[SPA] SPA SECTION NEWSLETTER, Volume XXIV, Issue 23

Thu Apr 20 15:11:07 PDT 2017

AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION
SPA SECTION NEWSLETTER
Volume XXIV, Issue 23
Apr.20,2017

Editor: Peter Chi
Co-Editor: Guan Le
Distribution Support: Sharon Uy, Marjorie Sowmendran, Todd King, Kevin Addison
E-mail: editor at igpp.ucla.edu

Announcement Submission Website: http://goo.gl/forms/qjcm4dDr4g

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Table of Contents

1. MEETING: MMS Science Workshop, Boulder, Colorado, June 6-8, 2017

2. MEETING: UN/US ISWI Workshop -Abstract Deadline April 24th

3. MEETING: Solar Probe Plus Meeting (joint with Solar Orbiter) - JHUAPL October 2-6, 2017

4. Monday Science Telecon

5. New Magnetometer Survey Plots for Inter-Hemispheric Comparisons

6. Reminder: VSO SolarSoft Client will Require IDL 8.4 or Later

7. Course on “Complexity and Turbulence in Space Plasmas” of the International School of Space Science, September 18-23, 2017, L’Aquila, Italy.

8. April Solar Radio Science Highlights 

9. JOB OPENING: Post-Doctoral Position Available at University of Reading

10. PhD Position in (Astro)statistics at Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium)

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MEETING: MMS Science Workshop, Boulder, Colorado, June 6-8, 2017

From: Stefan Eriksson (eriksson at lasp.colorado.edu)

Dear Colleagues,

Please mark your calendars for the 2nd MMS Science Community Workshop, to be held on 6-8 June in Boulder, Colorado in the beautiful foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

All members of the science community are welcome and encouraged to attend this meeting, which is organized by the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado [http://lasp.colorado.edu].

For details on registration and abstract submission, including hotel information, please explore the drop down menu at the top of the meeting website:

http://lasp.colorado.edu/meetings/mms2017/index.php

Important dates:

  Abstract submission deadline:  20 April 2017
  Early-bird Registration [$195] deadline:  1 May 2017
  Late Registration [$250] deadline:  15 May 2017 

Abstracts will be solicited on MMS observations and numerical simulations with an emphasis on the six major science topics below:

  1)      Magnetic Reconnection of the Ion and Electron Diffusion Regions
  2)      Magnetopause
  3)      Magnetotail
  4)      Shock Physics
  5)      Plasma Turbulence
  6)      Energetic Particles

The main science sessions will be hosted in the Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotechnology Building [https://jscbb.colorado.edu/] adjacent to LASP with poster sessions to be held in the LASP SPSC facility.

Sincerely,
The Local Scientific Organizing Committee:
Narges Ahmadi, Bob Ergun, Stefan Eriksson, Allison Jaynes, Karlheinz Trattner, Maria Usanova, and Rick Wilder

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MEETING: UN/US ISWI Workshop -Abstract Deadline April 24th

From: Patricia Doherty, Nat Gopalswamy (patricia.doherty at bc.edu)

ABSTRACT DEADLINE: APRIL 24, 2017
UN/US Workshop on the International Space Weather Initiative: The Decade after the International Heliophysical Year 2007

The abstract deadline for the UN/US Workshop on the International Space Weather Initiative: The Decade after IHY 2007 is April 24th. The workshop will be held at Boston College on July 31 through August 4, 2017.  Abstracts can be submitted online on: https://iswi2017.bc.edu/.  If you need a few more days, please contact Patricia.Doherty at bc.edu before the deadline. Please also register on this website as soon as possible for planning purposes.	

This workshop marks the 10th anniversary of the International Heliophysical Year, which led to the genesis of the International Space Weather Initiative. It is organized jointly by the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Boston College to highlight the achievements made over the past ten years and to show-case the worldwide development of science, capacity building, and outreach. The UN Workshops on ISWI have been aimed at providing a global forum for space weather experts from developed and developing countries, including representatives of the major instrument operators and data providers. 

The workshop will begin with a high level international forum on the economic and societal effects of extreme space weather. This forum will include keynote speakers from major international organizations followed by a panel session to discuss issues and policies for acknowledging space weather as a global challenge. The workshop will then turn to recent advances made in scientific research by utilizing ISWI instrument data in conjunction with space mission data in adding significant new knowledge on space weather phenomena near Earth and interplanetary space.  Finally, this workshop is held in preparation for UNISPACE+50 in 2018, the 50th anniversary of the first UN Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNISPACE), held in Vienna in 1968. The three components of the Workshop will help develop a coherent international policy towards an appropriate response to space weather. 

Please visit the website: https://iswi2017.bc.edu/ for workshop details, registration and abstract instructions, and sponsorship opportunities for US participants.  The website also includes the link to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs website for this workshop.

