UCL – DEPARTMENT OF SPACE AND CLIMATE PHYSICS
MULLARD SPACE SCIENCE LABORATORY
The Newsletter - Volume 11, Issue 4
13 January 2015
Covers events between 1 August and 31 October 2014
Contents
New staff .................................................................................................................................................................1
Departing staff .......................................................................................................................................................2
Visitors ....................................................................................................................................................................2
Prizes and Awards .................................................................................................................................................2
Appointments .........................................................................................................................................................3
Grants and Contracts ............................................................................................................................................3
Telescope/Satellite Time Awards .........................................................................................................................3
Mission Status and Developments ......................................................................................................................3
Publications – Refereed ........................................................................................................................................4
Papers in press ......................................................................................................................................................5
Invited Talks and Conferences .............................................................................................................................6
Outreach .................................................................................................................................................................8
Media Broadcasts and Features ..........................................................................................................................9
Proposals submitted .............................................................................................................................................3
Social Club .............................................................................................................................................................9
Next Issue ...............................................................................................................................................................9
New staff
Thirteen new PhD students have joined MSSL (their
supervisors are shown in brackets):
 Astrophysics Group: Jennifer Chan (Jason
McEwen), Denis Gonzalez Caniulef (Silvia
Zane) and Ellis Owen (Kinwah Wu);
 Climate Extremes Group: Monica Tress Barojas
(Mark Saunders);
 Image Processing Group: SiTing Xiong and
Lang Feng (Peter Muller);
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Planetary Science Group: Sam Taylor (Andrew
Coates)
and
Ravi
Desai
(Andrew
Coates/Dhiren Kataria);
Plasma Physics Group: Georgina Graham
(Jonny Rae);
Solar Physics Group: Sally Dacie will work
jointly between the Solar and Climate groups
(Lidia van Driel-Gesztelyi and Mark Saunders);
and Jamie Ryan (Sarah Matthews);
Technology Management Group: Zakaria Tsiga
and Mesh Bolutiwi (Michael Emes).
Johnstone Award - for Outstanding
Scientific Achievement by a Research
Student. Jack is a 3rd year PhD student
with the Solar Physics Group who also
works at the Max Planck Institute for Solar
System Research in Germany. His work
focuses on an unusually large Coronal
Mass Ejection which occurred in June
2011, and he uses both observational
techniques and theoretical models to
investigate the erupted plasma. He has
authored three articles in peer-reviewed
journals in the last year and a further three
conference proceedings, and has given
both contributed talks and invited seminars
in countries around the world;
- Deborah Baker was awarded the Robert
Boyd Award for Outstanding Scientific
Achievement. Deb is a PDRA in the Solar
Physics Group. Her current work is
focused on research into the origin of the
slow solar wind;
- Philip Smith was awarded the John
Raymont
Award
for
Outstanding
Commitment to MSSL's Technology
Programme. Phil is a Software Engineer
who started at MSSL in 1990, around the
launch of the ROSAT X-ray satellite, for
which he helped with the data analysis. He
helped write, test and support the software
for XMM-Newton OM (Optical Monitor) and
Swift
UVOT
(Ultra-Violet
Optical
Telescope) and was the instrument
specialist for both. He is currently the
Software Systems Engineer for Solar
Orbiter EUI (Extreme Ultraviolet Imager),
designing and writing the software for an
electronics box that will automatically
control three cameras that will image the
Sun and return the data;
Departing staff
The Astrophysics Group wish all the best to
those who have left the group and started
elsewhere:
David
Barnes
(PDRA
at
Manchester), Robert Grand (PhD awarded in
July, PDRA at Heidelberg Institute of
Theoretical Studies, Germany), Richelle
Grisdale (Teaching, Guildford), Jason Rawlings
(Software, Bishop’s Stortford), Max de
Pasquale (PDRA at Palermo. Itary), Curtis
Saxton (PDRA, Technion, Israel), Ziri Younsi
(Institute of Theoretical Physics, Frankfurt).
Visitors
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Pierfrancesco Conte (INAF-IASF Milano)
visited the Astrophysics Group for two
months (Aug and Sept) and worked with
Silvia Zane;
Nobuharu Sako visited the Solar Group
from Sokendai, Japan from 1-23 Sept;
Martin Laming visited the Solar Group from
NRL from 15-18 Sept;
Hanna Dahlgren and Betty Lanchester
University
of
Southampton.
