UCL – DEPARTMENT OF SPACE AND CLIMATE PHYSICS
MULLARD SPACE SCIENCE LABORATORY
The Newsletter - Volume 10, Issue 3
30 January 2013
Covers events between 1 September 2012 and 30 November 2012
Contents
New Staff Member..................................................................................................................................................1
Appointments .........................................................................................................................................................1
Appointments (Editorial Boards and Committees) ............................................................................................1
Grants and Contracts ............................................................................................................................................2
PhDs Awarded .......................................................................................................................................................2
MSSL Australia ......................................................................................................................................................2
Mission Status and Developments ......................................................................................................................2
Publications – Refereed ........................................................................................................................................3
Outreach .................................................................................................................................................................6
Media Broadcasts and Features ..........................................................................................................................7
Other News Items/Activities .................................................................................................................................7
Acknowledgements ...............................................................................................................................................7
Next Issue ...............................................................................................................................................................7
New Staff Member
Welcome back to Massimiliano De Pasquale who
has returned to the Swift team at MSSL after a 1.5
year spell in the Gamma ray burst group of the
University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Appointments
Chris Arridge began his Royal Society University
Research Fellowship on 1 October. He will take up
a new staff member position in the Planetary
Science Group at the conclusion of the fellowship.
Appointments (Editorial Boards and
Committees)


