[HeliosphereNews] Heliosphere News - June 23, 2020

Eric J. Zirnstein ejz at princeton.edu
Tue Jun 23 14:08:53 EDT 2020 

Heliosphere News - June 23, 2020 
 
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: Matina Gkioulidou (matina.gkioulidou at jhuapl.edu) Co-Editor: Nick Pogorelov (np0002 at uah.edu)

Coordinator: Liz Wilber (Elizabeth.Wilber at unh.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, Matina, or Nick. Posts are limited to ascii text. Newsletters are archived on the following website:
http://heliospherenews.unh.edu/.

******************* Announcements *******************
  
1. MEETING: Heliophysics 2050 Workshop Community Announcement

2. MEETING: 3rd Annual Interstellar Probe Exploration Workshop, November 17–19, 2020, Silver Spring, Maryland

3. MEETING: COSPAR Scientific Assembly, NEW DATES: 28 January - 4 February, 2021

4. MEETING: MUAN 2020: Upper Atmospheres and Ionospheres in the Inner Solar System, September 9-11, 2020, New York, New York

5. ANNOUNCEMENT. LWS Program Analysis Group (LPAG) Virtual Town Hall on Community Input on Focused Science Topics (FST)

6. MEETING. 2nd Interstellar Probe Session at the (virtual) EPSC 2020 ( Abstracts Due 24 June 13:00 CEST)

7. JOB OPPORTUNITY: Civil Servant Research Scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

8. JOB OPPORTUNITY: Research Associate position in the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at CU Boulder supporting NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)

9. INVITATION TO SUBMIT: Participate in Frontiers Research Topic "New Challenges in Space Plasma Physics"

10. Call for Community Input to LWS Focused Science Topics

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

1. MEETING: Heliophysics 2050 Workshop Community Announcement

NASA, NSF, and NOAA are pleased to announce the Heliophysics 2050 Workshop.
This workshop will be an agency-enabled, community-driven event to examine long-term goals as well as helping the community prepare for the next Solar and Space Physics Decadal Survey.

The workshop is being planned for an in-person venue, with on-line participation options, the week of August 3, 2020. Due to the current situation and travel restrictions, secondary options of an all-virtual workshop and a meeting delay are also being considered.

This workshop will focus on discussing a strategic, multi-decadal science framework for solar and space physics. It is anticipated that conference proceedings will be published for community members to leverage in framing their own white papers to the Decadal Survey process. The community will create a cohesive science strategy that will enable the ability to:

   1. Identify essential science investigations necessary for major advancements in solar and space physics.
   2. Use the desired investigations to identify the research and capability development needed to meet the requirements of these missions.
   3. Recognize research needed in the next decade to prepare for the long-term research goals.
   4. Recognize work needed to ensure a pipeline from basic research to pre-application research and then into operational needs, including the operations-to-research loop that strengthens forecasting and other predictive capabilities.

A Science Organizing Committee (SOC) will be formed from community members to help manage the workshop. The SOC will help organize the workshop schedule, including planning the sessions, sorting the abstracts, and managing the workshop discussions. These individuals will also serve as editors for the proceedings document resulting from the workshop.

As part of workshop preparation, short community white papers will be solicited. Those white papers will be used by the SOC to plan the workshop sessions and focus those discussions.

Further information will be released via community announcements over the next few weeks.

Please contact Jared Leisner (jared.s.leisner at nasa.gov) with any questions.

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

2.  MEETING: 3rd Annual Interstellar Probe Exploration Workshop November 17–19, 2020 Silver Spring, Maryland

The 3rd Annual Interstellar Probe Exploration Workshop is scheduled for November 17–19, 2020 at the Tommy Douglas Conference Center in Silver Spring, Maryland.

The workshop is being organized for heliophysicists, planetary scientists, astrophysicists, and engineers from all over the world. 
The purpose of the workshop is to gather together and discuss the objectives, design, and operations for a near-term, pragmatic interstellar probe mission. 
The workshop is organized by a team at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory studying such a mission for the Heliophysics Division in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.

Visit the JHU APL Interstellar Probe website for detailed information about the ongoing study.

IMPORTANT:  To be added to the mailing list to receive pertinent information about this workshop and to indicate your interest in participating, please submit an Indication of Interest.
https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/interstellarprobe2020/
#interstellarprobe2020                
 
For more information, contact:
Meeting and Publication Services
USRA/Lunar and Planetary Institute
meetinginfo at hou.usra.edu

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

3. MEETING: COSPAR Scientific Assembly, NEW DATES: 28 January - 4 February, 2021.

43rd COSPAR Scientific Assembly will take place on 28 January - 4 February at the International Convention Center in Sydney, Australia.