Hanna
Dahlgren gave a seminar entitled ‘Energy
and flux characteristics of dynamic fine
scale aurora’;
Iain Mann from University of Alberta gave
a seminar entitled ‘The Impacts Ultra Low
Frequency Waves on the Dynamics of the
Earth’s Van Allen Belts’;
David Miles from University of Alberta.
gave a seminar entitled ‘Next Generation
Fluxgate Magnetometry at the University of
Alberta’;
Andrew Walsh, ESAC, gave a seminar
entitled ‘Automatic Georeferencing of
Astronaut Auroral Photography: Providing
A New Dataset for Space Physics’.
Prizes and Awards
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Louise Harra was awarded the Sir Arthur
Clarke award in Space Achievement
(Academic Study/Research);
Lucie Green was awarded the Sir Arthur
Clarke award in Space Achievement
(Education & Outreach);
Staff and students gathered to celebrate
achievements at the annual MSSL Awards
Ceremony on 20 November. This event
recognises the achievements of staff and
students across the range of activities
undertaken by MSSL:
- Jack Carlyle was awarded the Alan
Philip Smith receiving The John Raymont
Award
2
- George Seabroke was awarded the Elizabeth
Puchnarewicz
Award
for
Outstanding
Contribution to Public Outreach. George is an
astronomer in the MSSL Astrophysics Group.
He is MSSL’s Gaia Data Flow Scientist and is
working with members of MSSL’s Software
Engineering Group to develop the on-ground
data processing pipeline for Gaia’s Radial
Velocity Spectrometer (RVS).
Following
Gaia’s successful launch in December 2013,
George’s outreach activities have included:
staffing the Gaia stand at the Royal Society
Summer Science Exhibition (RSSSE), the
British Science Festival and the MSSL Open
Day; giving talks at the Gaia Live in Schools
event, the National Continued Professional
Development event “Space as a Context for
Teaching Science” and the MSSL Open Day;
and writing an ESA Gaia blog about
commissioning RVS and a MSSL Astro blog
about the Gaia stand at the RSSSE;
Appointments
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Louise Harra has been appointed to the
Armagh
Observatory
and
Planetarium
management committee;
Sarah Matthews has been appointed to the
review panel of the Research Council for
Natural Sciences and Engineering at the
Academy of Finland.
Grants and Contracts
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Jason McEwen and colleagues were awarded
£2 million over three years from EPSRC and
STFC to develop a new generation of imaging
techniques for the Square Kilometer Array
(SKA). Jason was also awarded an EPSRC
First Grant to develop informatics techniques
to
extract
scientific
information
from
observational data, particularly data acquired
on the sphere, such as observations made by
ESA’s Planck and Euclid satellites;
NERC Environmental Risks: Space Weather
Impacts on Water Sector Infrastructure
(Jonathan Rae, Colin Forsyth working with
Atkins Global).
Proposals submitted
Lucie Green - ESA ITT on space weather monitor
mission study (led by Airbus DS).
Telescope/Satellite Time Awards

George Seabrook
Puchnarwicz Award
receiving
the
Ignacio Ferreras and colleagues (the Arizona
State University group) were awarded 160
orbits with HST/WFC (Cycle 22) for FIGS: The
Faint IR Grism Survey.
Elizabeth
- Howard Huckle was awarded The Director's
Award. Howard is a Software Systems
Engineer, joining MSSL in 1973. Since then he
has been involved in many satellite projects,
working in areas from ground data handling
and analysis systems through on-board control
code. He was responsible for the overall
software design for the Instrument Control
Units of the UV-Optical Telescopes for both
NASA's Swift Gamma Ray Burst and ESA's
XMM-Newton missions. He is currently working
on the Gaia project as MSSL's coordinator for
its contributions to the Gaia Data Centre
software for the Radial Velocity Spectrometer
(RVS).
Howard Huckle receiving The Director’s Award
3
team authored documents and coordinated the
submission of the CDR data pack. The team
presented the status of the program at the SWA
CDR kickoff meeting at ESTEC (29 Aug) and
subsequently received around 200 requests for
clarification which were discussed at the colocation
meeting, again at ESTEC (30Sept/1 Oct). Around
70 action items were eventually agreed. In the
margins of this activity, a further meeting of the
EMC working group occurred, and a wrap-up
meeting to discuss the way forward following the
testing of the boom instruments in Berlin in July
was held at Imperial College (11 Sept). The first
Solar Orbiter Summer School (15-20 Sept) was
held in L'Aquila, Italy, with four students from
MSSL in attendance. This was followed by a SWT.
Chris Owen represented the MSSL SWA team at
both. A perceived crisis in the overall schedule for
the mission has resulted in a new PI action group
being formed which has already resulted in
arrangements of meetings with the ESA Project
Manager and Director of Science in December.
The status of the mission will be reviewed by the
February SPC meeting.