Andrew Coates continues as chair of the
planetary science sub-panel of STFC’s
Astronomy Grants Panel;
Chris Owen has been appointed as a topical
editor for Annales Geophysicae. Chris also
chaired a NASA review panel in Washington
D.C., 25-27 Sept.
th
presentations at the 16 Cluster Active Archive
Cross Calibration Workshop in IRAP, France, 6-9
Nov.
Grants and Contracts
The Cassini Operations grant was extended to
2014 by ESA via the UK Space Agency.
ESA CAA representatives visited MSSL on 14-15
November for a bilateral CAA-PEACE progress
meeting, in which Natasha Doss, Iryna Rozum,
Branislav Mihaljcic and Andrew Fazakerley
participated.
PhDs Awarded
Congratulations to Robert Bedington, Segheen
Beyene, Missagh Mehdipour and Annie Wellbrock
who have successfully defended their PhD theses
subject to some small corrections/amendments.
ExoMars - Leading up to and following the ESA
ministerial meeting in November, the mission
preparations are resuming a high level of activity.
ExoMars is now a joint ESA-Russia joint mission
with a 2016 Trace Gas Orbiter and a 2018 Rover.
For the latter we are leading the PanCam team
(Coates PI, Leff PM). A telecon with Russian
colleagues on a complementary infrared
instrument (ISEM) on 14 September, various other
team and ESA telecons in the period, and a
meeting of ExoMars Oversight Committee (EXOC)
was attended by Coates, Leff and Hancock, 7 Nov.
MSSL Australia
Alan Smith visited MSSL Australia at the end of
November. As well as attending the UCL Australia
Steering Committee and Graduation he presented
a paper on the QB50 project at an AIAA student
conference at the University of Adelaide. Alan also
presented a paper entitled 'Model Based Systems
Engineering - issues of application to Soft Systems'
at an INCOSE/SESA MBSE symposium.
Ady James and Alan Smith chaired a QB50
workshop for Australian teams involved in the
project.
JUICE - A very busy period on the JuMMP (Jupiter
Moon and Magnetospheric Plasma, Coates PI)
instrument proposal culminated in a proposal
submission, 15 Oct. Instrument selection for JUICE
is now underway at ESA.
Mission Status and Developments
KuaFu - A possible scenario for ESA support for a
KuaFu-B mission involving participation via the
(optional) SSA Programme together with the
(mandatory) Science Programme, was not
approved at the November ESA Council of
Ministers Meeting. It is unclear whether an
alternative approach is likely to be proposed, such
as an earlier purely Science Programme scenario.
Cassini - is in its extended (Solstice) mission
phase. The CAPS instrument (including ELS) was
off during the reporting period: investigations are
underway by NESC (NASA electrical safety
committee). More information is expected in the
New Year. Scientific analysis continued apace (see
publications and presentations).
Cluster - The mission extension for 2013-4 was
confirmed by ESA in November 2012. Plans for a
further 2015-6 extension are expected to be
reviewed by ESA in summer 2013.
L-Depp - The Lunar Lander mission concept was
not, in the end, presented to ESA ministers in
November. The concept, along with the possible
MSSL participation in the Dust and Plasma
package, for which we have completed an ESAsupported concept study, presumably will go into a
period of dormancy of undefined length.
All four Cluster spacecraft and all four PEACE
instruments continue to operate well.
Andrew Fazakerley presented a PEACE status
report at the Cluster SWT in Boulder in October.
Solar Orbiter - An SWA team meeting was held in
Bruges on 7-8 September, immediately before the
full Solar Orbiter Workshop, also in Bruges. A
number of MSSL staff attended both the team
meeting and/or the workshop.
Andrew Fazakerley participated in the Cluster
Science Operations Working Group 29/30
November where planning for 2013 operations was
discussed. This included overlap with SWARM and
RBSP (now renamed Van Allen probes). Small
separation inner magnetosphere and AAR region
operations were prioritized during 2013. The high
altitude southern cusp will be sampled in springsummer 2013. The feasibility of future very small
scale spacecraft separation operations at the
bowshock was reviewed.
Several members of the MSSL SWA team also
attended a 2-day meeting of the Solar Orbiter
Electromagnetic Cleanliness Working group, 4-5
Oct., to discuss latest progress on a number of
items of concern relating to spacecraft charging
effects which are likely to have impact on the
quality of the science return from SWA if not
satisfactorily resolved before launch.
Natasha Doss, Iryna Rozum, Branislav Mihaljcic
and Andrew Fazakerley attended and gave
MSSL staff have led the Solar Orbiter Boom
2
Working group in a series of meetings and
telecons during this period in an effort to solve