The 2021 Assembly will combine the latest in space research findings with activities designed to enrich the global space research community - including helping equip our future leaders, and workshopping with space industry - and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers. You will have the opportunity of a lifetime to interact directly with everything that Australia has to offer - our science and innovation, our people, our heritage, and our beautiful environment. The Assembly website is https://www.cospar2020.org/.

IMPORTANT DEADLINES:

Early Bird Registration Deadline         31 October 2020 
Speaker Registration Deadline            31 October 2020 
Accommodation Booking Deadline    15 December 2020

*******************
  
4. MEETING: MUAN 2020: Upper Atmospheres and Ionospheres in the Inner Solar System, September 9-11, 2020, New York, New York

This three-day workshop will bring together scientists interested in the general dynamics of, and coupling between, ionized and neutral atmospheric constituents of three key inner Solar System planets: Mars, Earth, and Venus. Other bodies, such as comets and moons are also welcome. The objective is to embrace comparative studies between different planetary bodies in addition to the usual Mars aeronomy and plasma physics discussions, as this will lead to a better understanding of the role of upper atmospheres on planetary evolution and habitability at Mars and in the Solar System.

The main topics for discussion are:
- Planetary aeronomy - past, present and future.
- Thermosphere-ionosphere-magnetosphere-exosphere (TIME) coupling.
- Lower-upper atmosphere connections.

A significant part of the workshop will be devoted to brainstorming and opportunities to discuss different science aspects, and to help establish fruitful collaborations.

Our workshop will be hosted by Columbia University in New York City, with opportunities to present posters or talks. The workshop will be limited to 100 attendees, so to aid us in planning, we encourage all those interested to please indicate your interest here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdVgrQ8cIQx8mOgF5rVV76Re6hh6u1_xwtK4XXhKSpVSOU2_A/viewform

SOC:
Beatriz Sanchez-Cano (University of Leicester) David Andrews (Swedish Institute of Space Physics) Mark Lester (University of Leicester) Robert Lillis (UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory) Hermann Opgenoorth (Umea University) Dmitri Titov (ESA) Michael J. Way (NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies) Olivier Witasse (ESA) Email inquiries about this meeting can be directed to Linda Sohl (LOC) at linda.sohl at columbia.edu.

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

5. ANNOUNCEMENT: LWS Program Analysis Group (LPAG) Virtual Town Hall on Community Input on Focused Science Topics (FST) The LPAG Executive Committee (EC) invites the Heliophysics community to participate in a virtual town hall to be held at 1-2:30 PM EDT on June 18, 2020. During the town hall on WebEx, the LPAG EC will describe the community input process and conduct a Q&A session. WebEx information for joining the LPAG virtual town hall on June 18, 2020 (1-2:30 ET, 12 – 1:30 CT, 10-11:30 PT) will be provided on the LWS Science Program website
(https://lwstrt.gsfc.nasa.gov/) by June 18, 2020.

For further information contact:  Anthea Coster (ajc at haystack.mit.edu) or Sabrina Savage (sabrina.savage at nasa.gov)

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

6. MEETING: 2nd Interstellar Probe Session at the (virtual) EPSC 2020 ( Abstracts Due 24 June 13:00 CEST)

For the second year in a row the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) is hosting a session on the science enabled by an Interstellar Probe to the Interstellar Medium and its implementation. Please consider submitting your work on the current state of understanding, outstanding science question, design concepts, enabling technologies, programmatic challenges and more.
With the new efficient virtual format we look forward  to another successful session this year. (Please see
https://www.epsc2020.eu/virtual_meeting/overview.html for details.)

Session Link (including abstract submission):
https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EPSC2020/session/38421
Abstract Deadline: 13:00 CEST 24 June 2020