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MEETING: Solar Probe Plus Meeting (joint with Solar Orbiter) - JHUAPL October 2-6, 2017

From: Nour E. Raouafi (Nour.Raouafi at jhuapl.edu)

The 15th Solar Probe Plus (SPP) Science Working Group (SWG) meeting will be held on October 2-6, 2017 at the Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL) jointly with the Solar Orbiter (SO) Science Working Team meeting. The aim of the meeting is to have in-depth discussions of the science questions targeted by SPP and SO, both of which will launch within a year of the meeting. Sessions will feature model predictions that will help in planning initial observations and also in determining those science questions that would best be addressed early in the missions. Key aspects of SPP and SO science objectives will be reviewed and debated from observational, theoretical and modeling points of view. The meeting is open to the community and will include, in addition to the specific mission-related business meeting (October 2nd), three and a half days for science discussions (October 3-6). The science program includes the following topics

1. Solar Cycle Current State and Predictions
2. Structure and Dynamics of the Solar Wind
3. How Do Solar Transients Drive Heliospheric Variability?
4. Solar Energetic Particles
5. Plasma Heating and Solar Wind Acceleration
6. SPP/SO/Ground-Based Synergy

Participation at this meeting is not limited to science team members of the missions. We encourage a wide participation from the solar and heliophysics communities to help enhance mission success through exchange of novel ideas and diverse viewpoints. Involvement of the community is needed to prepare for the analysis and interpretation of the data, and predictions from different models are required to support planning of observational strategies.

The workshop website (http://sppgway.jhuapl.edu/swg_20171002) provides details on how to register, indicate your intention to present a paper, the venue and lodging.

For further information, contact Nour E. Raouafi (Nour.Raouafi at jhuapl.edu), Rob Decker (Rob.Decker at jhuapl.edu), or Nicky J. Fox (Nicola.Fox at jhuapl.edu).

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Monday Science Telecon

From: David Sibeck (david.g.sibeck at nasa.gov)

At 12:00 noon EST on Monday (April 24), we plan to hold the next in our ongoing series of science telecons. The speaker this Monday will be Ian Cohen from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. The topic will be "New Insights from the MMS Energetic Particle Detector (EPD) Investigation".

The telecom will be broadcast live via webex. If you would like to join, please
go to http://uclaigpp.webex.com/, search for the ‘Dayside Science' meeting, enter your name and contact information, and then the meeting password, which is Substorm1!

To hear the audio, do not dial the number that pops up on the webex website. Instead, please dial the following toll free (in the United States) number:
1-844-467-6272
with passcode 901533

Please remember to mute your telephone if you are not speaking.

Looking forward to speaking with you.

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New Magnetometer Survey Plots for Inter-Hemispheric Comparisons

From: Michael Hartinger, Bob Clauer (mdhartin at vt.edu)

The Virginia Tech Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Science Team (MIST) and the National Space Institute at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU Space) are pleased to announce several new survey plots for inter-hemispheric comparisons of magnetic perturbations: 24 hour intervals (http://mist.nianet.org/MagStackPlots/) and shorter THEMIS/MMS satellite conjunction intervals (http://mist.nianet.org/Satellite_Conjunctions/).

Virginia Tech magnetometers in Antarctica are deployed at locations corresponding to the southern hemisphere IGRF footpoints of DTU Space magnetometers in Greenland. 24 hour survey plots show how magnetic perturbation properties vary between hemispheres due to variations in ionospheric conductivity, solar wind and ion foreshock driving conditions, distorted magnetic field topology, etc.

Satellite survey plots show similar information during shorter periods when the THEMIS or MMS satellites are magnetically conjugate to Antarctic stations. These plots include in situ plasma and magnetic field measurements for additional context.

Please contact MIST with any questions (mdhartin at vt.edu).

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Reminder: VSO SolarSoft Client will Require IDL 8.4 or Later

From: Joe Gurman (joseph.b.gurman at nasa.gov)

Due to changes in federal government policy (“https only”), the IDL SolarSoft VSO client (vso_search and vso_get) software will require IDL 8.4 (released in early 2014) or later. We plan on making the change by 2017 May 15. If your IDL licenses are on maintenance, please upgrade to at least version 8.4 by then.

Upgrades to the SunPy VSOClient will also needed to work with https only.

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Course on “Complexity and Turbulence in Space Plasmas” of the International School of Space Science, September 18-23, 2017, L’Aquila, Italy.

From: Umberto Villante (umberto.villante at aquila.infn.it)

The International School of Space Science of the Consorzio Interuniversitario per la Fisica Spaziale organizes a Course on “Complexity and Turbulence in Space Plasmas”, to be held in L’Aquila, Italy, September 18-23, 2017, directed by G. Consolini (INAF-IAPS, Roma, Italy), M. Echim (Belgian Institute for Aeronomy, Brussels, Belgium and Institute for Space Sciences, Magurele, Romania).

