UCL – DEPARTMENT OF SPACE AND CLIMATE PHYSICS
MULLARD SPACE SCIENCE LABORATORY
The Newsletter - Volume 12, Issue 3
28 October 2015
Covers events between 1 May and 31 July 2015
Contents
New staff .................................................................................................................................................................1
Promotions .............................................................................................................................................................1
Visitors ....................................................................................................................................................................2
Prizes and Awards .................................................................................................................................................2
Appointments .........................................................................................................................................................3
Grants and Contracts Awarded ............................................................................................................................3
Proposals Submitted .............................................................................................................................................3
Mission Status and Developments ......................................................................................................................3
Publications – Refereed ........................................................................................................................................4
PhDs/MPhil Awarded .............................................................................................................................................5
Teaching Developments .......................................................................................................................................5
Invited Talks and Conferences .............................................................................................................................5
Outreach .................................................................................................................................................................9
Press releases ......................................................................................................................................................10
Media Broadcasts and Features ........................................................................................................................11
Other News ...........................................................................................................................................................11
Next Issue .............................................................................................................................................................11
New staff
Promotions



The Plasma Group welcomed Dr Licia Ray who
joins us from the UCL main campus to work on
auroral science topics;
Mateo Inchaurrandieta joined the Solar Group
for a summer project, working on EIS software
development using Python.

Congratulations to Dr Jonathan Rae, who has
been promoted to Reader of Space Plasma
Physics, from 1 October;
Congratulations to Lucie Green who has been
promoted to Professor of Physics.
Visitors


The Astrophysics Group hosted (and is
hosting):
o Samantha Oates (IAA-CSIC, Granada,
Spain);
o Denija
Cronjevic
(Texas
Tech
University, USA);
o Lorena Nieves (IFCA Santander and
Valencia Observatory, Spain);
o Emille Ishida (Max Planck for
Astrophysics, Germany);
o Rafael
de
Souza
(MTA-ELTE,
Hungary);
o Rod Kennedy (Australian National
University).
Visitors to the Solar Group included:
o Kathryn McWilliams, University of
Saskatchewan gave a seminar entitled
‘The Influence of the Solar Sector
Angle on the Ionosphere’;
o Gaelene
Lerat,
University
of
Saskatchewan joined the plasma
group as a summer student, working
with Jonathan Rae and Colin Forsyth.
Gaelene used AMPERE field aligned
current data centred by substorm
onset times and locations to examine
the average structure of the substorm
current wedge;
o Ken McCracken, IPST, University of
Maryland gave a seminar entitled ‘The
Temporal Variability of the Cosmic
Radiation, Solar Activity, and the
Heliospheric Magnetic Field over the
past 11,000 years’;
o Colm Murphy, UCL is a summer
student
currently
working
with
Jonathan Rae and Colin Forsyth. Colm
is using data from the Cluster
spacecraft to examine the possible
connection between dipolarization
events and substorms;
o Rosemary Young from the UKSA
visited on May 21 to discuss issues
surrounding
our
Solar
Orbiter
programs;
o Chris Owen hosted Prof. Thomas
Zurbuchen of the University of
Michigan at UCL on May 28. A
program of joint future scientific activity
was agreed which will hopefully lead to
exchange
visits
between
our
institutions;
o Vishal Ray, a Dean’s Prize summer
student from IIT Bombay, India, visited
MSSL twice in June and July. Vishal’s
summer
project,
supervised
by

Anasuya Aruliah from Physics and
Astronomy, focussed on a study of the
drag force on satellites in low Earth
orbit. Vishal used technical details of
the UCLSat CubeSat design for the
QB50 mission to calculate different
drag forces for different satellite
attitude, altitude and solar and
atmospheric conditions. We hope that
Vishal’s work will form the basis of a
joint research funding
proposal
between MSSL and P and A;
o Jason Byrne from Rutherford Appleton
Laboratory visited the Lab from 12/14
May and gave a seminar;
o Eoin Carley from Paris Observatory,
Meudon visited the Lab from 11/14
May;
o Alphonse Sterling from NASA Marshall
Space Flight Centre visited the Lab
18/20 May and gave a seminar;
o Marchos Trichas from Airbus visited the
lab and gave a seminar on the
Carrington Mission;
o Andrew Hillier from the University of
Cambridge visited the lab from 13/14
July and gave a seminar.
Visit from Sue Horne and Charlotte BlakeKerry on 28 July for discussions related to
PanCam (ExoMars).
Prizes and Awards

The RAS group achievement award was
presented at NAM in July to Louise Harra on
behalf of the Hinode EIS team; this followed
with an MSSL celebration.
The Hinode EIS team

2
The RAS Service Award was presented to
Lidia van Driel-Gesztelyi at NAM.
Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC) Coordination Unit 6 (CU6) Spectroscopic Processing
Plenary Meeting in Leiden, 3/5 June. Future data
releases will be based on the Global pipeline.
Preparation of the first run of the Global pipeline
continues.
Appointments





Tom Kitching has been appointed to STFC
PPRP, and will serve for 2 years;
Andrew Coates and Geraint Jones served on a
NASA panel, April-July;
Lucie Green was appointed to the Royal
Society’s Diversity Committee;
Louise Harra was on the Max Planck
appointments committee in June;
Sarah Matthews was appointed to STFC’s
Solar System Advisory Panel (SSAP).
JUICE – Andrew Coates attended a PPEP team
meeting in Budapest, 16/17 June. Geraint Jones,
Andrew Coates, Dave Linder and Laura Mullin
attended a meeting on MSSL JUICE/PEP
participation in Swindon on 8 July.
Mars Express – Mission continuing.
Grants and Contracts Awarded
Rosetta – Mission continuing; publication accepted
(see publications).

