to Director, BK21 Frontier Physics Research Division, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University, NS59, Seoul 151-742, KOREA, or to e-mail: bk21@phya.snu.ac.kr, Fax: +82-2-876-3973. Further questions should be directed to bk21@phya.snu.ac.kr. ********************************************* >From : Olena Podladchikova Space Physics Position at the Solar-Terrestrial Center of Excellence, Belgium. The Solar Terrestrial Center of Excellence(STCE), Brussels, Belgium is opening a scientific position in Space Physics at the Royal Observatory of Belgium available immediately. During these last decades theoretical plasma physics as well as near space experimental diagnostics have undergone a rushed development. At this moment the elaboration and application of the techniques able to extract the series of physical parameters from newly available data may become of decisive importance to describe the behaviour of unstable heliospheric processes. Since 1997 the Optical Monitoring of the solar corona (e.g. the EIT telescope onboard SOHO) discovered a surprisingly big amount of new phenomena with complex topology that initiate mass ejections from the Sun into the heliosphere. We developed a tool able to recognize and characterize these Solar Disk Eruptions (SDE) (http://sidc.be/nemo), working in real-time with EIT/SOHO data for space weather purposes. Since 2007, multiwavelength observations from 2 SECCHI/STEREO satellites give definite indications of the multinature physics of SDEs. The successful candidate will work on the scientific exploitation of events detected by SECCHI and SOHO and on the improvement of the SECCHI event catalog to be made available to the solar community, which is so important at the early stage of the SECCHI mission. The candidate will collaborate with our partner institutes and working groups in the consortium, in particular the SECCHI group at NRL. He/she will benefit from a unique knowledge of the SWAP instrument built in Belgium for the solar corona imaging diagnostics and will collaborate with this team as well as with the space weather team of SIDC. The initial contract is for one year, with a possibility of prolongation. Applicants must have recently obtained a Master or PhD degree in physics, mathematics or computer science. Depending on the profile of the candidate the future work may have more engineering or research aspects. Familiarity with programming (numerical simulations or data analysis) is an advantage. Questions, CVs, Motivation letter, e-mail addresses of two-three contact persons who can provide a reference are to be sent directly to: Elena Podladchikova, STCE/SIDC, Royal Observatory of Belgium Ringlaan-3-Av. Circulaire B-11180 UCCLE Brussels, Belgium email: Elena.Podladchikova@oma.be *************************************** From: J.M. Krijger Job vacancy for Engineer/scientist in SIDC - Brussels SIDC - Solar physics Department of the Royal Observatory of Belgium, Brussels We are looking for several engineers or scientists, with the following competences and qualities: - Extensive experience in UNIX/Linux - Interest in image processing - Ability to work in a team with good communication skills And at least one of the following: - Programming skills and willingness to learn other computer languages (IDL) - Experience in database implementation - Experience with network protocols/implementation - System administration More details on http://www.sidc.be/jobs