Mission Status and Developments
XMM-Newton - The end of Sept marked the end of
funding for XMM post-launch support.
MSSL has
been supporting the XMM-OM for almost 15 years
post launch; a large body of the software used for
XMM
analysis
and
calibration
of
the
instrument.
Congratulations, Alice Breeveld and
Vladimir Yershov, for their long and dedicated
service!
Also Phil Smith for his continuous help for
technical queries on XMM-OM.
MSSL will
continue supporting XMM on a best-efforts basis,
and remain the PI institute for the OM.
Gaia - After commissioning, Gaia’s nominal
mission started on 25 July. In the period Aug to
Oct, the MSSL Gaia team have been processing
Radial Velocity Spectrometer spectra from this
nominal mission period to test the on-ground
spectroscopic processing pipeline and optimise our
algorithms. Stars that have already had their radial
velocities accurately measured from the ground
are used to benchmark the radial velocities derived
by the pipeline. In Oct, the radial velocity accuracy
was already around 1 km/s for bright stars (V <
11). Many optimisations have been identified and
are being implemented to further improve the
results.
Publications – Refereed
Published
Attrill, G. D. R., Long, D. M., Green, L. M., Harra, L.
K., van Driel-Gesztelyi, L.Badawi O, Brennan T,
Celi LA, Feng M, Ghassemi M, Ippolito A,
Johnson A, Mark RG, Mayaud L, Moody G,
Moses C, Naumann T, Pimentel M, Pollard TJ,
Santos M, Stone DJ, Zimolzak A (all authors
contributed equally). Making Big Data Useful for
Health Care: A Summary of the Inaugural MIT
Critical Data Conference. JMIR Med Inform
2014;2(2):e22. DOI: 10.2196/medinform.3447.
Culhane, J.L., Brooks, D., van Driel-Gesztelyi, L.,
Démoulin, P., Baker, D., DeRosa, M.L.,
Mandrini, C.H., Zhao, L., Zurbuchen, T. H.
(2014) Tracking Solar Active Region Outflow
Plasma from its Source to the near-Earth
Environment. Solar Phys, 289, 3799-3816. doi:
10.1007/s11207-014-0551-5.
Ermolli, I., Shibasaki, K., Tlatov, A., VAN DRIELGESZTELYI, L., (2014) Solar cycle indices from
the photosphere to the corona: measurements
and underlying physics. Space Sci. Rev., doi:
10.1007/s11214-014-0089-8.
Ferreras, I. et al., Constraints on the merging
channel of massive galaxies since z~1, Mon.
Not. R. Astron. Soc., 444, 906, doi:
10.1093/mnras/stu1425.
Harra, L., Baker, D., Edwards, S.J.,Hara, H., R.
Howe, van Driel-Gesztelyi, L., A Study of the
Coronal Non-Thermal Velocity in Polar Regions
During the Rise from Solar Minimum to Solar
Athena - A Statement of Intent from a number of
UK institutions, including MSSL, for hardware and
ground-segment participation in the ESA Athena Xray Observatory was submitted to the UKSA and
STFC on 20 Oct, and at their request an updated
version was re-submitted on 27 Nov.
Solar - C - will be submitted to ESA M4.
ExoMars - Development continuing. Andrew
Coates and Craig Leff attended a UKSA EXOC
meeting (London) on 26 Sept. Craig also attended
a kickoff meeting for ExoMars system PDR
(ESTEC).
JUICE - Development continuing. Andrew Coates
& Dhiren Kataria attended a PEP meeting in
Noordwijk, 9 Oct.
Cassini, Mars Express, Venus Express and
Rosetta - Science exploitation continuing
Cluster - Andrew Fazakerley and Chandrasekhar
Anekallu attended the Cluster Active Archive Cross
Calibration meeting at MPS in Germany (15-17
Oct). Andrew and Chandrasekhar both gave
presentations.
Solar Orbiter - This period was dominated by
activities surrounding the SWA CDR. The MSSL
4
Maximum in Cycle 2, accepted to Solar
Physics, Nov 2014.
Harra, L., Looking closer at the Sun Science 17
October 2014: 305-306.
[DOI:10.1126/science.1260828].
Hernán-Caballero, A., Ferreras, I. et al., Higher
prevalence of X-ray selected AGN in
intermediate-age galaxies up to z~1, Mon. Not.
R. Astron. Soc., 443, 3538, doi:
10.1093/mnras/stu1413.
Kaastra, J.S., Branduardi-Raymont, G.,…,
Mehdipour, M. et al., Multiwavelength campaign
on Mrk 509 XIV. Chandra HETGS spectra,
Astron. & Astrophys., 570, A53, doi:
10.1051/0004-6361/201424662.