SMILE – SMILE (Solar Wind Magnetosphere
Ionosphere Link Explorer) has been selected for,
and is undergoing, an initial study phase for the
ESACAS joint space mission (the first joint mission
between ESA and China from the design stage
through to implementation, operations and
scientific exploitation). Once approved, SMILE will
be launched in 2021. SMILE will detect the soft Xray (and UV auroral) emissions from the
continuous interaction between the solar wind and
the Earth’s magnetosphere. The measurements
and images that SMILE will take can tell us not
only about the exact locations of magnetopause,
bow shock, and the polar cusps, but also about the
processes that link the solar wind with the Charge
Exchange soft X-ray emission from the dayside
magnetosheath and the auroral UV emission.
SMILE will also measure the properties of the solar
wind with an ion analyser and a magnetometer.
Graziella Branduardi-Raymont is a co-lead of the
project.
JUICE PEP grant awarded.
Proposals Submitted

A proposal covering the extended build phase
and early operations costs for Solar Orbiter
was submitted to UKSA on May 8.
Mission Status and Developments
Beagle 2 – Andrew Coates attended a meeting at
the OU on 2 June where findings about Beagle 2
deployment on Mars were discussed.
Cassini – Scientific presentations, publications
and theses continuing (see publications).
Euclid– The EUCLID Consortium Meeting 2015
was at the SwissTech Convention Center,
Switzerland, 8/12 June.
ExoMars – Regular team telecons continue.
Andrew Coates, Tom Hunt, Craig Theobald, Barry
Hancock (and Craig Leff remotely) attended a
meeting at RUAG, Zurich, 5 May, to address the
Swiss provision of Wide Angle Camera modules.
Telecon follow-up on 22 May. Andrew Ball (ESA)
and representatives from TAS-I visited MSSL
12/13 May to discuss PanCam. PanCam was
presented at RAS Aurora meeting, 15 May. Many
MSSL personnel (including Coates, Leff, Griffiths,
Hancock, Hunt, Theobald and many others)
attended an ESA-run planetary protection course
at the Gatton Manor, 15 July.
Solar Orbiter – It has again been a busy quarter
for the Solar Orbiter SWA team. In addition to
progress on the EM and FM models, including
testing of the former at MSSL, there have been
many external meetings. The Solar Orbiter SWA
team attended the quarterly UKSA Management
Board meeting in London on June 15. The
additional costs of our program related to the
recently announced launch delay were discussed
and agreed in principle. On June 17 Chris Owen
represented SWA at the spacecraft CDR board
meeting at ESTEC. Many issues were raised as
cause for concern and the ESA project team and
prime contractor (AIRBUS, Stevenage) will need to
complete some activities for a delta CDR at the at
the end of the year. The following day, Chris Owen
chaired a meeting of the Solar Orbiter PI group at
ESTEC in order to discuss the issues surrounding
the CDR and agree a way forward at instrument
team level. SWA team members (Chris Owen,
Gaia – MSSL’s Gaia team successfully tested its
new version of the on-ground daily data processing
pipeline with the new data format coming from
Gaia’s new onboard software. The calibration
residuals were larger than the straylight mitigation
for single transits but simulations predict the
mitigation should improve the end-of-mission S/N.
The team presented their findings at the Gaia Data
3
Chris Brockley Blatt, Khalid AlJanabi, Barry
Hancock, Gethyn Lewis) went to TSD in Naples to
participate in an SWA DPU software review, 29
June/1 July. The following week Chris Owen
represented SWA at the 7th Science Operations
Working Group for Solar Orbiter at ESOC, Madrid,
6/9 July. Finally, Chris Owen and Barry Hancock
represented SWA at the 12th EMC Working Group
meeting at Imperial College, 15/16 July.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pss.2015.02.003,
113-114, 378-384, August 2015
Coates, A.J., J.L. Burch, R. Goldstein, H. Nilsson,
G. Stenberg Wieser, E. Behar and the RPC
team, Ion pickup observed at comet 67P with
the Rosetta Plasma Consortium (RPC) particle
sensors: similarities with previous observations
and AMPTE releases, and effects of increasing
activity, Proc. 14th Annual International
Astrophysics Conference on Linear and
Nonlinear Particle Energization throughout the
Heliosphere and Beyond, Tampa (20-24 April
2015), Open Access Journal of Physics:
Conference Series (JPCS), in press, June
2015.
Coates, A.J., Fly-by missions: what is the point
when we have the technology to go into orbit?
(included New Horizons, ExoMars, Giotto,
Cassini), The Conversation, 14 July 2015.
Coti Zelati, F., …, Turolla, R., …, Zane, S. et al.,
The X-ray outburst of the Galactic Centre
magnetar SGR J1745-2900 during the first 1.5
year, 2015, Mon. Not., R. Astron. Soc., 449,
2685
Coupon, J., …, Kitching, T. et al., The galaxy-halo
connection from a joint lensing, clustering and
abundance analysis in the CFHTLenS/VIPERS
field, 2015, Mon. Not R. Astron. Soc., 449, 1352
Dartnell, L.R., T.A. Nordheim, M.R. Patel,
J.P.Mason, A.J. Coates, G.H. Jones,
Constraints on a potential aerial biosphere on
Venus: I. Cosmic Rays, Icarus, 257, 396-405,
doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2015.05.006, Sep 2015.
De Pasquale, Kuin, N.P.M., Oates, S., …, Page,
M., …, Zane, S., … Saxton, C.J. et al., The
optical rebrightening of GRB100814A: an
interplay of forward and reverse shocks?, 2015,
Mon. Not R. Astron. Soc., 449, 1024
Delvecchio, I., …, Symeonidis, M., Mapping the
average AGN accretion rate in the SFR-M*
plane for Herschel-selected galaxies at
THOR – ESA announced the selection of the THOR
mission for assessment study on June 4. Chris
