Dear Colleagues,
Just a quick note to say that Royal Astronomical Society Council elections are now underway, so Fellows please vote.
Our own Chair, Mihalis, is up for election to a council position. His election to the council would strengthen the voice of
our community on science and policy matters within the RAS and also at higher levels. So, please consider voting for him.
Here are a few items which have come to our attention since the last Newsletter.
You can find this news also at the UKSP website:
http://www.uksolphys.org/news/last-15-days/
or the newsletter in full in our JISCMail archive:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/uksp
Richard ([log in to unmask])
Mihalis ([log in to unmask])
-----------------------------------------------------------------
General News/UKSP Business:
SunPy News
Nuggets:
New UKSP Nugget #77
RHESSI Nuggets in March 2017
Meetings/Workshops/Summer Schools:
STFC Advanced Summer School in Solar System Plasmas – First Announcement
NAM parallel session: ‘Latest Trends In Observing And Understanding The Dynamics Of The Solar Atmosphere: From MHD Waves To Small-Scale Transients’
Second announcement of NAM 2017 session on “The Physical Processes Underlying Space Weather”
Second announcement – The dynamics of Solar-Stellar atmospheres: Winds, Flares, & CMEs – SolWind parallel session at NAM2017
Submission to the session at NAM17 ‘Conversion of magnetic field energy and energetic particles in the Sun and heliosphere’
STFC Introductory Course in Solar System Plasma Physics – Second Announcement
Special Conference in honour of Mike Proctor’s retirement – early bird registration until March 31
Russian-British Seminar of Young Scientists “Dynamical plasma processes in the heliosphere: from the Sun to the Earth”
Requests for talks at NAM/UKSP2017 Parallel Session: Is the Sun in Transition? The Unusual Cycle 24, and Implications for the Solar-Stellar Connection
Jobs/Studentships:
Postdoctoral position at Leeds
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
General News/UKSP Business:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
SunPy News
from Jack Ireland [March 30, 2017]
SunPy version 0.7.7 has been released. This is a bugfix release. With this release, SunPy now works with Numpy 1.12.
SunPy is looking for Google Summer of Code (GSoC) students! SunPy participates in the Google Summer of Code (GSoC) as part of the Open Astronomy organization (http://www.OpenAstronomy.org). GSoC pays students a stipend over the summer months to code for open-source projects. SunPy GSoC students have made many contributions to the SunPy codebase in previous years, and we look forward to working with new students this year. The closing deadline for student applications is April 3, 2017 16:00 UTC. Please see https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/ for more details.
SunPy and the IRIS team have begun a collaboration to provide IRIS data analysis capabilities in Python. The collaboration is looking for people to aid in the effort. Please email [log in to unmask] to find out more.
The SunPy Board met on March 13, 2017 to discuss board roles and board membership. Andrew Inglis volunteered to resign, and his resignation was accepted by the board. Thomas Robitaille rotated off the board as planned due to his term expiring. Two new members were voted on to the board, Sabrina Savage (Marshall Spaceflight Center) and Monica Bobra (Stanford University). The minutes of the board meeting can be found at https://github.com/sunpy/sunpy/wiki/Minutes-of-SunPy-Board-Meeting-03-13-17.
Finally, to file a bug report or request a new feature in SunPy please go to https://github.com/sunpy/sunpy/issues.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Nuggets:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
New UKSP Nugget #77
from Iain Hannah [March 30, 2017]
77. Just before an X-class flare
by Magnus Woods, Louise Harra, Sarah Matthews, Sally Dacie, David Long (MSSL) & Duncan Mackay (St. Andrews)
Fast flows along a flux rope in the pre-flare period.
http://www.uksolphys.org/?p=12750
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
UKSP Nuggets are published on a monthly basis highlighting solar physics research led from the UK.
http://www.uksolphys.org/uksp-nuggets
Iain Hannah and Lyndsay Fletcher
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.uksolphys.org/?p=12750
-----------------------------------------------------------------
RHESSI Nuggets in March 2017
from Hugh Hudson [March 27, 2017]
No. 296, “Suppression of Hydrogen Emission in an X-class White-light Solar Flare,” by Ondřej Procházka and Ryan Milligan. The absence of hydrogen signatures suggests an event buried in the deep solar atmosphere.