some difficult accommodation problems for
sensors located on the spacecraft boom, which
includes the SWA Electron Analyser system being
built by MSSL. Various options are currently being
considered, including the possibility of lengthening
the boom and/or relocating the energetic particle
package, STEIN, back onto the spacecraft body.
Collinson, G.A., L.B. Wilson, D.G. Sibeck, N.
Shane, T.L. Zhang, T.E. Moore, A.J. Coates,
and S. Barabash, Short Large-Amplitude
Magnetic Structures (SLAMS) at Venus, J.
Geophys. Res., 117, A10221,
doi:10.1029/2012JA017838, Oct 2012.
Cousins, C., M Gunn, B Prosser, D Barnes, I
Crawford, A Griffiths, L Davis, A Coates,
Selecting the geology filter wavelengths for the
ExoMars Panoramic Camera instrument,
Planetary and Space Science, 71, 80-100, Oct
2012.
Forsyth, C., Fazakerley, A.N., Walsh, A.P., Watt,
C. E. J., Garza, K. J., Owen, C. J.,
Constantinescu, D., Dandouras,I., Fornacon,
K.-H., Lucek, E. Marklund, G. T., Sadeghi,
S.S., Khotyaintsev, Y., Masson, A. and Doss,
N., Temporal evolution and electric potential
structure of the auroral acceleration region from
multispacecraft measurements, J. Geophys.
Res., 117, A12203,
doi:10.1029/2012JA017655, 2012.
Galand, M., A.J. Coates, T.E. Cravens and J.-E.
Wahlund, Titan’s ionosphere, submitted to
Titan: Surface, Atmosphere and
Magnetosphere” for Cambridge University
Press (Cambridge Planetary Science Series),
eds. I. Mueller-Wodarg, C. Griffith, E. Lellouch
and T. Cravens, in press, 2012.
Garnier, P., J.-E. Wahlund, M.K.G. Holmberg, M.
Morooka, S. Grimald, A. Eriksson, D.A. Gurnett,
S.M. Krimigis, N. Krupp, A. Coates, F. Crary, G.
Gustafsson, The detection of energetic
electrons with the Cassini Langmuir probe at
Saturn, J. Geophys. Res., 117, A10202, Oct
2012.
Grasset, O., M.K. Dougherty, A. Coustenis, E.J.
Bunce, C. Erd, D. Titov, M. Blanc, A. Coates, P.
Drossart, L.N. Fletcher, H. Hussmann, R.
Jaumann, N. Krupp, J.-P. Lebreton, O. PrietoBallesteros, P. Tortora, F. Tosi, T. Van Hoolst,
JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE): an ESA
mission to orbit Ganymede and to characterise
the Jupiter system, Planetary & Space Science,
in press, Dec 2012.
Grigorenko E.E., Malova, H. V., Artemiev, A. A.,
Kronberg, E., Koleva, R., Owen, C.J., Cao, J.
B., Sauvaud, J.-A., Zelenyi, L.M., Current sheet
structure and kinetic properties of plasma flows
during a near-Earth magnetic reconnection
under the presence of a guide field, submitted
to J. Geophys. Res., November 2012.
Jones, G. H., Nanodust Measurements by the
Cassini Plasma Spectrometer, in Nanodust in
the Solar System: Discoveries and
Interpretations, Springer Verlag, ISBN 978-3642-27543-2, 2012
Chris Brockley-Blatt represented the MSSL SWA
PI team at the NASA PDR for the SWA HIS
sensor, in San Antonio, 6-7 Nov.
Chris Owen and Chris Brockley-Blatt represented
the SWA team at the first UKSA Project
Management Board meeting held in London, 21
Nov.
MSSL hosted members of the ESA and Astrium
UK Solar Orbiter Project Teams, as well as
international colleagues on the SWA team, for the
latest in the series of “Technical Interface
Meetings”, 27-28 Nov. Wide-ranging discussions
on the progress of the wider project and the SWA
sensors were held.
Venus Express and Mars Express - ASPERA
continues to operate on both spacecraft and we
are involved in scientific papers (see lists) and an
MSc student is working on Vex data with us
(supervisors Coates and Wellbrock).
Publications – Refereed
Published
Bartlett, J., G. Hardy, I. Hepburn, S. Milward,
P.Coker, C. Theobald, Millikelvin cryocooler for
space and ground based detector systems,
Proc. SPIE 8452: Millimeter, Submillimeter, and
Far Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for
Astronomy VI, 84521O, Sept 24 2012. doi:
10.1117/12.926250 .
http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/proceedi
ng.aspx?articleid=1362993
Chmyrev, V., Smith, A., Kataria, D.O.,3, Nesterov,
B., Owen, C.J., Sammonds, P., Sorokin, V.,
Vallianatos, F., Detection and Monitoring of
Earthquake Precursors: TwinSat, a Russia-UK
Satellite Project, submitted to Planet. Space
Sci., September 2012.
Coates, A.J., A.D.Griffiths, C.E. Leff, N. Schmitz,
D.P. Barnes, J.-L. Josset, B.K. Hancock, C.R.
Cousins, R. Jaumann, I.A. Crawford, G. Paar,
A. Bauer, and the PanCam team, Lunar
PanCam: adapting ExoMars PanCam for the
ESA Lunar Lander, Planetary and Space
Science 74, 247-253, doi:
10.1016/j.pss.2012.07.017, 2012.
3
KLIEM, B., Torok, T., Thompson, W. T., A
Parametric Study of Erupting Flux Rope
Rotation. Modeling the Cartwheel CME on 9
April 2008, Solar Phys. 281, 137
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs112
07-012-9990-z
Liu, R., KLIEM, B., Torok, T., Liu, C., Titov, V. S.,
