UK Solar Physics Newsletter Lyndsay Fletcher & Duncan Mackay, Editors May 15th 2010 o News, Views and Gossip o New online magazine - 'Solar Observer' o SWAP & LYRA data release and PROBA2 Guest Investigator Program o Review of STFC Grant Funding mechanisms o New RHESSI Science Nugget o Meetings, Conferences and Workshops o ISIMA Workshop July 6th-10th 2010 o Workshop on Convection, Magnetoconvection and Dynamo Theory: Cargese, Corsica, 20-25 September 2010 o Meeting Announcement: "A New Generation of UK Space Exploration" o Employment Opportunities o Two Lectureships in Astrophysics, University of Birmingham (UK) o PhD Position at UCLH, UCL-Space and Climate Physics o Michael West Research Fellowship - Queen's University Belfast 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 - lyndsay@astro.gla.ac.uk New online magazine - 'Solar Observer' General News Item http://solar-observer.com/ There is a new online magazine on Solar Astronomy, written by amateurs and professionals. See http://solar-observer.com/ for the web page. We'd like to encourages UKSP members to support the magazine by suggesting and writing articles. ************************************ From: David Berghmans - david.berghmans@sidc.be SWAP & LYRA data release and PROBA2 Guest Investigator Program http://proba2.sidc.be The ESA micro-satellite PROBA2 was launched last November with two solar instruments onboard: SWAP, an EUV imager, and LYRA, a UV radiometer. SWAP and LYRA have an open data policy. We are happy to announce the beta data release of the science data products. We also announce the open call for the PROBA2 Guest Investigator Program to promote & fund SWAP and LYRA data analysis by external scientists (submission deadline June 10!). For the time being we have online the following FITS flles in YYYY/MM/DD directories: * SWAP raw images, e.g. http://proba2.oma.be/swap/data/eng/2010/05/01/ * SWAP calibrates images, e.g. http://proba2.oma.be/swap/data/bsd/2010/05/01/ * LYRA raw 'standard' time curves, e.g. http://proba2.oma.be/lyra/data/eng/2010/05/01/ New data will become available in (near) real time. Older data will gradually become available as we backward process the received telemetry. Users are encouraged to feedback problems and questions such that we can further fine-tune the format of the data products.The latest SWAP image and a recent LYRA time-curve can be found on the front page of http://sidc.be. More information on the instruments and data will become available on http://proba2.sidc.be. A Guest Investigator Program is available to promote the use of PROBA2 data. Selected proposers will be invited to spend one or a few months with the PI teams to obtain expert knowledge on the instruments and to participate in the daily commanding of SWAP and LYRA. Each guest investigator will get reimbursed for travel, accommodation and living expenses. Details on the PROBA2 Guest Investigator Program can be found here: http://proba2.oma.be/index.html/community/guest-investigator-program/ ************************************* From: Melanie.Illsley@stfc.ac.uk Review of STFC Grant Funding mechanisms STFC has decided to review how its delivers its support for the exploitation of facilities and experiments in the particle physics, astronomy, space and nuclear physics areas (including associated theoretical activity) in universities and other research groups. The review is a response to the need to ensure that our grant funding and delivery mechanisms are fit for purpose given the likely continued pressure on funding and the need to balance support for long term programmes with the need to retain funding flexibility. The review Panel's remit is to consider and recommend the most appropriate funding mechanisms to ensure that support aligns with STFC?s strategic goals, recognises and rewards science excellence, maintains critical mass and impact, meets the desire to exploit current and past investment in facilities and experiments, has the flexibility to respond to different needs and does not impose an undue administrative burden on the STFC or its community. The Panel will be Chaired by Professor James Stirling of University of Cambridge. As it works, the Panel will maintain close cooperation with the STFC Grants Panels on the developing options and resulting recommendations. There will also be an opportunity for the community to make an input at an appropriate point. The Panel is expected to deliver its report to the STFC Executive in the Autumn 2010. Panel Membership Chair : Professor James Stirling FRS, University of Cambridge Professor Mark Lancaster, University College London Professor Brian Fulton, University of York Professor Michael Bode, Liverpool John Moores University Professor Michael Merrifield, University of Nottingham Deborah Miller, STFC - Project Manager ************************************* From: Hugh Hudson - hhudson@ssl.berkeley.edu New RHESSI Science Nugget http://sprg.ssl.berkeley.edu/~tohban/wiki/index.php/RHESSI%27s_Anneal_Adventure An operations anomaly leads to very successful improvements in RHESSI's performance. ********************************************************************* * * * Conferences, Workshops, Meetings * * * ********************************************************************* From: Pascale Garaud Dear colleague As you may know, we are launching this year the International Summer Institute for Modeling in Astrophysics (ISIMA). The 2010 ISIMA will be on "Transport processes in Astrophysics", and will take place at UCSC from Tuesday July 6th to Saturday July 10th. The first week of our program consists of a workshop with morning pedagogical lectures by invited scientists, and afternoon contributed talks describing state-of-the-art results in the field. Invited lecturers include: Pawel Artymowicz (Toronto) Nicholas Brummell (UCSC) Patrick Diamond (UCSD) Douglas Gough (Cambridge) Louis Howell (LLNL) Ralf Klessen (Heidelberg) Mark Krumholz (UCSC) Francois Lignieres (Toulouse) Keith MacGregor (CU Boulder) Mark Rast (CU Boulder) Michel Rieutord (Toulouse) Further information and a preliminary program can be found on the workshop website: http://isima.ucsc.edu or http://isima.ucsc.edu/current.html While the workshop is designed for the ISIMA program participants, we welcome a broader partipation. If you are interested in attending, or sending your graduate students or postdocs to the workshop, please do not hesitate to do so! Note that: *** Registration is free but *mandatory* (numbers of participants have to be capped because of seating limitations in our conference room). The registration link will be closed when the upper limit on participants has been reached. Please register as soon as possible to guarantee participation. *** Donations for coffee/snacks will be appreciated, and payment for the conference dinner will be by cash only. *** Information on accomodation and transport can be found on the workshop website. Note that it is the responsibility of the participant to organise his/her transport and accomodation. *** You may submit an abstract for a contributed afternoon talk if you are interested in presenting your work. The deadline for contributed presentations is June 1st. The SOC will inform you if you have been selected to give an oral presentation. All other presentations *** Please bear in mind that this workshop will be quite informal. Only a limited amount of services will be provided (see website for detail) _________________________________________________________________________ Pascale Garaud Assistant Professor in Applied Mathematics AMS, Baskin School of Engineering, UCSC Room 131, phone: (831)-459-1055 _________________________________________________________________________ ********************************************* From: David Hughes - d.w.hughes@leeds.ac.uk Workshop on Convection, Magnetoconvection and Dynamo Theory: Cargese, Corsica, 20-25 September 2010 http://mhd.ens.fr/MREP60 A workshop on Convection, Magnetoconvection and Dynamo Theory will be held in Cargese, Corsica from 20-25 September 2010. The meeting will provide the perfect opportunity to celebrate the 60th birthday of Michael Proctor. Further details can be found at: http://mhd.ens.fr/MREP60 ********************************************* From: Dave Williams drw@mssl.ucl.ac.uk Meeting Announcement: "A New Generation of UK Space Exploration" Dear Colleagues, At a successful and very lively UKSP/MIST Missions Forum at last month's National Astronomy Meeting, attention was drawn to the fact that the picture for UK leadership in missions beyond the current round of Cosmic Vision was pretty blank. This means that beyond the projected end of Solar Orbiter and Swarm around 2029 "should these missions be selected" there are no space experiments planned to answer our questions about the heliosphere. Two decades is a crucial figure in terms of mission development: it takes at least 15 years from concept through to launch, so now is the time when we need to start planning for our future in heliospheric physics, so that we can capitalise on our national expertise, influence scientific direction and train the next generation of scientists. The schedule we face also has some urgency: ESA are expected to start soliciting ideas for the next round of Cosmic Vision, within the next 6 to 18 months, at which point we need our community to be ready to discuss our next mission concepts. Married to that, we also want to educate ourselves ? especially the upcoming generations who will be the mission leaders of the future ? on the processes involved in bringing a mission through from scientific concept to realising its launch. So