http://heliospherenews.unh.edu/


A newsletter devoted to Heliospheric Science.



Editor: Nathan Schwadron (nschwadron at unh.edu)

Co-Editor: Mihir Desai (mdesai at swri.edu)

Co-Editor: Eric Zirnstein (ejz at princeton.edu)

Co-Editor: Merav Opher (mopher at bu.edu)

Co-Editor: Adele Corona (icnsmeetings at gmail.com)

Co-Editor: Nikolai Pogorelov (np0002 at uah.edu)

Web site editor: Ken Fairchild (Ken.Fairchild at unh.edu)

If you are interested in being added to the list, being removed from the
list, or posting an announcement, please send information to Nathan,
Mihir, Eric, Merav, Adele, or Nick. Posts are limited to ascii text.
Newsletters are archived on the following website:
http://heliospherenews.unh.edu/



*******************

Announcements 

*******************

1. The Department of Physics at the University of New Hampshire is
accepting applications to its MS and PhD programs for the Fall 2017.

2. The Department of Space Science at the University of Alabama in
Huntsville is accepting applications to its MS and PhD programs for the
Fall 2017 semester.

3. JOB OPENING: Applications are invited for two PhD positions (Early
Stage Researchers, ESR) at the Politecnico di Torino 

4. New SPA Editors for GRL

5. POLONEZ Funding Program

6. MEETING: MMS Science Workshop, Boulder, Colorado, June 5-9, 2017

7. MEETING: 2017 GEM Summer Workshop, Portsmouth, Virginia, June 18-23,
2017

8. MEETING: Applied Space Environments Conference 2017, Huntsville,
Alabama, May 15-19, 2017 

9. MEETING: Space Weather of the Heliosphere: Processes and Forecasts,
IAU Symposium 335 - July 17-21, 2017 - University of Exeter, UK

10. MEETING: GOOD HOPE FOR EARTH SCIENCES: IAPSO-IAMAS-IAGA, 27 August
to 1 September 2017, Cape Town, South Africa

11. MEETING: 12th International Conference on Numerical Modeling of
Space Plasma Flows (ASTRONUM-2017), Saint Malo, France, 26-30 June, 2017

12. MEETING: 7th Solar Orbiter Workshop: Exploring the Solar Environs,
April 3-6, 2017, Granada, Spain

13. MEETING: Workshop on Kappa Distributions & Non-Extensive Statistical
Mechanics: Theory & Applications in Plasmas, held during the
SigmaPhi2017 Conference (International Conference on STATISTICAL
PHYSICS / ΣΤΑΤΙΣΤΙΚΗ ΦΥΣΙΚΗ) in Corfu, Greece, 10-14 July 2017.

14. PUBLICATION: “Structure of the Heliotail from Interstellar Boundary
Explorer Observations: 
Implications for the 11-year Solar Cycle and Pickup Ions in the
Heliosheath”

******************

1. The Department of Physics at the University of New Hampshire is
accepting applications (to its MS and PhD programs for the Fall 2017
semester. 

http://physics.unh.edu/content/graduate-program

We have a number of graduate research fellowships to award to incoming
students. The Department of Physics is linked to the Space Science
Center (SSC), part of the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and
Space. Faculty and students are members of the Department of Physics
(http://physics.unh.edu) with a graduate degree program specializing in
Space Physics/Astrophysics. The Space Science Center fosters research
and graduate education in all of the space sciences with studies ranging
from the ionosphere to the Earth's magnetosphere, the local solar
system, and out to the farthest reaches of the universe. Investigations
of the Earth's environment in the solar system look at space as a
laboratory for plasma physics. We conduct theoretical, computational,
data analysis, and instrument development projects focused on the
solar-terrestrial radiation environment involving both satellite and
suborbital missions. High energy astrophysics investigations involve the
sensing of energetic astrophysical objects with ground, balloon, and
satellite detectors. Satellites from NASA missions are still providing
data for ongoing analysis. Students have opportunities to participate in
recent missions that are carrying SSC-associated instruments including
STEREO (launched 2006), IBEX (launched 2008), LRO (launched 2009), Van
Allen Probes (launched 2012), Firebird (launched in Dec. 2013), MMS
(launched in 2015), FIREBIRD II (launched in 2015), and GOES-R (launched
in 2016). Upcoming missions in which the SSC is involved include Solar
Orbiter and Solar Probe. The SSC is also a Center of Excellence in
theoretical Solar-terrestrial research. 