La Barbera, F., Pasquali, A., Ferreras, I. et al.,
SPIDER - X. Environmental effects in central
and satellite early-type galaxies through the
stellar fossil record, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc.,
445, 1977, doi: 10.1093/mnras/stu1626.
Lilensten, J., A.J. Coates, V. Dehant T. Dudok de
Wit, R.B. Horne, F. Leblanc, J. Luhmann, E.
Woodfield, M. Barthélémy, What characterizes
planetary space weather?, Astronomy &
Astrophysics Reviews, 22:79,
doi:10.1007/s00159-014-0079-6, November
2014.
Mandrini, C. H.; Nuevo, F. A.; Vásquez, A. M.;
Démoulin, P.; van Driel-Gesztelyi, L.; Baker, D.;
Culhane, J. L.; Cristiani, G. D.; Pick, M., (2014).
How Can Active Region Plasma Escape into
the Solar Wind from Below a Closed Helmet
Streamer?. Solar Phys, 289, 4151, doi:
10.1007/s11207-014-0582-y.
Mignani, R. P., Corongiu, A., Pallanca, C.,
Oates, S. R., Yershov, V. N., Breeveld, A. A.,
Page, M. J.et al., Binary pulsars studies with
multiwavelength sky surveys - I. Companion
star identification, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc.,
443, 2223,doi: 10.1093/mnras/stu1300.
Nordheim, T.A., G.H. Jones, E. Roussos, J.S.
Leisner, A.J. Coates, W.S. Kurth, K.K. Khurana,
N. Krupp, M.K. Dougherty, J.H. Waite,
Detection of a strongly negative surface
potential at Saturn’s moon Hyperion, Geophys.
Res. Lett., DOI: 10.1002/2014GL061127, Article
first published online: 16 Oct 2014,
Nordheim, T.A., L.R. Dartnell, L. Desorgher,
A.J. Coates. G.H. Jones, Ionization of the
Venusian atmosphere from Solar and Galactic
Cosmic Rays, Icarus, 245, 80-86,
10.1016/j.icarus.2014.09.032, Jan 2015.
Ozeke, L. G., Mann, I. R., Turner, D. L., Murphy, K.
R., Degeling, A. W., Rae, I. J., & Milling,
D. K. (2014). Modeling cross L shell impacts of
magnetopause shadowing and ULF wave
radial diffusion in the Van Allen belts.
Geophysical Research Letters, n/a.
doi:10.1002/2014GL060787.
Pevtsov, A.A., Berger, M., Nindos, A., Norton, A.A.,
VAN DRIEL-GESZTELYI, L. (2014), Magnetic
helicity, tilt, and twist. Space Sci. Rev., doi:
10.1007/s11214-014-0082-2.
Pfill, T., Seabroke, G. et al., Constraining the
Galaxy's dark halo with RAVE stars, Mon. Not.
R. Astron., 445, 3133, doi:
10.1093/mnras/stu1948.
Yershov, V.N., Possible signature of distant
foreground in the Planck data, Mon. Not. R.
Astron. Soc., 445, 2440, doi:
10.1093/mnras/stu1932.
Sharma, S., …, Seabroke, G.M. et al., Kinematic
Modeling of the Milky Way Using the RAVE and
GCS Stellar Surveys, Astrophys. J., 793, 51,
doi: 10.1088/0004-637X/793/1/51.
Soobiah, Y., J.A. Wild, M.J. Beharrel, S. Barabash,
R.J Lillis, D.L Mitchell, A.J. Coates, J.D.
Winningham, R.A Frahm, Properties of a largescale flux rope and current sheet region on the
dayside of Mars: MGS MAG/ER and MEX
ASPERA-3 ELS observations, Icarus, 242, 297315, 10.1016/j.icarus.2014.08.019, Nov 2014.
Symeonidis, M., Oates, S. R., de Pasquale, M.,
Page, M. J. et al., Herschel/PACS observations
of the host galaxy of GRB 031203, Mon. Not. R.
Astron. Soc., 443, L124, doi:
10.1093/mnrasl/slu090.
Symeonidis, M., Georgakakis, A., Page, M.J. et al.,
Linking the X-ray and infrared properties of starforming galaxies at z < 1.5, Mon. Not. R.
Astron. Soc., 443, 3728, doi:
10.1093/mnras/stu1441.
Wang, L., …, Page, M.J. et al., HerMES: point
source catalogues from Herschel-SPIRE
observations II, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc., 444,
2870, doi: 10.1093/mnras/stu1569.