Lionello, R., Linker, J. A., Wang, H., Slow Rise
and Partial Eruption of a Double-decker
Filament. I. Observations and Interpretation,
Astrophys. J. 756:59
http://iopscience.iop.org/0004-637X/756/1/59/
Marklund, G.T., S. Sadeghi, Bin Li, O. Amm, J. A.
Cumnock, Y. Zhang, H. Nilsson, A. Masson, T.
Karlsson, P.-A. Lindqvist, A. Fazakerley, E.
Lucek, J. Pickett, Cluster multipoint study of the
acceleration potential pattern and
electrodynamics of an auroral surge and its
associated horn arc, Article first published
online: 19 Oct 2012,
DOI: 10.1029/2012JA018046
Masters, A., L. Stawarz, M. Fujimoto, S.J.
Schwartz, N. Sergis, M.F. Thomsen, A. Retinò,
H. Hasegawa, G.R. Lewis, A.J. Coates, P.
Canu, M.K. Dougherty, Electron acceleration to
relativistic energies at a strong quasi-parallel
shock wave, Nature Physics, in press, Dec
2012.
Roussos, E., P. Kollmann, N. Krupp C. Paranicas,
S. M. Krimigis, D. G. Mitchell, A. M. Persoon, D.
A. Gurnett, W. S. Kurth, H. Kriegel, S. Simon,
K.K. Khurana, G. H. Jones, J.-E. Wahlund, M.
K. G. Holmberg, Energetic electron
observations of Rhea's magnetospheric
interaction, Icarus 221, 116-134, 2012.
Soobiah, Y.I.J., S. Barabash, H. Nilsson, G.
Stenberg, R. Lundin, A. J. Coates, J. D.
Winningham, R. A. Frahm, Energy distribution
asymmetry of electron precipitation signatures
at Mars, Planetary Space Sci., in press, Nov
2012.
Srama, R., H. Krüger, T. Yamaguchi, T. Stephan,
M. Burchell, A. T. Kearsley, V. Sterken, F.
Postberg, S. Kempf, E. Grün, N. Altobelli, P.
Ehrenfreund, V. Dikarev, M. Horanyi, Z.
Sternovsky, J. D. Carpenter, A. Westphal, Z.
Gainsforth, A. Krabbe, J. Agarwal, H. Yano, J.
Blum, H. Henkel, J. Hillier, P. Hoppe, M.
Trieloff, S. Hsu, A. Mocker, K. Fiege, S. F.
Green, A. Bischoff, F. Esposito, R. Laufer, T. W.
Hyde, G. Herdrich, S. Fasoulas, A. Jäckel, G.
JONES, P. Jenniskens, E. Khalisi, G. MoragasKlostermeyer, F. Spahn, H. U. Keller, P. Frisch,
A. C. Levasseur-Regourd, N. Pailer, K. Altwegg,
C. Engrand, S. Auer, J. Silen, S. Sasaki, M.
Kobayashi, J. Schmidt, J. Kissel, B. Marty, P.
Michel, P. Palumbo, O. Vaisberg, J. Baggaley,
A. Rotundi and H. P. Röser, SARIM PLUS—
sample return of comet 67P/CG and of
interstellar matter, Experimental Astronomy,
doi: 201210.1007/s10686-011-9285-7, 2012.
Stallard, T.S., A.M. Masters, S. Miller, H. Melin,
E.J. Bunce, C.S. Arridge, N. Achilleos, M.K.
Dougherty, S.W. H. Cowley, Saturn¹s
auroral/polar H3+ infrared emissions: the effect
of solar wind compression, J. Geophys. Res.,
doi:10.1029/2012JA018201, published 6
December 2012, accepted 14 October 2012.
Teh, W.-L., R. Nakamura, M. Fujimoto, E. A.
Kronberg, A. N. Fazakerley, P. W. Daly, W.
Baumjohann, Electron dynamics in the
reconnection ion diffusion region, Article first
published online: 22 Dec 2012,
DOI: 10.1029/2012JA017896
Teriaca, L., Andretta, V., Auchère, F., Brown, C.
M., Buchlin, E., Cauzzi, G., CULHANE, J. L.,
Curdt, W., Davila, J. M., Del Zanna, G.,
Doschek, G. A., Fineschi, S., Fludra, A.,
Gallagher, P. T., GREEN, L., HARRA, L. K.,
Imada, S., Innes, D., KLIEM, B., Korendyke, C.,
Mariska, J. T., Martínez-Pillet, V., Parenti, S.,
Patsourakos, S., Peter, H., Poletto, L., Rutten,
R. J., Schühle, U., Siemer, M., Shimizu, T.,
Socas-Navarro, H., Solanki, S. K., Spadaro, D.,
Trujillo-Bueno, J., Tsuneta, S., Dominguez, S.
V., Vial, J.-C., Walsh, R., Warren, H. P.,
Wiegelmann, T., WINTER, B., Young, P.,
LEMUR: Large European module for solar
Ultraviolet Research. European contribution to
JAXA's Solar-C mission, Experimental
Astronomy 34, 273
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs106
86-011-9274-x
Thomsen, M.F., E. Roussos, M. Andriopoulou, P.
Kollman, C.S. Arridge, C.P. Paranicas, D.A.
Gurnett, R.L. Powell, R.L. Tokar, D.T. Young,
Saturn¹s inner magnetospheric convection
pattern: Further evidence, J. Geophys. Res.
117, A09208, doi:10.1029/2011JA017482,
accepted 17 July 2012, published 12
September 2012.
Wahlund, J.-E., R.Modolo, C.Bertucci and
A.Coates, Titan’s magnetospheric and plasma
environment, submitted to Titan: Surface,
Atmosphere and Magnetosphere” for
Cambridge University Press (Cambridge
Planetary Science Series), eds. I. MuellerWodarg, C. Griffith, E. Lellouch and T. Cravens,
in press, 2012.
Wei, Y., M. Fraenz, E. Dubinin, A. J. Coates, T. L.
Zhang, W. Wan, L. Feng, A. Angsmann, A.
Opitz, J. Woch, S. Barabash, R. Lundin, A
teardrop-shaped ionosphere at Venus in
tenuous solar wind, Planetary Space Sci., 73,
254-261, 2012.
4
Wood, A.G., S.E. Pryse, M.Grande, I.C.Whittaker,
A.J.Coates, K.Husband, W.Baumjohann, T.L.
Zhang, C.Mazelle, E.Kallio, M.Fr¨anz,
S.McKenna-Lawlor, P.Wurz, The
transterminator ion flow at Venus at solar
minimum, Planetary and Space Science 73,
341-346, doi: 10.1016/j.pss.2012.08.006