******************

2. The Department of Space Science at the University of Alabama in
Huntsville is accepting applications to its MS and PhD programs for the
Fall 2017 semester.

http://www.uah.edu/science/departments/space-science
We have a number of GRA fellowships to award incoming students, which
provide tuition and a competitive stipend, and allow motivated students
to begin working on a research project from the day they arrive on
campus. We are a small research-focused department that aims to produce
proficient and self-reliant scientists through our MS and PhD programs.
Students have the opportunity to not only work with our world-renowned
faculty, but also with adjunct faculty from the Center for Space Plasma
and Aeronomic Research and NASA's Marshal Space Flight Center.
Scientists from both centers share office space on the UAH campus with
faculty from the department. Our research projects cover topics
including: the Sun, solar atmosphere, inner heliosphere and space
weather, the solar wind and its interaction with the interstellar
medium, solar energetic particles and cosmic rays, high energy
astrophysics. Our students graduate with a broad range of professional
scientific skills including: analytic methods for solving physics
problems, computational physics, data analysis, presentation of
scientific ideas in both written and oral formats. UAH is an anchor
tenant of the second largest research park in the country, in a city
with a rich history of space science that dates back to Werner von Braun
and the birth of the US space program.

*******************

3. JOB OPENING: Applications are invited for two PhD positions (Early
Stage Researchers, ESR) at the Politecnico di Torino.

Applications are invited for two PhD positions ("Early Stage
Researchers", ESR) at the Politecnico di Torino, funded by the
Marie-Sklodowska- Curie Innovative Training Network COMPLETE -
Cloud-MicroPhysics-Turbulence-Telemetry: an inter-multidisciplinary
training network for enhancing the understanding and modeling of
atmospheric clouds within the Horizon 2020 Program of the European
Commission. The objectives are the numerical analysis of the transport
of energy, water vapor and droplets across the warm cloud/clear air
interface, the Lagrangian analysis of water droplets (1 - 100
micrometre) in suspension, the analysis of the data produced by
innovative expendable radio-probes released in warm clouds and their
comparison with numerical simulations.

Contact persons:

Prof. Daniela Tordella, Department of Applied Science and Technology |
Politecnico di Torino 10129 Torino Italy, Tel (+39) 011 090 6812|,
daniela.tordella at polito.it; complete-network at polito.it

Dr. Michele Iovieno, Department of Mechanics and Aerospace Engineering |
Politecnico di Torino 10129 Torino Italy Tel (+39) 011 090 6853,|
michele.iovieno at polito.it; complete-network at polito.it

****************** 

4. New SPA Editors for GRL

From: Bill.Peterson (Bill.Peterson at lasp.colorado.edu)

Bill Peterson and Benoit Lavraud have completed their terms as SPA
editors for Geophysical Research Letters 

Andrew Yau and Merav Opher have replaced them effective January 1,
2017. 

******************

5. POLONEZ is a funding program addressed to incoming researchers who
may apply for 12- or 24-month fellowships in host institutions in
Poland.  

Applicant: a researcher with a PhD degree or at least four years of
full-time equivalent research experience who has not resided or carried
out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Poland for more than 12
months in the 3 years immediately prior to the call announcement
Fellowship duration: 12 or 24 months Researcher receives: 

1. Salary (incl. mobility allowance): $ 4,350 gross/month (full time
contract), 

2. Family allowance: $ 300 gross/month (for fellows whose families stay
in Poland for at least 3 months),

3. Research grant,

4. Opportunity to participate in research and non-research training
programmes organised by the NCN.

Host Institution receives overheads at a rate of 20%.