Session Title: Interstellar Probe: Pushing the Boundaries of Space Science

Session Description: The global nature of the interaction of our heliosphere and the Local Interstellar Medium (LISM) remains one of the most outstanding space physics problems of today. Voyager 1 and 2 are nearing their end of operations well inside of 200 AU and have uncovered a completely new regime of physical interactions. Anomalous Cosmic Rays (ACR) are not accelerated at the Termination Shock as anticipated, the force upholding the heliosheath against the LISM has eluded the in-situ measurements, significant shielding of Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs) appears in an extremely thin boundary layer at the Heliopause (HP), UV observations reveal a surprisingly dense wall of neutral hydrogen outside of the heliosphere, and the entire magnetic topology even well beyond the HP goes against all previous expectations. At the same time, IBEX and Cassini have obtained complementary “inside-out” ENA images of the heliospheric boundary region that cannot be fully explained.
An Interstellar Probe through the boundaries of the heliosphere, in to the LISM would be the first dedicated mission to venture into this largely unexplored frontier of space. With a dedicated suite of in-situ and remote-sensing instrumentation, such a probe would not only open the door for this new regime of space physics, but would also send us back the very first images from the outside of the global structure of the heliosphere that, in context with the in-situ measurements, would enable a quantum leap in understanding the global nature of our own habitable astrosphere.
Traveling beyond the HP would offer the first sampling of the properties of the Local Interstellar Cloud and interstellar dust that are completely new scientific territories. As such, an Interstellar Probe would represent humanity’s first step in to the galaxy and become the furthest space exploration ever undertaken.
Relatively modest contributions from the Planetary Sciences and Astrophysics would offer historic science returns, including a flyby of one or two Kuiper Belt Objects, first insights in to the structure of the circum-solar dust disk, and the first measurements of the Extra-galactic Background Light beyond the obscuring Zodiacal cloud.
Although the idea of an Interstellar Probe has been discussed and studied since 1960, the lack of propulsion technologies and launch vehicles have presented a stumbling block to realize these concepts. With recent developments of conventional launch vehicle and kick stages, this bottleneck is being removed. Several international ongoing studies are developing realistic mission concepts using available or near-term technology, including the Pragmatic Interstellar Probe Study funded by NASA, the Interstellar Heliopause Probe project in Europe, and a study of dual probes to the boundaries of the Heliosphere under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
This session welcomes discussions on the current state of understanding and outstanding science questions that could be addressed by missions to the LISM, and reports on realistic design concepts, enabling technologies, and programmatic challenges.

On behalf of the conveners: Michel Blanc, Pontus Brandt, Pascale Ehrenfreund, Kathleen Mandt, Merav Opher, Robert F. Wimmer-Schweingruber, Olivier Witasse, Qiugang Zong

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

7. JOB OPPORTUNITY: Civil Servant Research Scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

The Energetic Particle Laboratory at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is looking to hire a scientist with experience in designing, building and analyzing data from instruments that measure ionized and neutral high-energy particles in the heliosphere and magnetosphere.  The laboratory currently has instruments in development for the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) mission (launch in 2024), several cubesats for Low-Earth Orbit and interplanetary space, and the Lunar Gateway.
The Energetic Particle Laboratory is in the Heliospheric Science Laboratory (Code 672) of Goddard's Heliophysics Science Division.  This is a US Government Civil Servant position, therefore applicants are required to be either US citizens or currently holding a green card and are expected to have a PhD in a related field and several years of experience beyond completion of their PhD.  Interested individuals should send a current CV to Adam Szabo (adam.szabo at nasa.gov), Code 672 Lab Chief, and Eric Christian (eric.r.christian at nasa.gov), Code 672 Associate Lab Chief and head of the Energetic Particle Laboratory.

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

8. JOB OPPORTUNITY: Research Associate position in the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at CU Boulder supporting NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)

The Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado at Boulder has an immediate opening for a Research Associate supporting NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). This position is for an Energetic Particle Space Scientist in NCEI’s Solar and Terrestrial Physics (STP) Group. A team of dedicated scientists within STP works to ensure that current and future space weather sensors on NOAA satellites provide effective operational products for use by the NOAA National Weather Service (NWS) Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC). STP’s overall responsibilities also include providing access to these environmental data by spacecraft engineers and the scientific community. The Energetic Particle Space Scientist will be primarily responsible for ensuring the quality and availability of data from the Space Environment In-Situ Suite (SEISS), operated on-board NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-R series system. SEISS measures the local charged particle environment across a broad energy range at multiple pitch angles. The GOES-R series is NOAA’s newest generation of GOES spacecraft. The first GOES-R satellite, GOES-16, was launched in November 2016. The fourth and last GOES-R satellite is expected to launch in 2024. SEISS calibration and validation activities are ongoing.

Required:

-This position involves handling export-controlled documents and data, thus only applications from US citizens or permanent residents (green card holders) can be considered.
-If hired, you will need to pass a National Agency Check with Inquiries (NACI, Federal background check).
-Ph.D. in Physical Science, Engineering or similar technical discipline.
-Four years’ experience at the post-bachelor’s level in satellite sensor design, algorithm development, and/or scientific research with space environmental data.

What We Would Like You to Have:

-Ph.D. in Space Plasma Physics.
-1-2 years’ postdoctoral experience working with space plasma instrumentation and instrument data.
-Familiarity with NOAA’s satellite programs, particularly GOES.
-Willingness to pursue independent funding for research.