Papers in press
Rawlings, J., Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon
emission in powerful high-redshift radio
galaxies, accepted, MNRAS.

Publications - Non-Refereed:
Stephen Pugh, Dave Barnes, Laurence Tyler, Matt
Gunn, Nicole Schmitz, Gerhard Paar, Arnold
Bauer, Claire Cousins, Derek Pullan, Andrew
Coates, Andrew Griffiths and the PanCam
Team., AUPE – A PanCam emulator for the
ExoMars 2018 mission, submitted to
International Symposium on Artificial
Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space
(i-SAIRAS), Turin, Sep 2012.


Invited Talks and Conferences

Andrew Coates, Geraint Jones, Chris Arridge,
Annie Wellbrock, Tom Nordheim and Jamie
Jasinski attended and presented at EPSC in
Madrid 23-28 Sept. Planetary Science Group
authors contributed to 13 papers:

Coates, A.J., A. Wellbrock, G.H. Jones, D.T.
Young, and C.S. Arridge, Photoelectrons in the
plume of Enceladus;

Wellbrock, A., A.J. Coates, G.H. Jones, C.S.
Arridge, G.R. Lewis, and E.C. Sittler, Density
trends of negative ions at Titan;

Nordheim, T., K.P. Hand, C. Paranicas, P.
Kollmann, G.H. Jones, A.J. Coates, and N.
Krupp, Surface radiation environment of
Saturn's icy moon Mimas;

Jones, G.H., A.J. Coates, C.S. Arridge, A.
Wellbrock, N. Krupp, D.T. Young, and M.K.
Dougherty, Negatively-charged particle pickup
in the Enceladus plume;

Jasinski, J.M., C.S. Arridge, A.J. Coates, and
M.K Dougherty, Cassini Observations of
Saturn's Magnetospheric Cusps;

Lavvas, P., RV. Yelle, A. Bazin, V. Vuitton, E.
Vigren, M. Galand, A. Coates, and J.-E.
Wahlund, Particle charging: its role in the
ionospheric composition and the growth of
aerosols;