Proposals must be submitted in English via OSF submission system. 

More information on the website:
https://www.ncn.gov.pl/polonez?language=en

******************

6. MEETING: MMS Science Workshop, Boulder, Colorado, June 5-9, 2017

The next MMS Science Workshop, to be held this 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 hosted by the Laboratory for Atmospheric
and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado.

The MMS Science Workshop will convene June 6-8 including an evening
poster session and reception on Wednesday June 7. The main science
sessions will be hosted in the Jennie Smoly Caruthers
BiotechnologyBuilding (https://jscbb.colorado.edu/) adjacent to LASP
with poster sessions to be held in the LASP SPSC facility
(http://lasp.colorado.edu).

MMS Instrument Team-only splinter meetings will be held at LASP SPSC on
Monday June 5 and Friday June 9 (as needed).

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

Registration details and abstract submissions will be announced in
AGU/SPA this February with final meeting registration deadlines expected
in May.

The Local Scientific Organizing Committee:

Narges Ahmadi, Bob Ergun, Stefan Eriksson, Allison Jaynes, Karlheinz

Trattner, and Rick Wilder

****************** 

7. The GEM 2017 Summer Workshop will be held during June 18-23, 2017 at
the Renaissance Portsmouth-Norfolk Waterfront Hotel - Portsmouth,
Virginia. 

Please see more at http://www.cpe.vt.edu/gem/index.html

Student support is open for application now
(http://www.cpe.vt.edu/gem/students.html). A high priority will be given
to the following groups: graduate students engaged in their thesis or
dissertation research, first time attendees and students from small
institutions, and students having specific GEM-related duties. We urge
those of you who qualify and are planning to attend the 2017 GEM
Workshop to act quickly and send applications to Zhonghua Xu
(zxu77@vt.edu) by Friday, March 17, 2017. Applications or adviser
recommendations received after this date will be on the waiting list.

******************* 

8. MEETING: Applied Space Environments Conference 2017, Huntsville,
Alabama, May 15-19, 2017

Abstract Submission Now Open

Applied Space Environments Conference 2017: Measurements, Models,
Testing, and Tools,  http://sti.usra.edu/asec2017

Abstract submission is now open for the Applied Space Environments
Conference (ASEC) that will be held in Huntsville, AL on May 15-19, 2017
at The Westin. This event is co-sponsored by the Universities Space
Research Association (USRA) and NASA and will focus on a broad range of
topics related to space environments and their effects on space systems.

All abstracts are welcome, with special consideration for presentations
that address aspects of space environment and effects modeling, in-space
observations of space environment impacts on space systems, recent space
environment measurements and using historical data sets for
characterizing space environments for system design and environment
specification, and laboratory testing to better understand material and
hardware interactions with space environments.  Relevant areas of the
space environment include (but are not limited to):

• Charged particles in the solar wind, solar particle events, galactic
cosmic rays, and trapped radiation belts

• Comets, asteroids, and dust

• Electric and magnetic fields

• Extreme ultraviolet, ultraviolet, and infrared photons

• Ionosphere and neutral planetary atmospheres

• Magnetosphere(s)

• Meteoroids and orbital debris

• STEM applications

• Commercial applications

Please go to the following link to submit your abstract:

https://asec2017.exordo.com

Abstracts due March 1, 2017. Contact person: Joseph Minow (joseph.minow
at nasa.gov)

******************

9. MEETING: Space Weather of the Heliosphere: Processes and Forecast IAU
Symposium 335 - July 17-21, 2017 - University of Exeter, UK

Space weather is increasingly recognised as an international challenge
faced by several communities. The ability to understand, monitor and
forecast the space weather of the Earth and the heliosphere is of
paramount importance for our high-technology society and for the current
rapid developments in knowledge and exploration within our Solar
System. 