No. 295, “Radio Emissions from Double RHESSI TGFs”, by Andrey Mezentsev and Thomas Gjesteland: Lightning helps with microsecond timing calibrations, and is really interesting as a phenomenon of high-energy astrophysics.
No. 294, “Edward Chupp”
See
http://sprg.ssl.berkeley.edu/~tohban/wiki/index.php/RHESSI_Science_Nuggets
listing the current series, 2008-present, and
http://sprg.ssl.berkeley.edu/~tohban/nuggets/
for the original series, 2005-2008.
We publish these at roughly two-week intervals and welcome contributions,
which should be related, at least loosely, to RHESSI science.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Meetings/Workshops/Summer Schools:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
STFC Advanced Summer School in Solar System Plasmas – First Announcement
from Danielle Bewsher [April 3, 2017]
This years STFC Advanced Summer School in Solar System Plasmas will be held at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston from 28th August – 1st September.
The school will provide advanced training for 2nd and 3rd year postgraduate students and PDRAs new to the field. It will allow participants to explore theory and the most recent observations in the field in great depth, and promote scientific and social interaction between the participants and the course tutors.
Fully funded places are available for STFC funded postgraduate students and self-supported students only, where priority is given to STFC supported students. Workshop fees for non-STFC funded students and PDRAs are detailed on the website.
For further details go to
http://www.star.uclan.ac.uk/summerschool2017/
Registration will open shortly.
http://www.star.uclan.ac.uk/summerschool2017/
-----------------------------------------------------------------
NAM parallel session: ‘Latest Trends In Observing And Understanding The Dynamics Of The Solar Atmosphere: From MHD Waves To Small-Scale Transients’
from Christopher Nelson [April 3, 2017]
Abstracts are invited for the NAM 2017 session ‘Latest Trends In Observing And Understanding The Dynamics Of The Solar Atmosphere: From MHD Waves To Small-Scale Transients’.
ABSTRACT DEADLINE: 14th April
The Sun is a highly structured and dynamic body, exhibiting a wide range of waves, instabilities, and more transient phenomena (e.g., Ellerman bombs, swirls, spicules) which are all likely important for the transfer of energy to the chromosphere, transition region, and corona. The inference of properties (density, magnetic field) of wave-guides from models which assume small-scale perturbations against a static background has proved successful over recent years; however, if one observes the photosphere (specifically in Active Regions) using high-resolution ground-based data, one would find anything but a stable background at the foot-points of these magnetically dominated regions. How these two pictures (an unpredictable lower solar atmosphere and an upper atmosphere stable on time-scales of minutes) of the solar atmosphere couple is still unknown. This session will bring together experts from across the solar physics community to review recent advances in the field and discuss future improvements.
Further details can be found at the webpage below.
Chris Nelson, David Pascoe, Robertus Erdelyi, Gerry Doyle
https://nam2017.org/science/parallel-sessions/details/2/28
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Second announcement of NAM 2017 session on “The Physical Processes Underlying Space Weather”
from Francesco Zuccarello [March 30, 2017]
We invite abstract submission for the National Astronomy Meeting 2017 session “The Physical Processes Underlying Space Weather: Formation, Eruption and Propagation of Coronal Mass Ejections”.
The aim of the session is to bring together solar and heliospheric physicists, both modelers and observers, to discuss the formation and evolution of magnetic flux ropes with particular focus on (1) what are the universal physical mechanisms responsible for triggering solar eruptions, (2) how and when magnetic flux ropes are formed, (3) how their structure evolves during their propagation through the inner heliosphere, and (4) how the structure of the interplanetary magnetic clouds relate to their source regions on the Sun.
The NAM 2017 will be hosted at the University of Hull (UK) during the 2nd-6th July 2017. We note that this is shortly before the IAU Symposium on Space Weather of the Heliosphere in Exeter (UK), and that this perhaps provides an opportunity for colleagues from further afield to combine two meetings.
Please note that the deadline for abstract submission is April 14, 2017.
For more information, please visit the conference website: https://nam2017.org/
https://nam2017.org/
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Second announcement – The dynamics of Solar-Stellar atmospheres: Winds, Flares, & CMEs – SolWind parallel session at NAM2017
from Richard Morton [March 29, 2017]
We welcome abstract submissions to ‘The dynamics of Solar-Stellar atmospheres’ parallel session at the National Astronomy Meeting.