Owen and Dhiren Kataria had acted as contact
persons for the MSSL contributions. Chris Owen is
coordinator for the UK THOR community, and
oversaw the collation and submission of a
protoproposal to the UKSA to cover near-term
funding of THOR related activities in the UK.
Publications – Refereed
Published
Arav, N., …, Mehdipour, M., …, BranduardiRaymont, G.,…, Whewell, M., Anatomy of the
AGN in NGC 5548. II. The spatial, temporal,
and physical nature of the outflow from
HST/COS Observations, 2015, Astron. and
Astrophys., 577, 37
Blanc, M., D.J. Andrews, A.J. Coates, D.C.
Hamilton, C. Jackman, X. Jia, A. Kotova, M.
Morooka, H.T. Smith, J.H. Westlake, Saturn
plasma sources and associated transport
processes, submitted to Space Science
Reviews and ISSI book on ‘Plasma Sources for
Solar System Magnetospheres’ (Space Science
Series of ISSI), June 2015.
Borghese, A., …, Turolla, R., Discovery of a
Strongly Phase-variable Spectral Feature in the
Isolated Neutron Star RX J0720.4–3125, 2015,
Astrophys. Letter, 807, L20
Brown, P.J., …, Breeveld, A.A., De Pasquale, M.,
…, Kuin, N.P.M., …, Page, M. et al., Swift
Ultraviolet Observations of Supernova 2014J in
M82: Large Extinction from Interstellar Dust,
2015, Astrophys. J., 805, 74
Coates, A.J., A. Wellbrock, J.H. Waite, G.H. Jones,
A new upper limit to the field-aligned potential
near Titan, Geophys. Res. Lett., 12, 4676-4684,
doi:10.1002/2015GL064474, June 2015.
Coates, A.J., A. Wellbrock, R.A. Frahm, J.D.
Winningham, A. Fedorov, S. Barabash, R.
Lundin, Distant ionospheric photoelectron
energy peak observations at Venus, Planetary
and Space Science,
0<z<2.5, 2015, Mon. Not R. Astron. Soc.,
449, 373
Di Gesu, L., …, Branduardi-Raymont, G., Whewell,
M., Anatomy of the AGN in NGC 5548. IV. The
short-term variability of the outflows, 2015,
Astron. and Astrophys., 579, 42
Dudík, J., Mackovjak, S., Dzifčáková, E., Del
Zanna, G., Williams, D.R.,Karlický, M., Mason,
H.E., Lörinčíkm, J., Kotrč, P., Fárník, F.,
Zemanová, A., – ‘Imaging and Spectroscopic
Observations of a Transient Coronal Loop:
Evidence for the NonMaxwellian Kappa
Distribution; accepted in The Astrophysical
Journal.
Frahm, J.D. Winningham, S. Barabash, R. Lundin,
A. Fedorov, Ionospheric Photoelectrons at
Venus: Case Studies and First Observation in
4
the Tail, Planet. Space Sci.,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pss.2015.01.019,
113-114, 385-394, August 2015.M., The stellar
kinematics of corotating spiral arms in Gaia
mock observations, 2015, Mon. Not. R. Astron.
Soc., 450, 2132
Goldstein, M. L. , R. T. Wicks , S. Perri, F.
Sahraoui, Review article: Kinetic scale
turbulence and dissipation in the solar wind: key
observational results and future outlook, Phil.
Trans. R.Soc. A, 2015, 373 20140147; DOI:
10.1098/rsta.2014.0147.
Graziani, L., …, Kawata, D. et al., Galaxy formation
with radiative and chemical feedback, 2015,
Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc., 449, 3137
Hunt, J.A.S., Kawata, D., …, Pasetto, S., Cropper,
Tsang, S.M.E., A.J. Coates, G. H. Jones, R.A.
Sagni`eres, L.B.M., M. Galand, J. Cui, P.P.
Lavvas, E.Vigren, V. Vuitton, R.V. Yelle, A.
Wellbrock, A.J. Coates, Influence of local
ionization on ionospheric densities in Titan’s
upper atmosphere, J. Geophys, Res., 120,
doi:10.1002/2014JA020890, July 2015.
Joachimi, B., …, Kitching, T.D. et al., Galaxy
Alignments: An Overview, 2015, Space Science
Reviews online.
Kempf, Y., D. Pokhotelov , O. Gutynska, L. B.
Wilson III, B. M. Walsh, S. von Alfthan, O.
Hannuksela, D. G. Sibeck, and M. Palmroth, Ion
distributions in the Earth’s foreshock: Hybrid
Vlasovsimulation and THEMIS observations, J.
Geophys. Res., 120,
doi:10.1002/2014JA020519, 2015. Published
25 May 2015.
Kuin, N.P.M., …, Breeveld, A.A., Page, M.J., …,
Yershov, V., …, Oates, S., Smith, P.J., De
Pasquale, M., Calibration of the Swift-UVOT
ultraviolet and visible grisms, 2015, Mon. Not.
R. Astron. Soc., 449, 2514
Kitching, T.D. et al., 3D weak gravitational lensing
of the CMB and galaxies, 2015, Mon. Not R.
Astron. Soc., 449, 2205
Niemi, S.-M., Cropper, M., Szafraniec, M., Kitching,
T., Measuring a charge-coupled device point
spread function. Euclid visible instrument
CCD273-84 PSF performance, 2015,
Experimental Astron., 39, 207
Pariat, E., VALORI,G., Démoulin, P., Dalmasse,
K., Testing magnetic helicity conservation in a
solarlike active event – accepted in Solar
Physics.
Parashar, T. N., C. Salem, R. T. Wicks , H.
Karimabadi, S. P. Gary, and W. H. Matthaeus,
Turbulent Dissipation Challenge: A community
driven effort, J. Plasma Phys., (accepted 19
June 2015).
Pokhotelov, D., I. J. Rae , K. R. Murphy, and I. R.
Mann, The influence of solar wind variability on
magnetospheric ULF wave power, Ann.
Geophys., 33, 697701,
doi:10.5194/angeo336972015, 2015. Published
8 June 2015.
Rae, I. J., and C. E. J. Watt, ULF waves above the
auroral zone during substorm onset, AGU
Monograph on ‘Lowfrequency Waves in Space
Plasmas’, accepted June 2015.
Simon, P., …, Kitching, T.D. et al., CFHTLenS: a
Gaussian likelihood is a sufficient approximation
for a cosmological analysis of third-order
cosmic shear statistics, 2015, Mon. Not R.
Astron. Soc., 449, 1505
Ursini, F., …, Mehdipour, M. et al. Anatomy of the
AGN in NGC 5548. III. The high-energy view
with NuSTAR and INTEGRAL, 2015, Astron.
and Astrophys., 577, 38
Wang, L., …, Page, M., Symeonidis, M. et al., Coevolution of black hole growth and star
formation from a cross-correlation analysis
between quasars and the cosmic infrared
background, 2015, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc.,
449, 4476
PhDs/MPhil Awarded
Congratulations on successfully passing their PhD
vivas to:






Jason Hunt;
Idunn Jacobsen;
Jamie Jasinski;
Tom Nordheim;
Ailsa Prise;
Yudish Ramanjooloo.
Teaching Developments
New lectures have been added into the MSc
course on space instrumentation, to include solar
remote sensing instruments (Louise Harra).
Invited Talks and Conferences
National Astronomical Meeting
Cymru Llandudno, 5-9 July;
5
(NAM), Venue

Graziella Branduardi-Raymont:
o Talk on ' SMILE: Solar wind
Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link
Explorer

Andrew Coates, Anne Wellbrock and Kim
Birkett gave the following talks:
o
o
o

Louise Harra:
o Talk on solar wind formation;
o Talk on Solar Orbiter;
o Talk on large flare eruptive.

David Long:
o Contributed talk.

Sarah Matthews:
o Talk on solar energetic particles;
o Contributed talk on lower atmospheric
signatures of solar flares.

David PerezSuarez:
o Contributed talk.

Dimitry Pokhotelov:
o Presented a poster entitled ‘, ‘The role
of solar wind dynamics in the control of
magnetospheric ULF wave power’.



o
A.J. Coates, T.Broiles, J. Burch,
C.Carr,
E.Cupido,
A.Eriksson,
K.H.Glassmeier, R. Goldstein, P.Henri,
J.-P. Lebreton, K.Mandt, P.Mokashi, Z.
Nemeth, H. Nilsson, I.Richter, K.Szego,
C.Vallat, D.Winterhalter and the RPC
team, Increasing activity from comet
67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
measured with the Rosetta Plasma
Consortium;
Wellbrock, A., A.J.Coates, G.H.Jones,
J.H.Waite,
Heavy
negative
ions
observed during Cassini’s Titan T16
flyby using the CAPS Electron
Spectrometer (ELS);
Birkett, K.S., G.H. Jones and A.J.
Coates, Modelling Neutral Sodium Tails
at Comets.
o
Presented a poster entitled ‘Galactic
cosmic ray modulation near the
heliospheric current sheet’.
Talk on ‘Near earth cosmic ray
decreases associated with remote
coronal mass ejections’.

Dave Williams:
o Invited review on ‘Waves in the Solar
Atmosphere: reviewing the last few
years’ discoveries’.

Zhonghua Yao:
o Presented a poster entitled ‘A common
effect ahead of dipolarization fronts:
crosstail current redistribution’.
Graziella Branduardi-Raymont:
 Talk on ' SMILE: Solar wind Magnetosphere
Ionosphere Link Explorer' at the UCL Centre for
Planetary Sciences 5th Summer Meeting on 25
June
Jack Carlyle:
 Invited seminar at the University of Cambridge.
Andrew Coates:
 Gave an invited colloquium at Exeter
University, May 18 entitled ‘Negative ions and
photoelectrons: results from Cassini and
Venus Express’.
Andrew Coates, Geraint Jones, Anne Wellbrock,
Kim Birkett, Sam Taylor attended the Centre for
Planetary Sciences (CPS) 5th Summer Meeting,
UCL/Birkbeck, 25 June:

George Seabroke:
o Prepared a talk on ‘The Milky Way in
11+ dimensions: Gaia's Radial Velocity
Spectrometer performance’, presented
by Floor van Leeuwen, Cambridge.