The symposium is planned over 5 days from Monday through Friday
(including half-day excursion on the Wednesday afternoon). Key Topics of
the scientific program are the following: Solar drivers and activity
levels; Solar wind and heliosphere; Impact of solar wind, structures and
radiation on and within terrestrial and planetary environments
(including magnetospheres, ionospheres and atmospheres); Long-term
trends and predictions for space weather; Challenges and strategy plans
for Earth and the heliosphere; Forecasting models; Space weather
monitoring, instrumentation, data and services. The Symposium aims to
further knowledge on space weather by linking various aspects of
research in solar, heliospheric and planetary physics, and by putting
great emphasis on cross-disciplinary developments, merging different
communities, learning from interplanetary comparisons and linking to
atmospheric and meteorological research for the first time at the
international level. 

http://blogs.exeter.ac.uk/iaus335/ 

******************

10. MEETING: GOOD HOPE FOR EARTH SCIENCES: IAPSO-IAMAS-IAGA, 27Aug-1Sep,
2017, Cape Town, South Africa

The Local Organizing Committee is thrilled to welcome you to the 2017
Joint IAPSO-IAMAS-IAGA Assembly in Cape Town, South Africa. The Joint
Assembly, endorsed by the University of Cape Town and the South African
Department of Science and Technology, will take place from 27 August to
1 September 2017 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre
(CTICC).

IAGA Lead Sessions

1.  SPACE WEATHER FROM SUN TO EARTH: BRINGING DATA AND MODELS TOGETHER
(IAGA, IAMAS), Convenor - Sarah Gibson

2.  THE REFERENCING OF GEOPHYSICAL DATA PRODUCTS: THE ROLE OF DOIs
(IAGA, IAMAS, IAPSO), Convenor - Masahito Nose

3.  FRONTIER CHALLENGES IN DATA ASSIMILATION AND ENSEMBLE FORECASTING
FOR THE ATMOSPHERE, OCEAN AND SOLID EARTH. (IAGA, IAMAS, IAPSO),
Convenor - Weijia Kuang, Craig Bishop

4.  SOLAR RELATED VARIABILITY OF THE ATMOSPHERE (IAGA, IAMAS), 

Convenor,  Christoph Jacobi

Early Bird Deadline: 5 May 2017

Online Registration Closes: 22 August 2017

http://www.iapso-iamas-iaga2017.com/

*******************

11. MEETING: ASTRONUM 2017 - the 12th International Conference on
Numerical Modeling of Space Plasma Flows, Saint Malo, France, 26-30
June, 2017.

Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research at the University of
Alabama in Huntsville and Maison de la Simulation (CEA/CNRS/UPS/UVSQ),
France will organize ASTRONUM-2017. The conference will cover the
following topics:

(1) Advanced numerical methods for space, astrophysical and geophysical
flows;

(2) Large-scale fluid-based, kinetic, and hybrid simulations;

(3) Turbulence and cosmic ray transport;

(4) Magnetohydrodynamics

(5) Software packages for modeling and analyzing plasma
flows /Visualisation with the application to

(1) Physics of the Sun-Heliosphere-Magnetosphere;

(2) Interstellar medium and star formation;

(3) Cosmology and galaxy formation;

(4) Dynamo effect;

(5) Stellar Physics.

The purpose of the conference is to bring together leading experts in
applied mathematics, space physics, astrophysics, and geophysics to
discuss the application of novel numerical algorithms and petascale
parallelization strategies to computationally challenging problems.