The matter of the universe is primarily in the plasma state and the dynamics of space plasmas is extremely complex entailing the interplay of out-of-equilibrium matter and fields. As a consequence of the matter-field interaction and of the intrinsic collective nature of plasmas the resulting dynamics is often characterized by “complexity” and “turbulence”. Indeed, turbulence is very quite ubiquitous in both astrophysical and space plasma contexts. Recently, great advances have been done in the characterization of the turbulent and complex features of space plasmas in the magneto-hydrodynamic domain. However, a full understanding of several processes, such as plasma heating and acceleration, requires going beyond the MHD description, moving towards the kinetic domain and/or adopting the language of “matter mechanics” instead of “field theory”. The use of a simple field theory description, would hide the real complexity of such systems, that is related to the particle nature and manifests in the emergence of mesoscopic multi-scale coherent plasma structures. Scientific objective and scope of the course are to provide to young researchers and PhD students an overview of the recent advances in the description of small scale processes in space plasmas involving dynamical complexity and turbulence, as well as, novel approaches (kinetic description, stochastic field theory, etc.) to the dynamics at these scales.

Applications are due before June 4, 2017.

For more information visit http://www.cifs-isss.org/ or send an e-mail to ssc at aquila.infn.it

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April Solar Radio Science Highlights 

From: Eduard Kontar (eduard at astro.gla.ac.uk)

Recent highlights are available online:

How Electron Beams Produce Continuous Coherent Plasma Emission
by H. Che, M. Goldstein, P. Diamond, and R. Sagdeev
http://cesra.net/?p=1310

Radio Diagnostics of Electron Acceleration Sites During the Eruption of a Flux Rope in the Solar Corona  by Eoin Carley et al.*
http://cesra.net/?p=1188

CESRA publishes Highlights of Solar Radio Physics aka CESRA Nuggets approximately every two weeks
at http://cesra.net. These short communications are written in the language accessible to a non-expert in the specific area and designed to keep solar and heliophysics communities informed and up-to-date about current research.
The highlights can be followed, discussed, commented and shared via
http://www.facebook.com/solarcesra/
http://twitter.com/CESRA_community

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JOB OPENING: Post-Doctoral Position Available at University of Reading

From: Clare Watt (c.e.watt at reading.ac.uk)

Post-Doctoral Research Associate in Space Plasma Physics
Department of Meteorology, School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences, University of Reading
Closing date: 19/05/17
Interview date: 26/05/17
Full details:  https://jobs.reading.ac.uk/displayjob.aspx?jobid=818

We seek a post-doctoral researcher to work on a 4-year NERC-funded project investigating the nonlinear plasma physics of wave-particle interactions in Earth’s Radiation Belts. The project forms part of a large UK consortium to study the physics of Earth’s Radiation Belts and improve physics-based modelling of important wave-particle interactions. The consortium is led by the British Antarctic Survey and includes the University of Reading, Mullard Space Science Laboratory (UCL), Imperial College London and the University of Sheffield. We welcome applications from strongly-motivated individuals who wish to be part of this exciting new collaboration.

We seek a space plasma physicist, ideally with expertise in kinetic plasma physics. You will design and carry out numerical experiments to explore the applicability of plasma diffusion theories in Earth’s Outer Radiation Belt. We have access to state-of-the art kinetic plasma simulations, and you will be encouraged and supported to develop further tools necessary to achieve the project goals. You will liaise with scientists in the consortium to apply your new results within the BAS Radiation Belt Model.

Informal enquiries can be made by contacting Clare Watt (c.e.watt at reading.ac.uk)

The University aspires to be an “Employer of Choice” and recognises that success is not simply determined by a competitive suite of terms and conditions of service, but by fostering a working environment that protects the physical and mental well-being of its staff. Full details of the University's Health and Well-being policy are available through the HR website. The University is committed to work-life balance and supportive of flexible working arrangements, and the School’s website gives examples of excellent practices in respect of flexible work as well as for maternity/parental leave within the School. The School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences was awarded an Athena SWAN Silver award in 2010, renewed in 2014,  in recognition of its good employment practices in relation to women working in science, engineering and technology (SET) .

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PhD Position in (Astro)statistics at Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium)

From: L. Lefevre (laure.lefevre at oma.be)

The Institute of Statistics, Biostatistics and Actuarial Sciences (ISBA) of the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL), Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, has a vacancy for a PhD position in (astro)statistics, in collaboration with the Royal Observatory of Belgium (ROB), in Brussels. 

Financed by a grant from the Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO, https://www.belspo.be), the supervision of the PhD student will be assumed by Prof. Rainer von Sachs (ISBA), in collaboration with researchers of the ROB. Support will also be given by the Statistical Methodology and Computing Service (SMCS, http://www.uclouvain.be/smcs.html). 

We are looking for candidates with knowledge in methodological statistics: nonparametric statistics, multivariate analysis, regression, time series analysis, quality control. The candidate should have a keen interest in stellar and solar physics, quantitative data analysis and/or climate sciences. 

More information can be found at https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/198006 and http://valusun.oma.be

The closing date for application is June 15, 2017 (applications received after this date will be considered as they arrive, until the position is filled). Starting date would be September 2017 or another date to be agreed on by all parties.

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