[SPA] SPA SECTION NEWSLETTER, Volume XXIV, Issue 31

[Newsletter Editor]

AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION
SPA SECTION NEWSLETTER
Volume XXIV, Issue 31
Jun.02,2017

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: Numerical Techniques in MHD Simulations and Crash Course for Students on Developing an MHD Solver, August, 14-18, 2017, Cologne, Germany

2. MEETING: International Conference on Substorms (ICS13), Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA, September 25-29, 2017

3. WORKSHOP: Space Weather: a Multi-Disciplinary Approach, Leiden, The Netherlands, September 25-29, 2017 

4. Monday Science Telecon

5. SESSION: SHINE 2017 "The Space Physics of Star-Planet Interactions"

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

7. 12 Ph.D. Scholarships Are Open within the EU H2020 Marie Skodowska-Curie Project SAINT (Science and Innovation with Thunderstorms)

8. PhD Student in Space Physics

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MEETING: Numerical Techniques in MHD Simulations and Crash Course for Students on Developing an MHD Solver, August, 14-18, 2017, Cologne, Germany

From: Joachim Saur (jsaur at uni-koeln.de)

This is a reminder for the Conference „Numerical techniques in MHD simulations“ (August, 16-18, 2017). The Conference will be accompanied by a two day Pre-Conference workshop for students to learn how to program an MHD solver (August, 14-15, 2017). 

http://mhdsim.uni-koeln.de

Deadline for submission of conference abstracts and registration for the pre-conference workshop has been extended to June 18, 2017

Location: University of Cologne, Germany

* Abstract Conference *
Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations are an important tool to better understand the complex physics of astrophysical and geophysical plasma flows.  As the frontiers are constantly pushed towards more accurate, faster and higher resolved simulations new mathematical approaches are needed to meet these goals. Therefore, the conference Numerical Techniques in MHD Simulations (MHD-SIM) focuses on recent developments of numerical techniques, models, and algorithms to address challenging science questions in computational space and astrophysics. Our conference covers various approaches to describe plasmas as a fluid, i.e., single fluid, multi-fluid and Hall-MHD approaches. The aim is to bring together researchers of several fields, such as applied mathematics, computer science, space science and astrophysics, in order to foster interdisciplinary discussions and to stimulate potential future collaborations.

*Summary Pre-conference Workshop*
The participants of the workshop will get a crash course on the development of a modern MHD solver. The course is designed such that no former experience in developing an MHD solver is required, except for a sound education in natural sciences or mathematics and some very basic experience in programming, e.g., with MATLAB.

*Keynote Speakers*
Michael Dumbser, Gabor Toth, Rony Keppens, Christian Klingenberg, Helen Yee, Daniel Price

*Invited Speakers*
Alex Lazarian, John Lyon, Daniel Verscharen, Emmanuel Chané
  

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MEETING: International Conference on Substorms (ICS13), Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA, September 25-29, 2017

From: Jimmy Raeder (J.Raeder at unh.edu)

The 13th International Conference on Substorms (ICS13) will be held in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA, September 25-29, 2017.  The meeting venue will be the Portsmouth Sheraton hotel.  Portsmouth is located on the New Hampshire seacoast about one hour north of Boston.  The meeting web site (http://ics13.unh.edu/) provides further information.

Deadlines:

Abstract submissions:  June 15, 2017
Early registration: August 15, 2017

We are looking forward to welcome the substorm community in New Hampshire this Fall!


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WORKSHOP: Space Weather: a Multi-Disciplinary Approach, Leiden, The Netherlands, September 25-29, 2017 

From: Enrico Camporeale (e.camporeale at cwi.nl)

SCOPE and AIM
The study of space weather has traditionally been carried out using standard techniques and tools found in space physics such as time series correlational analyses. These techniques, although having the advantage of being fast and simple, are sometimes not adequate or complete because the Sun-Earth system is a complex nonlinear system. On the other hand, researchers in the fields of mathematics, information science, computer science, machine learning, data mining, have developed, over the last several decades, tools that can handle complex nonlinear systems and are eager to apply these new tools to new difficult problems.

The aim of this workshop is to bring together researchers from space weather, space physics, mathematics, computer science, information science, machine learning, data mining, etc. to foster symbiosis and cross-fertilization across the fields.

The topics that will be discussed include:

-- machine learning for Space Weather
-- information theory for Sun-Earth system
-- pattern recognition and deep learning of solar images
-- data mining in space physics

LOCATION: Lorentz Center in Leiden, The Netherlands

REGISTRATION is available on http://lorentzcenter.nl/lc/web/2017/921/info.php3?wsid=921&venue=Oort

Please notice that the workshop is limited to 45 participants.
Lorentz Center workshops have no registration fees.
Hotel accommodation can be arranged through the Lorentz Center.

Please contact the organizers for further information.

Enrico Camporeale                   e.camporeale at cwi.nl
Simon Wing                          simon.wing at jhuapl.edu
Jay Johnson                         jrj at andrews.edu


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Monday Science Telecon

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

At 12:00 noon EST on Monday (June 5), we plan to hold the next in our ongoing series of science telecons. The speaker this Monday will be Seth Claudepierre from the Aerospace Corporation. The topic will be "The hidden dynamics of relativistic electrons (0.7–1.5 MeV) in the inner zone and slot region".