Myrto Symeonidis:
o Talks on ‘AGN are cooler than you
think; the intrinsic far-IR emission of
QSOs’ and ‘The Herschel census of
infrared SEDs through cosmic time’.


Simon Thomas:
o Presented a poster on behalf of Chris
Owen entitled ‘Solar Orbiter: Updates
on the progress of the Solar Wind
Analyser Investigation’;


6
Coates, A.J., Keynote: Updates from MSSL
Planetary Science: PanCam for ExoMars2018;
The field-aligned potential near Titan; and Ion
pickup observed at comet 67P with the Rosetta
Plasma Consortium;
Achilleos, N., C.S. Arridge, P. Guio, N.M.
Pilkington, A. Masters, N. Sergis, A.J. Coates,
M.K. Dougherty, Modelling the compressibility
of Saturn's magnetosphere;
Wellbrock, A., A.J. Coates, G.H. Jones, J.H.
Waite, Heavy negative ions observed during
Cassini’s Titan T16 flyby using the CAPS
Electron Spectrometer (ELS);
Taylor, S.A., A.J. Coates, G.H. Jones, A.
Wellbrock, Photoelectrons at Enceladus;
Wellbrock, A., A.J. Coates, G.H. Jones, J.H.
Waite, Photoelectrons at Titan near the
terminator;
Wellbrock, A., A.J. Coates, G.H. Jones, J.H.
Waite, Negative ion observations at Titan: Mass
spectra evolution and density profiles from T39T43.


Mark Cropper:

Talks on ‘VIS Progress Report’ and ‘Gaia
Synergy’ at EUCLID Consortium Meeting 2015,
SwissTech Convention Center, Switzerland, 812 June.

Massimiliano De Pasquale:

Talk at the 14th Marcel Grossmann Meeting,
University of Rome, Sapienza, 12-18 July.
Ignacio Ferreras:


Organized as a co-chair a symposium
‘Deconstructing Massive Galaxy Formation’ at
European Week of Astronomy and Space
Science (EWASS) 2015, La Laguna, Tenerife,
Spain, 22-26 June;
Gave an invited talk on ‘Outlook of early-type
galaxy evolution’ at the RAVET network
meeting, La Lagnua, Tenerife, 27 June.


Lucie Green:



Invited seminar at Imperial College;
Invited talk at joint Royal Society / British
Council meeting on science education.

Louise Harra:

Organised the ISSI solar/stellar meeting in May;

Geraint Jones, Will Dunn, Marianna Felici,
Leonardo Regoli attended Magnetospheres of the
Outer Planets 2015, Georgia Institute of
Technology, Atlanta, 1-5 June. Planetary Science
group were involved in several presentations:





Coates, A.J., A. Wellbrock, J.H. Waite and
G.H. Jones, An upper limit to the field-aligned
Potential near Titan;
Wellbrock, A., G.H. Jones, A.J. Coates, J. H.
Waite, Photoelectrons at Titan near the
terminator;
Wellbrock, A., A.J. Coates, G.H. Jones, J.H.
Waite. Negative ion observations at Titan;
Tokar, R.L., M.F.Thomsen, A.J.Coates,
F.J.Crary, T.W.Hill, R.E.Johnson, J.H.Waite
and R.J.Wilson, Extent and concentration of
fresh water group ions detected by CAPS near
Enceladus;
Hunt, G.J., S.W.H. Cowley, G. Provan, E.J.
Bunce, I.I. Alexeev, E.S. Belenkaya, V.V
Kalegaev, M.K. Dougherty, A.J. Coates, Fieldaligned currents in Saturn’s magnetosphere:
Relationship between sub-corotation and