For additional information and application instructions go to
https://jobs.colorado.edu/jobs/JobDetail?jobId=23539
Please direct questions about this position to Brian Kress (brian.kress at noaa.gov).
* Note, this position was originally posted on 09-Jan-2020, but the hiring process has been on hold due to rapidly changing hiring policy at CU Boulder during the coronavirus pandemic. We are restarting the search for this position. 

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

9. INVITATION TO SUBMIT: Participate in Frontiers Research Topic "New Challenges in Space Plasma Physics"

From: Daniel Verscharen (d.verscharen at ucl.ac.uk)

Dear Colleagues,

We would like to draw your attention to the new Research Topic "New Challenges in Space Plasma Physics: Open Questions and Future Mission Concepts” in the journals Frontiers in Physics and Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences
(website: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/13935/new-challenges-in-space-plasma-physics-open-questions-and-future-mission-concepts).
We would greatly appreciate if you would consider submitting an article to this series.

Our Research Topic is designed to capture the state of space plasma physics, both in terms of the important open questions and the mission concepts that are being considered to address those questions. So far, several authors of white papers submitted to ESA's Voyage 2050 strategic planning exercise have expressed their interest in participating, and our aim is to make this Research Topic broad to cover the full international community. Our hope is to have a collection of articles that show our field as a vibrant and active area of physics with an exciting future ahead.

As you may know, Frontiers is a community-driven, fully open-access, online journal with an emphasis on responsible collaborative peer-review, accountability, and editorial independence. The journal is relatively new in our field, but growing well.
Articles are in principle subject to a publication fee, but a discount/waiver can be applied for if you do not have access to sufficient funds for this type of publication. 

The deadline for the submission of abstracts is 21 June 2020, and the deadline for the manuscript submission is 19 October 2020.

If you have any questions about the Research Topic, please contact the editors.

Best wishes,
—Daniel
on behalf of the topic editors: Luca Sorriso-Valvo (lucasorriso at gmail.com), Alessandro Retinò (alessandro.retino at lpp.polytechnique.fr),
Christopher Chen (christopher.chen at qmul.ac.uk), Daniel Verscharen (d.verscharen at ucl.ac.uk) 

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

10. Call for Community Input to LWS Focused Science Topics

Release Date: May 14, 2020
Due Date: July 3, 2020
From: Sabrina Savage (sabrina.savage at nasa.gov) and Anthea Coster (ajc at haystack.mit.edu)

The 2020 executive committee of the NASA Living with a Star (LWS) Program Analysis Group (LPAG) is beginning to develop the next round of input for LWS Focused Science Topics (FSTs) for ROSES 2021 and beyond. It is vital for the success of the LWS Science program that there be active community engagement in the development of FSTs. We are therefore asking the Heliophysics community to provide input by July 3, 2020 for these topics.

Suggested science topics should be organized around achieving the goals set out in the recently revised Strategic Science Areas (SSAs; https://lwstrt.gsfc.nasa.gov/strategic-science-areas-ssas). See Key Resources below for more information.

Enter FST suggestions by using the following link (on or before July 3, 2020):
https://lwstrt.gsfc.nasa.gov/communityinput/input/.

View Input and Comment on FST community input in response to this call (on or before July 3, 2020)
at: https://lwstrt.gsfc.nasa.gov/communityinput/viewinput/2020/.

All FSTs suggested by the community prior to and during 2018 that were not selected by NASA for the ROSES 2019 and 2020 LWS science calls will also be reviewed by the LPAG executive committee.
Community input regarding updates to those topics is welcome through the same View Input and Comment page above.

For reference, the full list of topics that were developed from the last set of community input on FSTs by the previous LPAG committee in 2018 are available in the final report of that committee at:
https://lwstrt.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/docs/lpag/2018_LPAG_EC_Report_Final_11_30.pdf
And the original community input and comments at:
https://lwstrt.gsfc.nasa.gov/communityinput/viewinput/2018/.

We greatly look forward to your input and to continuing on the path of innovation and scientific exploration in the LWS program.

LPAG Executive Committee Members: Anthea Coster (Co-Chair), Sabrina Savage (Co-Chair), Joe Borovsky, Richard Collins, Seebany Datta-Barua, Chuanfei Dong, Heather Elliott, Matina Gkioulidou, Fan Guo, Angelos Vourlidas, Brian Walsh, Shasha Zou, LPAG Ex Officio
Members: Jeff Morrill, Lika Guhathakurta, Simon Plunkett, Shing Kung

Key Resources:
LPAG, https://lwstrt.gsfc.nasa.gov/lpag
The current LWS SSA descriptions are provided here:
https://lwstrt.gsfc.nasa.gov/strategic-science-areas-ssas

More information about the Heliospherenews mailing list