Yao, Z. H., et al. (2014), Current reduction in a
pseudobreakup event: THEMIS observations,
J. Geophys. Res. Space Physics, 119, 8178–
8187, doi:10.1002/2014JA020186.
Papers in press
Bartlett J, Hardy G, Hepburn I. D, Design and
performance of a fast thermal response
miniature Chromium Potassium Alum (CPA)
salt pill for use in a millikelvin cryocooler,
Cryogenics, Oct 2014. doi:
10.1016/j.cryogenics.2014.11.004.
G. Valori · P. Romano · A. Malanushenko · I.
Ermolli · F. Giorgi · K. Steed · L. van DrielGesztelyi · F. Zuccarello · J.-M. Malherbe.
Time Evolution of Force-Free Parameter and Free
Magnetic Energy in Active Region NOAA
10365, Sol.Phys. 2015, in press.
Arridge, C.S., N. Achilleos, J. Agarwal, C.B. Agnor,
R. Ambrosi, N. André, S.V. Badman, K. Baines,
5
D. Banfield, M. Barthélémy, M. Bisi, J. Blum, T.
Bocanegra-Bahamon, B. Bonfond, C. Bracken,
P. Brandt, C. Briand, C. Briois, S. Brooks, J.
Castillo-Rogez, T. Cavalié, B. Christophe, A.J.
Coates. G. Collinson, J.F. Cooper, M. CostaSitja, R. Courtin, A. Daglis, I. de Pater, M.
Desai, D. Dirkx, M.K. Dougherty, R. Ebert, G.
Filacchione, L.N. Fletcher, J. Fortney, M.
Galand, I. Gerth, D. Grassi, D. Grodent, E.
Grün, J. Gustin, M. Hedman, R. Helled, P.
Henri, S. Hess, J.K. Hillier, M. Hofstadter, R.
Holme, M. Horányi, G. Hospodarsky, S. Hsu, P.
Irwin, C.M. Jackman, O. Karatekin, S. Kempf,
E. Khalisi, K. Konstantinidis, H. Krüger, W.S.
Kurth, C. Labrianidis, V. Lainey, L.L. Lamy, M.
Laneuville, D. Lucchesi, A. Luntzer, J.
MacArthur, A. Maier, A. Masters, S. McKennaLawlor, H. Melin, A. Milillo, G. MoragasKlostermeyer, A. Morschhauser, J. Moses, O.
Mousis, N. Nettelmann, F.M. Neubauer, T.
Nordheim, B. Noyelles, G. Orton, M. Owens, R.
Peron, F. Postberg, N. Rambaux, K. Retherford,
S. Reynaud, E. Roussos, C.T. Russell, A.M.
Rymer, R. Sallantin, A. Sánchez-Lavega, O.
Santolik, J. Saur, K. Sayanagi, P. Schenk, J.
Schubert, N. Sergis, E. Sittler, A. Smith, F.
Spahn, R. Srama, T. Stallard, V. Sterken, Z.
Sternovsky, M. Tiscareno, G. Tobie, F. Tosi, M.
Trieloff, D. Turrini, E.P. Turtle, S. Vinatier, R.
Wilson, P. Zarka, The science case for an
orbital mission to Uranus: Exploring the origins
and evolution of ice giant planets, Planet.
Space Sci., in press, Aug 2014.
Garnier, P., M.K.G. Holmberg, J.-E. Wahlund, G.R.
Lewis, P. Schippers, A. Coates, D.A. Gurnett,
J.H. Waite, I. Dandouras, Deriving the
characteristics of warm electrons (100 − 500
eV) in the magnetosphere of Saturn with the
Cassini Langmuir probe. Planetary and Space
Science, in press, Sep 2014.
Hunt, G.J., S.W.H. Cowley, G. Provan, E.J. Bunce,
I.I. Alexeev, E.S. Belenkaya, V.V. Kalegaev,
M.K. Dougherty, and A.J. Coates, Field-aligned
currents in Saturn’s southern nightside
magnetosphere: Sub-corotation and planetary
period oscillation components, J. Geophys.
Res., in press, Nov 2014.
Vigren, E., M. Galand, R. V. Yelle, A. Wellbrock,
A.J. Coates, D. Snowden, J. Cui, P. Lavvas,
N.J.T. Edberg, O. Shebanits, J.-E. Wahlund, V.
Vuitton, K. Mandt, Ionization balance in Titan’s
darkside ionosphere, in press, Nov 2014.
Romanelli, N., R. Modolo, E. Dubinin, J.-J.
Berthelier, C. Bertucci, J.E. Wahlund, F.