7
planetary period oscillation currents;
Felici, M., C. Arridge, D. Reisenfeld, M.
Thomsen, A. Coates, Survey of the plasma
composition in Saturn's magnetotail;
Felici, M., C.S. Arridge, A.J. Coates, S.V.
Badman, M.K. Dougherty, C.M. Jackman, W.S.
Kurth, H. Melin, D.G. Mitchell, D.B. Reisenfeld,
and N. Sergis, Cassini observations of
ionospheric plasma in Saturn’s magnetotail
lobes;
Clark G., D. Santos-Costa, C. Paranicas, J.D.
Menietti, W.-L. Tseng, P. Kollmann, E.
Roussos, C.S. Arridge, J.A. Redfern, A.J.
Coates, D.G. Mitchell, J. Furman, S. Livi, A
mission averaged data analysis approach to
modeling the keV-energy electrons at Saturn;
Regoli, L.H., E. Roussos, M. Feyerabend, G.H.
Jones, N. Krupp, A.J. Coates, S. Simon, U.
Motschmann, M.K. Dougherty, Access of
energetic particles to Titan's exobase: a study
of Cassini's T9 flyby;
Jones, G.H., A.J. Coates, S. Ye, W.J. Kurth,
M.K. Dougherty, Hypervelocity dust impact
signatures detected by Cassini CAPS-ELS in
the Enceladus plume;
Jones, G.H. and the Cassini CAPS Team,
Directly-detected
electron
beams
near
Enceladus;
Dunn, W., G. Branduardi-Raymont1, A.J.
Coates, R. Elsner, M.F. Vogt, P.G. Ford, L.
Lamy, G.R. Gladstone, K.C. Hansen, J. D.
Nichols, Responses of Jupiter’s X-ray aurora to
a coronal mass ejection;
Arridge, C.S., J.P. Eastwood, C.M. Jackman,
G.-K. Poh, J.A. Slavin, M.F. Thomsen, N.
André, X. Jia, A. Kidder, L. Lamy, A. Radioti,
N. Sergis, M. Volwerk, A.P. Walsh, P. Zarka,
A.J. Coates, M.K. Dougherty, Cassini in situ
observations of a magnetic reconnection ion
diffusion region in Saturn’s magnetotail;
Arridge, C.S., S.V. Badman, A.J. Coates, M.K.
Dougherty, Saturn's outer auroral emission:
Origin and local time dependence from in situ
electron observations;
Jasinski, J.M., C.S. Arridge, A.J. Coates, M.K.
Dougherty, Saturn’s magnetospheric cusp as
observed by Cassini;
Pilkington, N.M., N. Achilleos, C.S. Arridge, P.
Guio, A. Masters, L.C. Ray, N. Sergis, M.F.
Thomsen, A.J. Coates, M.K. Dougherty,
Significant
asymmetries
in
Saturn’s
magnetosphere;
Hunt, G.J., S.W.H. Cowley, G. Provan, E.J.
Bunce, I.I. Alexeev, E.S. Belenkaya, V.V
Kalegaev, M.K. Dougherty, A.J. Coates, Fieldaligned currents in Saturn’s magnetosphere:
Relationship between sub-corotation and

planetary period oscillation currents.
Nadine Kalmoni:



Attended the Geospace Environment Modeling
workshop in Snowmass, Colorado, 14-19 June.
Nadine presented a poster titled ‘Statistical
characterisation of the growth and spatial
scales of the substorm onset arc’ and gave a
talk in the focus group called ' Testing proposed
links between mesoscale auroral and polar cap
dynamics and substorms ’ on quantitative
analysis of the aurora, with the title ‘The auroral
dispersion pattern’;
Attended the Van Allen Probes SWG at The
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics
Laboratory, Baltimore in July.


Jamie Ryan:
 Attended the IRIS4 meeting in Boulder, CO.
George Seabroke:
Tom Kitching:



Gave the Weak Lensing Plenary at EUCLID
Consortium
Meeting
2015,
SwissTech
Convention Center, Switzerland, 8/12 June;
Invited talk at the Accurate Astrophysics,
Correct Cosmology RAS Meeting, 13/16 July.
Led a discussion session ‘Milky Way modeling
and Galactic Archaeology’ at a workshop
‘Reconstructing the Milky Way's History:
Spectroscopic Surveys, Astroseismology and
Chemodynamical Models’, Physikzentrum, Bad
Honnef, Germany, 1/5 June.
Gherardo Valori:
 Seminar at Cambridge University (June 1) and
Dundee University (June 9).
Ellis Owen:


Gherardo Valori and Lidia van DrielGesztelyi:
 Attended the Lorentz conference on flares in
Leiden.
Attended the Advanced Workshop on
Cosmological Structures from Reionization to
Galaxies: Combining Efforts from Analytical and
Numerical Methods in Trieste, Italy, 12/15 May;
Gave a seminar on: ‘Ionizing the Universe: from
the first Star Light to Cosmic Rays’ at the MaxPlanck-Institut für Kernphysik in Heidelberg,
Germany, 13 July.
Robert Wicks:


David PerezSuarez:

Gave a talk on ‘Gaia's Radial Velocity
Spectrometer Performance’ at EWASS 2015,
La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain, 22/26 June;
Simon Thomas:
 Attended the International Cosmic Ray
Conference in The Hague, Netherlands, where
he presented two posters; ‘Galactic cosmic ray
modulation near the heliospheric current sheet’
and ‘NearEarth cosmic ray decreases
associated with remote coronal mass ejections’.
Daisuke Kawata:

‘The substorm onset arc: Diagnosing the
magnetotail instability from the ground’.(Jonny
Rae on behalf of Nadine Kalmoni);
‘Increases in plasma sheet temperature with
solar wind driving during substorm growth
phases’ (Colin Forsyth);
‘Examining the transfer of energy from the solar
wind to the magnetotail and its release during
substorms’ (Colin Forsyth on behalf of John
Coxon University of Southampton);
‘The influence of solar wind variability on
magnetospheric ULF wave power’ (Dimitry
Pokhotelov).
Talk at the 5th Spanish Solar Physics Meeting.
Jonny Rae, Colin Forsyth and Dimitry Pokhotelov
attended the IUGG General Assembly in Prague,
22 June/2 July and gave the following talks:
 ‘Determining the substorm onset instability
using ground and space based measurements’
(Jonny Rae);
Two talks describing the science and design of
the THOR mission in July at the SHINE
workshop in Stowe, Vermont, USA;
Visited NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in
July to collaborate in ongoing science projects
and set up the new THOR Turbulence Electron
Analyser (TEA) instrument collaboration
between MSSL and NASA GSFC instrument
scientists.
Dave Williams:
 Seminar at Lockheed Martin, Palo Alto (June
25).
Kinwah Wu:

8
Gave an invited talk on ‘Emission and high-

energy particles in jets, outflows and bubbles
in galaxies and beyond galaxies’ at a
conference ‘New Approach to Active Processes
in Central Regions of Galaxies’, International
Space Science Institute, Beijing, China, 1/5
June;
Gave 5 seminars at Nanjing University, Purple
Mountain Observatory, Institute of High-Energy
Physics and National Astronomical Observatory
of China (x2) on 4 different topics.