The conference will be structured around invited, 40-minute keynote and
25-minute regular talks, and a limited number of contributed talks, with
the attempt to have no parallel sessions. The conference web site will
be established in a few days and provide the information about the
conference venue, registration, and means of transportation. E-mail
inquiries about the meeting should be directed to Nikolai.Pogorelov at
uah.edu and Edouard.Audit at cea.fr

The conference website is: http://irfu.cea.fr/ASTRONUM2017/

Program Committee: Tahar Amari (CNRS Ecole Polytechnique), Edouard Audit

(CEA, Maison de la Simulation, co-chair), Amitava Bhattacharjee

(Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory), Phillip Colella (Lawrence

Berkeley National Laboratory), Anthony Mezzacappa (University of

Tennessee, Knoxville), Nikolai Pogorelov (University of Alabama in

Huntsville, chair), Kazunari Shibata (Kyoto University), James Stone

(Princeton University), Jon Linker (Predictive Science Inc.), and Gary

P. Zank (University of Alabama in Huntsville).

****************** 

12. MEETING: 7th Solar Orbiter Workshop: Exploring the Solar Environs,
April 3-6, 2017, Granada, Spain

EXPLORING THE SOLAR ENVIRONS

Registration is open. Visit our web page at:
http://spg.iaa.es/solo2017/

Rationale:The Solar Orbiter mission will bring the community an
excellent opportunity for doing unique science that embraces most solar
topics from the interior up to the heliosphere employing novel vantage
points. The combined use of results from its four in-situ and six
remote-sensing instruments will provide an unprecedented view of the Sun
and the interplanetary medium. Aimed at discussing most of these topics,
the 7th Solar Orbiter Workshop entitled "Exploring the solar environs"
will be held in Granada, Spain, from the 3rd through the 6th of April,
2017. Overviews, prospects, and new science about the solar interior,
the photospheric structure, dynamics, and magnetic fields, the
chromosphere, the corona, the solar wind, and the heliospheric magnetic
fields and particles are scheduled. Synergies with other missions and
ground-based observatories will also be covered. Theoreticians,
observers, and instrumentalist astronomers are encouraged to attend.

******************

13. MEETING: Workshop on Kappa Distributions & Non-Extensive Statistical
Mechanics: Theory & Applications in Plasmas, held during the
SigmaPhi2017 Conference (International Conference on STATISTICAL
PHYSICS / ΣΤΑΤΙΣΤΙΚΗ ΦΥΣΙΚΗ) in Corfu, Greece, 10-14 July 2017.

Workshop organized by: G. Livadiotis, P. Yoon and K. Dialynas

Please note that the Abstract Submission Deadline is 18 April 2017.

We welcome abstracts reporting on the progress of the following three
broad subject areas:

- Theory of Kappa Distributions and Statistical Framework:

Non-extensive statistical mechanics; Superstatistics; Connection with
thermodynamics; Entropy and information measure; Concept of temperature;
Anisotropy of velocity space; Distributions with potential energy.

- Effects on Plasma Processes, Dynamics, and Complexity:

Particle acceleration; Transport and diffusion; Plasma linear/nonlinear
waves and instabilities; Shocks and Rankine–Hugoniot conditions;
Polytropic relations; Plasma interactions; Particle correlations;
Coupling phenomena; Turbulence and chaos; Mechanisms generating kappa
distributions.

- Data Analyses, Simulations, and Applications in Space Plasmas:

Solar/Stellar atmospheres; Flares/CMEs; Solar wind; Ionosphere;
Terrestrial, planetary, and cometary magnetospheres; Heliosheath and
interstellar plasmas; Nebular, galactic and intergalactic plasmas.

http://www.sigmaphi.polito.it/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=106&catid=21&Itemid=232

******************

14. PUBLICATION: Zirnstein, E. J., Heerikhuisen, J., Zank, G. P., et al.
2017, ApJ, 836, 238


“Structure of the Heliotail from Interstellar Boundary Explorer
Observations: 
Implications for the 11-year Solar Cycle and Pickup Ions in the
Heliosheath”


http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aa5cb2


********

Best regards,

Merav
______________________
Merav Opher
Associate Professor, Dept. of Astronomy
Director of Graduate Studies
Director of the REU Program
Boston University
725 Commonwealth Avenue,
Boston MA 02215
PHONE: (617) 358-6385
FAX:   (617) 353-5704