let's start to address this challenge! There will be a meeting of the UKSP-MIST community, "A New Generation of UK Space Exploration", on Wednesday 14th July (TBC), at the Royal Astronomical Society in Piccadilly, London. Strongly encouraging the participation of all interested groups across the UK, we invite you to bring along your ideas on mission concepts, unexplored areas in heliophysics, burning science questions and the observables you need to address them! We'll also discuss the routes to proposing and developing missions, and a discussion on how we can best position ourselves for these future scientific opportunities. To find out more, contact the organisers at: heliophys.missions@gmail.com Regards, Dave Williams, Lucie Green, Colin Forsyth & Jim Wild. *********************************************************************** * * * Positions Vacant * * * *********************************************************************** From: Bill Chaplin - wjc@bison.ph.bham.ac.uk Two Lectureships in Astrophysics, University of Birmingham (UK) Two Lectureships in Astrophysics, University of Birmingham (UK) Two tenured academic posts at the Lecturer level, or exceptionally at a higher level, are available at the University of Birmingham as part of the second phase of the Midlands Physics Alliance, a HEFCE-funded initiative which supports collaborative research and graduate teaching across the neighbouring universities of Birmingham, Nottingham and Warwick. These appointments will build on the existing active research teams at Birmingham working in the fields of asteroseismology, extragalactic astrophysics, and gravitational wave physics and astronomy. Informal enquiries relating to the asteroseismology area may be made to Professor Yvonne Elsworth (email: ype@bison.ph.bham.ac.uk), and in the areas of extragalactic astrophysics and gravitational waves to Professor Trevor Ponman (email: tjp@star.sr.bham.ac.uk). Further details of the posts, together with information on application procedures, can be found via http://www.hr.bham.ac.uk/jobs/. Please include a CV and a statement of your research and teaching interests with your application, and quote post numbers 43538. The closing date for applications is June 15th. Direct link to the application page ("Apply" button on bottom LHS): ******************************************** From: Sarah Matthews PhD Position in the analysis of intensive care medicine data and development of a standardised system of data archive and processing. UCLH, UCL-Space and Climate Physics Applications are invited for a PhD position at UCL to study the evolution of critically unwell patients, illnesses in the intensive care setting by making use of data analysis and archiving techniques from astrophysics. This is an exciting interdisciplinary project; and the student will work jointly between the UCL Space and Climate Physics Department and University College London Hospital. Innovative and creative candidates are sought with backgrounds in physics, mathematics, computer science or medicine. Applications should be made to UCL-Space and Climate Physics at http://www.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/www_phd/apply_gen_mod.html. Any queries on the thesis topic should be addressed to Dr. Kevin Fong (kevinjfong@gmail.com) or Prof. Louise Harra (lkh@mssl.ucl.ac.uk). Queries regarding the application should be address to Jane Salton (pjs@mssl.ucl.ac.uk). ******************************************** From: Mihalis Mathioudakis - M.Mathioudakis@qub.ac.uk Michael West Research Fellowship http://star.pst.qub.ac.uk/ Michael West Research Fellow Ref. 10/101363 School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen's University Belfast Applications are invited for the 3-year Michael West Research Fellowship, located within the Astrophysics Research Centre (ARC) of the School of Mathematics and Physics. This fully-funded fellowship will allow the successful applicant to pursue their own astronomical research programme, which should be complementary to those already being undertaken within ARC. A novel aspect of this fellowship is that the fellow will make a significant contribution to the astronomy outreach programme in the School. An appropriate research support package will be provided. Further information on ARC activities may be found on the ARC website at: http://star.pst.qub.ac.uk/ Informal enquiries may be directed to Prof. Mihalis Mathioudakis (m.mathioudakis@qub.ac.uk). An application pack for the post, containing further details of the essential and desirable criteria, with post reference 10/101363, is available from our website: http://www.qub.ac.uk/jobs Salary: 29,853-34,607 per annum (including contribution points) Closing date: 4.00 pm, Friday 30 July 2010. -- 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