Leblanc, P. Canu, N.J.T. Edberg, H. Waite,
W.S. Kurth, D. Gurnett, A. Coates and M.
Dougherty, Outflow and plasma acceleration in
Titan's induced magnetotail: Evidence of
magnetic tension forces, J. Geophys. Res., in
press, Nov 2014.
Van de Kamp, M., D. Pokhotelov and K. Kauristie,
TID characterised using joint effort of incoherent
scatter radar and GPS, Ann. Geophys., 32,
doi:10.5194/angeo3212014.
Invited Talks and Conferences
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6
Graziella Branduardi-Raymont gave a talk in
Copenhagen on 24 Sept to present the
concept mission 'AXIOM-Jian: Advanced X-ray
Imaging Of the Magnetosphere' to a meeting
organised by ESA and the Chinese Academy
of Science. She also talked on 'Athena X-IFU
and the solar system' at the Athena X-IFU
Consortium meeting in Frascati, 28-30 Oct;
Jason McEwen gave the following three invited
talks. ‘Radio interferometric imaging with
compressive sensing”
at Inverse Problems
from Theory of Application (Bristol). ‘Sparsity in
astrophysics: astrostatistics meets
astroinformatics’ at Royal Statistical Society
International conference (Sheffield) and ‘Spin
scale-discretised wavelets on the sphere for
the analysis of CMB polarisation’ at Sparsity
and Cosmology (Nice, France);
Ignacio Ferreras gave an invited talk at
Spanish Astronomical Society biannual
meeting in Teruel, and gave an invited talk
‘gravitational lensing constraints on the IMF’ at
the University of Zurich;
Jason Hunt gave a talk ‘Made-to-measure
models’ at Gaia Challenge 2014, Heidleberg,
Germany, 27-31 Oct;
Daisuke Kawata gave an invited talk ‘Spiral
Arms in Numerical Simulations of Disc
Galaxies’ at Strasbourg, France on 10 Oct,
and coordinate the Disc working group at Gaia
Challenge 2014, Heidelberg, Germany, 27-31
Oct;
Gherardo Valori visited Meudon Observatory
for a collaborative visit;
Dave Williams taught for two days at the 2nd
Solarnet summer school in Tantranksá
Lomnica, Slovakia (8-9 Oct);
Jack Carlyle gave a contributed talk “Probing
the density and magnetic fields of erupted
solar filament plasma” at the 14th European
Solar Physics Meeting in Dublin;
Lidia van Driel-Gesztelyi gave an invited
review talk “Coronal mass ejections: Build-up,
evolution, and effects” at the 14th European
Solar Physics Meeting in Dublin;
Len Culhane gave a contributed talk ‘Active
region upflow plasma and its possible
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contribution to the slow Solar Wind’at the 14th
European Solar Physics Meeting in Dublin;
Louise Harra gave a seminar at NASA MSFC,
Oct -‘Rain and wind from the Sun’;
Louise Harra gave a seminar at Armagh
Observatory, Nov - ‘Activity from the Sun’;
David Long visited the Met Office and gave an
invited seminar;
David Long and Stephanie Yardley gave
contributed talks at the 7th Solar Information
Processing Workshop in La Roche-enArdennes, Belgium from 18-22 Aug;
Lucie Green gave a talk at the STFC
Advanced Summer School in Dundee;
Lucie Green gave a talk at the opening of the
Met Office Space Weather Operations Centre;
Deb Baker gave seminars at St Andrews and
Dundee, Aug - ‘Revisiting Plasma
Composition in the Hinode Era;’
Dave Williams participated in the second ISSI
International Team meeting on ‘NonEquilibrium Processes in the Solar Corona and
their Connection to the Solar Wind’.
Cassini CAPS Electron Spectrometer (ELS)';.
- Wellbrock, A., A.J. Coates, and G.H. Jones,
‘Titan's photoelectron energy peaks: A
statistical overview and comparison to Mars
and Venus’;
- Regoli, L., M. Feyerabend, A. Kotova, E.
Roussos, G. Jones, N. Krupp, and A. Coates,
‘Mapping the flow of energetic particles in
Titan's exobase’;
- Dunn, W.,G. Branduardi-Raymont, A. Coates,
and R. Elsner, ‘X-ray Emission from Jupiter's
Aurora - Chandra Observations in 2011: CME
and/or Io Connection?’;
- Sagnières, L.B.M., M. Galand, J. Cui, P.P.
Lavvas, E. Vigren, V. Vuitton, R.V. Yelle, A.