The atmospheres of the Sun and many other stars are known to be highly volatile, throwing out plasma and radiation into their surrounding helio-(astro)spheres. In solar-like cool stars, magnetic fields and convective motions play a key role in Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) and flaring activity, and associated ejecta are guided through the helio-(astro)sphere by extended magnetic fields as they ride in the continuous stream of fast and slow solar winds. For hot stars there is evidence that magnetic fields and convective motions structure the radiatively driven winds, although the amount of influence magnetic fields have on driving and channelling the winds is still an open question.
In this session, we aim to bring together researchers working across a broad range of topics, and from diverse but interrelated fields, in order to try and draw upon progress in the study of atmospheric phenomena from the Sun and other stars. The session focus is primarily on solar and stellar winds but we are keen to incorporate discussion of recent advances in the study of flares and CME’s.
We are happy to announce that we will have invited review talks from Victor See (Exeter University) and Hugh Hudson (Glasgow University/ Berkeley, USA).
Any questions regarding contributions please send emails to [log in to unmask]
The deadline for abstract submission is April 14, 2017. More information can be found at the conference website: https://nam2017.org/science/parallel-sessions
Convenors: R Morton, E Scullion, D S Bloomfield (Northumbria University) L Harra (MSSL/University College London), M Mathioudakis (Queen’s University Belfast), J Vink, G Ramsay (Armagh Observatory), J Mackey (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies) S Matt (University of Exeter)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Submission to the session at NAM17 ‘Conversion of magnetic field energy and energetic particles in the Sun and heliosphere’
from Valentina Zharkova [March 29, 2017]
We encourage submission to the session at NAM17 ‘Conversion of magnetic field energy and energetic particles in the Sun and heliosphere’
Conveners: Zharkova V., Browning P., Kontar E., Matthews S. and Parnell C.
Summary:
Magnetic field energy conversion and energetic particles in the Sun and heliosphere.
The session would be dedicated to exploring the evidence – both observational and theoretical – concerning how magnetic field energy is converted into both thermal and non-thermal particle energy in various events in the solar atmosphere and heliosphere. Understanding these physical process is essential to solar activity and its effects through “space weather”.
Topics covered will include various types of magnetic reconnection scenarios, their detection from observational topologies, and conversion of magnetic energy into energetic particles via various types of acceleration mechanisms. Observational studies of energetic particles, both near the Sun and in situ space measurements, will be welcome, as well as theoretical and computational models of energy release and particle acceleration and transport.
The NAM 2017 will be hosted at the University of Hull (UK) during the 2nd-6th July 2017. We note that this is shortly before the IAU Symposium on Space Weather of the Heliosphere in Exeter (UK), and that this perhaps provides an opportunity for colleagues from further afield to combine two meetings.
Please note that the deadline for abstract submission is April 14, 2017.
For more information, please visit the conference website: https://nam2017.org/
-----------------------------------------------------------------
STFC Introductory Course in Solar System Plasma Physics – Second Announcement
from Richard Morton [March 29, 2017]
We are pleased to announce that the registration is opened for this year STFC Introductory Course in Solar System Plasma Physics, which will take place from 10-15 September 2017 at the Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK.
The course is aimed at 1st year PhD students but open to students of any year. There are some fully-funded places available for STFC-funded PhD students including a hotel room and catering, available on a first-come first-serve basis. Non-STFC students and PDRA’s are welcome to attend but will have to pay a registration fee for the whole meeting or for a day they plan to attend.
Aside from the taught programme, there will be plenty of opportunities for networking and socialising with other students and lecturers with an ice breaker event, reception at Northumbria University and conference dinner, plus an excursion to the historical Tynemouth Priory, located on one of Northumberland’s glorious beaches.
For more details please see www.northumbria.ac.uk/ICSSPP17. The deadline for registration is 30 June 2017, however, the fully funded places will be gone much earlier.
We ask kindly the supervisors of STFC-funded and other PhD students to highlight this opportunity to their students.
Best wishes,
The LOC
www.northumbria.ac.uk/ICSSPP17
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Special Conference in honour of Mike Proctor’s retirement – early bird registration until March 31
from Richard Morton [March 27, 2017]
SECOND ANNOUNCEMENT: MREP2017
This conference will take place at the University of Cambridge (CMS) on 11-12 September, 2017 to mark Michael Proctor’s retirement.