Talk ‘From mission concept to launch’ at the
Work Experience Week held at MSSL 14 July;

Talk on ‘Space Astronomy and the Exotic
Universe’ at the London International Youth
Science Forum, 31 July.
Chris Brockley-Blatt:

Stephanie Yardley:
 Gave a talk at the 3rd SOLARNET Workshop in
Granada, Spain.
Silvia Zane:

Gave an invited talk on magnetar’s theory at
14th Marcel Grossmann Meeting, University of
Rome ‘a Sapienza, 12/18 July.

Andrew Coates, Craig Leff and Geraint Jones
attended the 4th UK in Aurora programme
meeting, Geological Society, 15 May:

Coates, A.J., A.D. Griffiths, C.E. Leff, R.
Jaumann, N. Schmitz, J.-L. Josset, G. Paar,
M.Gunn, C.R. Cousins and the PanCam team,
The PanCam instrument for the ExoMars 2018
rover: science objectives and instrument
characteristics, presented at 4th UK in Aurora
programme meeting, Geological Society 15
May.

Outreach
Kim Birkett:
 Talk at South Downs Astronomy Society 1 May:
Rosetta;
 UCL Junior Masterclass 28 May: Can you
escape the solar system?;
 Ogden Trust Physics Forum panel member 13
July : The Battle for Physicists;
 Talk at Southern Area Group of Astronomy
Societies 18 July: Rosetta;
 Explore UCL Year 11 Summer School 20
 /21 July: Comets and Rosetta;
 Year 10 Debating Summer School 29 July: The
Next Step for Mankind.

Graziella Branduardi-Raymont:

Talk on ‘Astronomy from Space’ at the Careers
Fair at Richard Collyer’s College, Horsham, 26
June;
Talk and QandA session for the pupils of Year
5 at her son's school, Sompting Village
Primary school, about the roles of engineers
and
about
space
science;
Year 5 are currently studying the biographies
of famous scientists and engineers and invited
the Brockleys for interviews so they could write
up their own reports;
Raised money to buy Year 5 12
Raspberry Pis, cables, keyboards, electronics
kits and books, so that the school has better
equipment in order to teach the new national
curriculum
on computer science
and
electronics. The raspberry pis are small cardlike computers which have a linux based OS
and
help
teach
children
about
the
programming languages Scratch and Python.
Teachers will now have more choice in how to
plan their lessons and will help towards their
own training and development;
A cake sale was held at MSSL and raised
£132, enough to buy two complete kits and text
books. So far, the family, through help of
family, friends and colleagues have bought the
school eight sets of Pis, keyboards, mice,
cables, dongles and monitors between the two
classes, as well as four textbooks and two
sets of electronic experiment boards to go with
them. Nicola and Sarah, the two Year 5
teachers, are using them in their lessons. All
the children have to write a report of their year
as part of their school report; One little boy
has written. ‘This year was the funest year at
school. The best bit was the raspberry pis and
Mr and Mrs Brockley coming in.’ The Pis are
making a difference already. The kids are
doing experiments and have taken to them
more than Chris, Brock, Sarah and Nicola
could have dreamed of. Thank you to everyone
who helped and contributed to the cake sale,
especially Sue Ford, Gill Watson, Julia
Gaudelli and Lyn Gilbert;
Visited Steyning Grammar School in Steyning
to give the sixth form a talk on engineering in
the space industry, highlighting Solar Orbiter. It
was well received and 60 six formers were
in attendance.
Andrew Coates:
9




which is now publicly available on Gaia’s
outreach
portal,
Gaiaverse:
http://gaiaverse.eu/fre_news/gaia-workshopbringing-stellar-exploration-closer-to-students/.
Talk on Saturn, Titan and Enceladus: recent
results from Cassini, at U3A Guildford Science
group, 12 May;
Talk ‘Rosetta and Philae – unlocking the
secrets of comets’ at Croydon Natural History
and Scientific Society 10 June;
Assembly for year 7-10 at Duke of Kent School,
Ewhurst, Surrey on Mars Exploration and the
ExoMars mission 12 June;
Introduction to MSSL – London International
Youth Science Forum (LIYSF) visit 28 July.
Robert Wicks:

Talk in June to the Institute of Physics in the
UCL Harrie Massie Lecture Theatre titled
‘Sounds of the Solar System’, exploring many
solar, space and atmospheric physics effects
throughout the solar system through the
medium of sound.
Will Dunn:
Megan Whewell:


Organised a work experience week for 6th
formers during July. The young people worked
on group projects throughout the week and
presented them to staff in a Q and A session.
Nearly 30 MSSL staff, and every research
group, was involved.
Dave Williams:
 Took part in the Wellcome Trust’s festival ‘On
Light’ on 2 May at UCL, describing the Sun
and the work that MSSL Engineers did to allow
us to see it in ultraviolet light.
Colin Forsyth:


Talk in June on the aurora to the Cam And
Dursley Astronomy Club (CADAC) entitled
‘The greatest light show on Earth;
Participated in the first ‘Concept Album Talks’,
hosted by Houston PR. Each talk was based
on a track title from Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of
the Moon and lasted for the length of the track.
Colin talked about the aurora under the title
‘The great gig in the sky’.
Stephanie Yardley:
 Space weather lecture and workshop as part of
the work experience week held at MSSL;
 Talk and a workshop on exoplanets as part of
the London International Youth Science Forum
visit to MSSL.
Lucie Green:
 Spoke at the public event at the Royal
Observatory to mark the launch of Simon
Barraclough’s new book of poetry inspired by
the Sun;
 Attended the Cheltenham Science Festival to
talk about historical moments in space science,
latest missions and results and presenting on
the BBC’s Sky at Night and Stargazing Live!
Members of the Plasma Group were involved with
this year’s MSSL Work Experience Week:


Louise Harra:

Talk in May at Orpington Astronomical Society
on the mysteries of the solar cycle.
Simon Thomas and Georgina Graham gave
the morning workshop on Space Plasma
Physics, focusing in particular on the
Sun/Earth connection, CMEs and geomagnetic
storms;
Simon and Kirthika Mohan also supervised
work experience students during their mission
planning challenge.
Press releases
Graziella Branduardi-Raymont:
Sarah Matthews:
 Ran three sessions on ‘A day in the life of a
space scientist’ at St Peter’s School in
Guildford.

SMILE space mission passes first hurdle, 4
June,
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/mssl/news/msslnews/news-q2-2015/smile;
Planetary Group:
 UCL MAPS and MSSL press releases on GRL
paper on Titan polar wind, June.
.
George Seabroke:

Performed at Science Showoff, part of the
Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition.
https://royalsociety.org/events/2015/06/science
-showoff/.
Contributed to MSSL’s Work Experience
Week, Gaia presentation and Gaia workshop,
10
Silvia Zane:

Cassini, JUICE, Rosetta), 23 June.
Magnetar near supermassive black hole
delivers
surprises,
NASA
Chandra,
http://chandra.si.edu/photo/2015/sgr1745/
Silvia Zane and Kinwah Wu:

MSSL involved in new NASA proposals, MSSL
News,
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/mssl/news/msslnews/news-q3-2015/nasa-smex-2015

BBC Horizon filmed at the lab on 15 June, for a
documentary on Dark Energy;

The Solar Orbiter SWA EAS sensor was
exhibited by Andrew Coates during the BBC's
'Sky at Night' program on May 10. Although the
program concentrated on results from the
Venus Express mission, it was recorded at
UCL/MSSL and featured some of the wider
aspects of MSSL's activities.
Media Broadcasts and Features
Other News
Andrew Coates:
 Interviews for UK Space Agency/Imperative
Space Aurora outreach film, 27 March
(Shropshire), 10 April (MSSL), 15 May (RAS)
on ExoMars PanCam, 2015;
 Interview on Venus Express results for Sky at
Night (filmed at MSSL, included ExoMars
hardware also), 24 April. First transmitted on
BBC4 10 May;
 Interview on Al Jazeera on Mercury, Pluto and
solar system exploration, 30 April.
 Info for the Sunday Times on Pluto, 28 April;
 Info for Guardian on methane, life and
ExoMars;
 UCL MAPS press release on GRL paper on
Titan polar wind, featured by Mail online,
Huffington
Post,
Vice
motherboard,
space.com, phys.org and others, 18-21 June
2015;
 Interview for BBC News online on Pluto, 9 July;
 Article for ‘The Conversation’ on New Horizons
Fly-by missions: what is the point when we
have the technology to go into orbit? (included
New Horizons, ExoMars, Giotto, Cassini), 14
July;
 Info for the Guardian on New Horizons Pluto
encounter (used online), 15 July;
 Interview on Pluto/New Horizons and Rosetta,
for BBC World Service Newshour, 16 July;
 Interview (quoted on Giotto, included CassiniHuygens, Rosetta, ExoMars) for BBC News
online on 5 favourite planetary missions, 30
July;
 Interview for Naked Scientists on Philae
results, mentioned ExoMars and JUICE, 29
July 2015 (used BBC Radio 5 1 August, BBC
East 2 August;
 Interview on Indian and international space
programmes
for
Maclean’s
magazine
(Canada), 16 July;
 Interview for BBC Horizon documentary on life
in the solar system (included ExoMars,

Ravindra Desai was awarded a Vela fellowship
to attend the Los Alamos Space Weather
Summer School. He completed a research
project with a Los Alamos scientist as a mentor
with whom he has an ongoing collaboration;

Ravindra Desai attended the GEM conference
in Aspen, Colorado;

Nadine Kalmoni was part of the Los Alamos
Space Weather Summer School, 1 June/24
July, funded by the Vela Fellowship. Working
with Mike Henderson on substorm injections:
observations and models of dispersion patterns
using data from RBSP (HOPE, MagEIS, REPT)
and LANL (MPA, SOPA) to identify the
azimuthal and radial extent of the injection
region;

Nadine Kalmoni had a USRA-funded placement
at NASA GSFC where she collaborated with
Kyle Murphy and David Sibeck on substorm
injections, 27 July/27 August;

Roberto Mignani, who spent eight years at
MSSL as a PDRA, has been made a university
professor by the President of Poland;

Dave Williams spent a month working with the
IRIS team at Lockheed Martin, Palo Alto.
Next Issue
The next issue of The Newsletter (Volume 12,
Issue 4) will be published in January 2016. This will
cover activities from 1 August to 30 October 2015.
11