Wellbrock, and A.J. Coates, ‘Influence of the
local ionization sources on ionospheric
densities in Titan's upper atmosphere’;
- Shebanits, O., J.-E. Wahlund, N.J.T. Edberg,
A. Wellbrock, A.J. Coates, F. Crary, and D.
Andrews, ‘Negative ion and dust grain charge
in Titan's ionosphere: multi-instrument case
study’;
- Barnes, D., J-L. Josset, A. Coates, C.
Cousins, C. Cockell, M. Gunn, R. Cross, D.
Langstaff, A. Griffiths, M. Josset, A. Souchon,
A. Verhaeghe, P. Grindrod, and L. Dartnell,
‘Developing a Hyperspectral CLose UP Imager
With UV Excitation (HyperCLUPI) for Mars
Exploration’;
COSPAR: Moscow 2-10 Aug:
- Graziella Branduardi-Raymont gave three
solicited talks 'The X-ray Integral Field Unit (XIFU) for the Athena observatory' (in lieu of
Luigi Piro), on 'Athena observatory science:
solar system targets and exoplanets' and on
'Planetary X-ray emissions: what we have
learnt and can learn';
- Wellbrock, A., Coates, A. and Jones, G.,
‘Photoelectron energy peaks at Titan: A
statistical overview and comparison to Venus
and Mars’.

European Planetary Science Congress, 7-12
Sept, Cascais, Portugal
- A. Coates and W.Dunn attended EPSC); AC
presented 2 talks (1 invited) and WD 1 talk,
and presentations on behalf of G.Jones,
A.Wellbrock and L.Regoli;
- Coates, A.J., J.H. Waite, and the CAPS and
INMS teams (invited), ‘10 years of surprises at
Saturn: CAPS and INMS highlights’;
- Coates, A.J., A. Wellbrock, R.A. Frahm, J.D.
Winningham, A. Fedorov, S. Barabash, and R.
Lundin, ‘Distant ionospheric photoelectron
energy peak observations at Venus’;
- Jones, G.H. and A. J. Coates, ‘Observations
of negatively-charged particles near Saturn's
Main Rings during Saturn Orbit Insertion’;
- Wellbrock, A., A.J. Coates, G.H. Jones, T.A.
Nordheim, G.R. Lewis, and J.H. Waite,
‘Observations of negative ions at Titan and
other objects in the Saturn system using the
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Members of the Planetary Science Group
attended the RAS meeting on 10 years at
Saturn and made several presentations:
- Coates, A.J., and the CAPS & ELS teams,
‘10 years of surprises at Saturn: CAPS results
on magnetosphere, moons and rings’;
- Jones, G.H., and the CAPS team, ‘The
plumes of Enceladus as observed by CAPS,’;
- Wellbrock, A., A.J. Coates, G.H. Jones, T.A.
Nordheim, G.R. Lewis, and J.H. Waite,
‘Observations of negative ions at Titan and
other objects in the Saturn system using the
Cassini CAPS Electron Spectrometer (ELS)’;
- Jasinski, J.M., C.S. Arridge, A.J. Coates,
‘Cassini Observations of Saturn Cusps’,
presented at RAS specialist discussion
meeting;
- Nordheim, T.A., G.H. Jones, E. Roussos, A.J.
Coates, ‘Modelling of moon surface charging in
the Saturn system and comparison with
Cassini observations at Rhea and Hyperion’,
presented at RAS specialist discussion
meeting;
- Regoli, L., M. Feyerabend, A. Kotova, E.
Roussos, G. Jones, N. Krupp, and A. Coates,
‘Mapping the flow of energetic particles in
Titan's exobase’, presented at RAS specialist



discussion meeting;

Jonathan Rae attended the AGU Chapman
Conference on the Korean island of Jeju (31
Aug - 5 Sept). Jonathan gave a talk entitled
‘Exploring substorms with ULF waves’;
Outreach
George Seabroke

24th Cluster Workshop, Rhodes (15-20 Sept).
Andrew Fazakerley, Colin Forsyth, Dimitry
Pokhotelov, Kirthika Mohan and Ali Varsani all
attended.
- Colin Forsyth gave a talk entitled ‘Increases
in plasma sheet temperature with solar wind
driving during substorm growth phases’ and
presented a poster entitled ‘Examining the
polytropic index of the plasma sheet using
Cluster’;
- Dimitry Pokhotelov gave a talk entitled
‘Plasma wave modes observed by Cluster and
their possible role in radiation belt dynamics’;
- Kirthika Mohan gave a talk entitled ‘First
results of drift simulations of 'multi‐band'
structures in spacecraft observations of inner
magnetosphere plasma electrons and ions’;
- Ali Varsani presented a poster entitled
‘Microscale dynamics within Kelvin Helmholtz
waves: a probe of localized reconnection
occurrence’;



Gave a talk at the British Science Festival.