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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SESSION: SHINE 2017 "The Space Physics of Star-Planet Interactions"

From: David Alexander (dalex at rice.edu)

This year’s NSF SHINE Workshop will take place in Saint-Sauveur, Quebec, Canada from July 24th to July 28th. We are organizing a session with the title “The Space Physics of Star-Planet Interactions.” 

The landscape of exoplanetary science has changed considerably with the great success of the Kepler mission, which has discovered thousands of transit candidates and hundreds of confirmed exoplanets around K-M dwarf stars and a few planets within their assumed Habitability Zones (HZs). The dramatic growth of exoplanet research in astronomy and its emphasis on discovering potentially habitable planets around other stars is an emerging rich area for collaboration between heliophysics, astrophysics and planetary science communities. Understanding the possible habitability of such planets, therefore, requires a deeper knowledge of how stars and planets interact and, in particular, what role stellar and planetary magnetic magnetic fields play in this interaction.  This, in turn, requires a broad range of expertise encompassing stellar magnetism, stellar variability, exoplanet discovery and characterization, and, most importantly, space plasma physics and the concomitant planetary atmospheric response.  Recent efforts by NASA (NExSS) and NSF (INSPIRE) have stressed the important contribution SHINE-related science can make to the search for habitable conditions on exoplanets.  In the proposed session we aim to identify the key elements in the Sun-Earth interaction that are the most relevant to address general star-planet systems.  Specific questions to be addressed include:

1. Assuming increased stellar activity is associated with larger and/or more frequent active region and starspot emergence, how does this affect the asterospheric current sheet and the open/closed field distribution?  What observables might we look for?

2. What is the relationship between stellar activity and the magnetic/kinetic energy density in the stellar wind?  How does this relationship scale for highly active stars?

3. What would increased flux emergence (beyond solar norms) mean for large-flare, CME and SEP production?

4. What is the impact of space weather on the rate of atmospheric escape from magnetically shielded and unshielded (exo)planets? 

5. What is the impact of space weather (XUV, particle radiation and interplanetary magnetic fields) on planetary atmospheric chemistry?

Please note the following deadlines:

Early-bird registration: May 26
Abstracts: June 23

We hope to see you in Saint-Sauveur!
David Alexander (Rice)
Marc DeRosa (LMATC)
Vladimir Airapetian (GSFC)


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

From: Giuseppe Consolini (giuseppe.consolini at iaps.inaf.it)

The student registration deadline is extended to June, 18, 2017

Course Rationale:

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 (Royal Belgium Institute for Space Aeronomy, Bruxelles, Belgium, and Institute of Space Science, 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 18, 2017.


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12 Ph.D. Scholarships Are Open within the EU H2020 Marie Skodowska-Curie Project SAINT (Science and Innovation with Thunderstorms)

From: Christoph Koehn (koehn at space.dtu.dk)

SAINT will study (1) Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes (TGFs) from thunderstorms, (2) Transient Luminous Events (TLEs) of electric discharges in the atmosphere between thunderstorm cloud tops and the ionosphere, the Sprites, Blue Jets and Gigantic Jets, and (3) conventional lightning.

SAINT will conduct research into the fundamental physics of these phenomena by analyzing data from dedicated space missions, conducting ground-based observations of thunderstorms and High-Voltage laboratory experiments, and by developing advanced simulation codes.

The space missions include the Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM) for the International Space Station with launch in March 2018 and the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) already installed on the space station.
The Ph.D. Scholarships are to be found at www.saint-h2020.eu


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PhD Student in Space Physics

From: Yuri Khotyaintsev (yuri at irfu.se)

Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala, Sweden is looking for a

PhD student in Space Physics

The position is related to studies of magnetic reconnection in space plasmas 
Applications are invited for a PhD student position to study turbulence and wave-particle interaction mechanisms inside magnetic reconnection. Magnetic reconnection is an important process in most astrophysical plasma environments leading to efficient, fast and often explosive-like conversion of magnetic energy into kinetic energy of plasma particles and rapid reconfiguration of magnetic topology. The new PhD student will work directly with experimental data from the NASA multi-spacecraft Magnetospheric MultiScale (MMS) mission.

The position is available at the Uppsala office at the Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF), located at the Ångström Laboratory in Uppsala, Sweden, starting at the latest in the second half of 2017 for a total duration of four years. The PhD student will belong to the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Uppsala University and must therefore fulfill the university requirements. Information on the research education is available at http://www.physics.uu.se and http://www.teknat.uu.se. Information on research at IRF Uppsala can be found at http://www.irfu.se. The Swedish Research Council and Uppsala University fund the position.

For further information please contact:
Dr. Yuri Khotyaintsev, e-mail: yuri at irfu.se
Prof. Mats André, e-mail: mats.andre at irfu.se

Trade union representative: 
Thomas Leyser, SACO, thomas.leyser at irfu.se

Closing date for applications is 11 June 2017. Applications should include a CV, a short (one-page) letter stating research interests and relevant experience, copies of academic transcripts, completed theses or manuscripts and other relevant publications, and contact information for two professional references. 

Applications should be submitted, preferably by email, to: registrator at irf.se 
or by post to: 
Swedish Institute of Space Physics,
Registrar, 
Box 812, 
SE-981 28 Kiruna, Sweden
Please quote reference number: 2.2.1-167/17

If your application is sent by e-mail you should get a confirmation that we have received it. If you do not get the confirmation within three days, please contact the registrar: +46- 980-790 00.

More information: http://www.irf.se/Topical/Vacancies/?group=P4&vacid=50


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