The meeting will cover topics on which Mike’s scientific research has been focused throughout his career. We therefore encourage abstract submissions on dynamo theory, MHD, convection, magneto convection,pattern formation and other relevant topics. All abstract submissions are very welcome and we particularly encourage presentations from Mike’s former students and close collaborators.
The conference website contains information about registration can be found here: http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/rt449/mrep2017/mrep.html
The early-bird conference fee is £30 (inc lunch on both days) and runs until March 31. The conference dinner will be held on the evening of 11 September at King’s College and the early-bird dinner cost is £50 (or £60 for guests of delegates). There are a limited number of dinner places available for meeting attendees and their guests. Please book early to avoid disappointment. If you are unable to attend the talks but would like to join us for dinner, please let us know via email.
If you would like to get more information please contact the local organising team:
• Dr. Robert Teed (rt449(at)cam.ac.uk)
• Ms. Valeria Shumaylova (vs391(at)cam.ac.uk)
http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/rt449/mrep2017/mrep.html
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Russian-British Seminar of Young Scientists “Dynamical plasma processes in the heliosphere: from the Sun to the Earth”
from Valery Nakariakov [March 27, 2017]
The Russian-British seminar of young scientists, chaired by Professor V.M. Nakariakov (Warwick, UK) and Professor A.T. Altyntsev (ISTP, Russia) will hold on the 18-21st of September in Irkutsk, Russia. The main topics include
• Analogies and differences between the coronal, solar wind and magnetospheric plasmas; and the ionospheric and chromospheric plasmas.
• Magnetohydrodynamic waves.
• Magnetic reconnection and impulsive energy releases: solar flares and geomagnetic storms.
• Charged particle acceleration and dynamics.
• Advanced modelling techniques, high-performance computing.
• Advanced data analysis techniques.
• Modern instrumentation.
The attendance of the selected participants will be fully supported (airfare, accommodation and other travel expenses). In addition, we shall also welcome up to 15 self-paying attendees specialised in the relevant research fields.
Who can be a supported participant?
The supported participants of workshop are early career researchers affiliated with UK and Russian universities and research institutions, specialising in the field of the workshop: solar, solar wind, magnetospheric, ionospheric and upper atmospheric physics and space weather. Specialists in basic plasma, geophysics, planetology, stellar physics and plasma astrophysics are also be very welcome. We expect the supported early career researchers to have been awarded their PhD not more than 10 years prior to the workshop, but allowances can be made for career breaks.
Self-paying participants can be affiliated in any country and be PhD students or post-doctoral researchers of any stage of their career.
Please submit your application that should consist of
– CV (curriculum vitae),
– List of publications,
– Motivation letter
to email [log in to unmask] Deadline is the 30th of April 2017.
Additional information about the seminar, its venue, travel, social activity, SOC and LOC, excursions and visas can be found on the webpage http://en.iszf.irk.ru/Russian-British_seminar_SW2017.
http://en.iszf.irk.ru/Russian-British_seminar_SW2017
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Requests for talks at NAM/UKSP2017 Parallel Session: Is the Sun in Transition? The Unusual Cycle 24, and Implications for the Solar-Stellar Connection
from Bill Chaplin [March 24, 2017]
We invite applications for contributed talks to this UKSP parallel session at NAM2017. It will run over two 90-minute slots on the afternoon of Tuesday 4th July. Our aim is to bring together scientists from all areas of the solar and heliospheric communities to consider results from the wide variety of data that bear on the unusual Cycle 24, its causes, and what those results might signal for the next cycle. We would particularly like to encourage young members of our community (PhD students and postdocs) to request talks.
Further details of the session may be found on the conference website at:
https://nam2017.org/science/parallel-sessions/details/2/27
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Bill Chaplin ([log in to unmask]). We look forward to seeing you at the meeting!
Bill Chaplin, Louise Harra, Rachel Howe, Duncan Mackay
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Jobs/Studentships:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Postdoctoral position at Leeds
from David Hughes [March 27, 2017]
We are advertising a 2 year postdoctoral position, funded by STFC, to work on planetary dynamos in the Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Leeds. The project forms part of the STFC Consolidated Grant awarded to the department. Further details of the post, including application details, can be found at https://jobs.leeds.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx?ref=MAPMA1053
https://jobs.leeds.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx?ref=MAPMA1053
|