Kim Birkett
 Gave a talk entitled ‘Chasing Comets’
presented at the MSSL open day, 13 Sept;
Lucie Green



Chris Owen and Alice Foster attended the 1st
Solar Orbiter Summer School, which took
place L’Aquila Italy (22-25 Sept);



Was at the British Science Festival in
Birmingham on 6 Sept with the Gaia stand,
developed for the 2014 Royal Society Summer
Science Exhibition. The Gaia stand was set up
in the library for the MSSL Open Day on 13
Sept by Daisuke Kawata, Megan Whewell and
George. George also gave the final talk at the
Open Day entitled ‘Gaia - mapping the Milky
Way from space’.
Louise Harra
- Chris Owen (SWA PI) presented a talk
entitled ‘Solar Wind Electrons and the
SWA/EAS Sensor’;
- Alice Foster gave a talk entitled 'Small Scale
Magnetic Reconnection in the Solar Wind';

Andrew Fazakerley and Bob Bentley (Solar
Group) attended the UKSA meeting about the
Carrington mission concept (23 Oct).


Andrew Fazakerley and Jonathan Rae
attended the ESACAS workshop on future
talks on the BEADS mission ideas;
Andrew Fazakerley and Colin Forsyth travelled
to Paris to attend the team meeting (30 Sept01 Oct) for those participating in small
missions between China and Europe. The
workshop took place in Copenhagen (23-24
Sept) and both Andrew and Jonathan
contributed the Alfven+ mission proposal for
the ESA 4th Medium Class mission;
Andrew Fazakerley attended the ESA Solar
System Exploration Working Group at ESTEC
(13-14 Oct);
Colin Forsyth attended the Stakeholder
Summit of the Space Weather Public Dialogue
organised by 3KQ at The Cosenor’s House,
Abingdon (15 Oct);
Gave a talk at the Observatory Science
Festival, Herstmonceux;
Supported the MSSL open day ;
Gave a talk in Dundee on solar max and tothe
Nottingham Astronomical Society;
Hosted a Cafe Scientifique at the Royal
Society;
Took part in the SLOOH broadcast for the
solar eclipse;
Talk ‘Mars exploration – and the ExoMars
mission’, at Herstmonceux Astronomy Festival,
7 Sept;
Talk ‘Could there be life elsewhere in the solar
system?’ presented at UCL Natural Science
Club, 30 Oct;
Alice Foster and Kirthika Mohan
 Helped co-organise the MSSL Heritage Open
Day (13 Sept). Alice and Kirthika helped
conduct activities for children, including the
Mars Lander, which was particularly enjoyed.
Colin Forsyth
 Gave a talk entitled ‘HF Propagation Alphabet
Soup’ at the Radio Society of Great Britain's
annual convention, held at Kents Hill
Conference Centre in Milton Keynes (12 Oct).
Kirthika Mohan
 Gave a talk at the Royal Institute Lates (24
Oct), entitled ‘Opposites Attract', that focussed
on the use of magnets in technology.
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Media Broadcasts and Features
Andrew Coates
 Interview on BBC radio Coventry &
Warwickshire on prize trip to space (mentioned
ExoMars and Rosetta), 14 Sept;
 Talk ‘Mars exploration – and the ExoMars
mission’, at UCL-MSSL open day, 13 Sept ;
 Interviews for BBC News online, ITN on India
Mars mission (mentioned ExoMars and Mars
Express), 24 Sept
 Interview for UCL minds app on Mars
exploration and ExoMars, 7 Oct;
 Interview for Sky News on comet Siding Spring
at Mars (mentioned ExoMars), 19 Oct.
Louise Harra
 Interview with Robyn Williams for the Science
Show for the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation - Sept.
Lucie Green
 Interview with Robyn Williams for the Science
Show for the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation - Sept
 BBC Radio 4 Infinite Monkey Cage
 BBC 4 programme on extreme weather
 Hosted the Radio 4 Inside Science programme
Lucie Green and Simon Barraclough
 Space Boffins podcast
Colin Forsyth
 Interview with James Hazell for BBC Radio
Suffolk on the ESA Swarm mission and effects
on the Earth of longterm variations in the
Earth’s magnetic field.
Social Club
The Planetary A-Team (William Dunn, Jamie
Jasinski and Leonardo Regoli) won the MSSL
croquet tournament.
Next Issue
The next issue of The Newsletter (Volume 12,
Issue 1) will be published in March 2015. This will
cover activities from 1 November 2014 to 31 Jan
2015.
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