Snodgrass, C., K. Altwegg, I. Bertini, H.
Boehnhardt, M.T. Capria, A. Coates, B.
Davidsson, A. Fitzsimmons, M. Hilchenbach, G.
Jones, L. Lara, S. Lowry, K. Muinonen, D.
Prialnik, B. Schlaeppi, and H. Sierks, Asteroids,
Comets and the Water on Earth - A European
Mission to the Main Belt Comets;
Bebesi, Z., K. Szego, Z. Nemeth, G. Erdos, A.J.
Coates, and D.T. Young, Investigation of Titan's
ion environment during plasmasheet type
encounters;
Badman, S.V., A. Masters, M. Fujimoto, N.
Sergis, M.K. Dougherty, and A.J. Coates,
Bursty reconnection at Saturn's magnetopause:
magnetopause
conditions
and
auroral
signatures;
Kurth, W.S., T.F. Averkamp, G.B. Hospodarsky,
U. Taubenschuss, D.A. Gurnett, P. Canu, P.
Schippers, and A.J. Coates, Electron cyclotron
harmonic
emissions
in
Saturn's
magnetosphere;
Masters, A., H. Hasegawa, T. D. Phan, S. V.
Badman, M. Fujimoto, A. J. Coates, and M. K.
Dougherty, Saturn's magnetosheath transition
layer;
Jarvinen, R., A.J. Coates, T.L. Zhang, S.
Barabash, A. Fedorov, and E. Kallio, Magnetic
connectivity and photoelectrons in the Venus
plasma environment;
Grasset, O., O. Prieto-Ballestros, M.K.
Dougherty, D. Titov, C. Erd, E. Bunce, A.
Coustenis, M. Blanc, A. Coates, P. Drossant, L.
Fletcher, T. van Hoolst, H. Hussmann, R.
Jaumann, N. Krupp, P. Tortora, F. Tosi, and A.
Wielders, Habitability of the giant icy moons:
current knowledge and future insights from the
JUICE mission.
Ady James presented a paper at the Australian
Space Science Conference in Melbourne entitled
“CubeSat instrumentation development for the
QB50 project”, 24-26 Sept.
Graziella Branduardi-Raymont presented a poster
on 'X-ray imaging of the Earth's magnetosphere'
(reporting on the medium- and small-size missions
proposed to ESA as AXIOM and AXIOM-C
respectively) at the conference on 'X-ray
astronomy: towards the next 50 years!' held in
Milan, Italy, 1-5 Oct.
Chris Owen, Andrew Fazakerley and Colin Forsyth
attended the joint Cluster and THEMIS workshop
held in Boulder, Colorado. Chris presented work by
his student Ali Varsani on high time-resolution
electron observations of the magnetopause; Colin
gave an invited talk on multi-spacecraft
observations of auroral acceleration, 1-5 Oct.
Planetary Science Group authors contributed to 2
talks at the AAS DPS meeting, Reno, 14-19 Oct.

Snowden, Darci; Yelle, R.; Galand, M.; Coates,
A.; Jones, G.; Wellbrock, A.; Lavvas, P., A
5

planets”. All the presentations at the workshop will
be written up in the journal Space Science
Reviews and reprinted as a hardcover book in the
Space Sciences Series of ISSI.
Global Model of the Precipitation of
Magnetically-mirroring
Magnetospheric
Electrons in Titan’s Ionosphere;
Smith, Howard T.; Johnson, R. E.; Rymer, A.
M.; Mitchell, D. G.; Coates, A.; Lewis, G.;
Young, D. T., Why Is a Titan-generated
Nitrogen Torus Not Observed In Saturn's
Magnetosphere?
Autumn MIST at the Royal Astronomical Society,
30 Nov was attended by members of the Planetary
Science Group and the Plasma Physics Group:

Andrew Coates presented 2 talks at the Cassini
PSG meeting at JPL on 22-26 Oct:

Coates, A.J., A. Wellbrock, G.H. Jones, D.T.
Young, C.S. Arridge, & the CAPS team,
Photoelectrons in the plume of Enceladus:
CAPS ELS results update,
presented at
Magnetospheric Interactions of Dusty Plasmas,
Plumes & Moons III, Cassini PSG.

Wellbrock, A., A.J. Coates, G.H. Jones, G.R.
Lewis, C.S. Arridge, D.T. Young, E.C. Sittler,
CAPS electron spectrometer observations of
negative ions at Titan: Density trends,
presented at MAPS working group.



Duthie, R., Multi-spacecraft Detections of
Plasma
Sheet
Fast
Flows
and
spacecraft their Relation to Dipolarisations and
Substorm. Phase;
Jasinski, J.M., C.S. Arridge, A.J. Coates,
Cassini
Observations
Of
Saturn’s
Magnetospheric Cusps;
Mohan, K., Exploring the Earth's Inner
Magnetosphere;
Wellbrock, A., A. Coates, G. Jones, G. Lewis,
D. Young, Cassini CAPS-ELS observations of
negative ions in Titan’s ionosphere: Trends of
density with altitude.
Outreach
David Long gave an invited seminar "Using 'EIT
Waves' to probe the quiet solar corona" at the
Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawai'i
Manoa Campus, 22 Oct.
Chris Arridge talked on:

Andrew Fazakerley and his PhD student, Kirthika
Mohan, attended the Cluster and Double Star
Cross-Calibration workshop, in Toulouse, France
as well as a collaborative meeting regarding
Kirthika's research into particle drifts of the Inner
Magnetosphere, early Nov.


th
Andrew Coates gave 2 talks (1 invited) at the 9
European Space Weather Week, Brussels, 5-9
Nov:

Coates, A.J., Space weather in the solar
system (invited);

Coates, A.J., E. Bunce, N. Krupp, Dougherty.
M., O. Grasset, A. Coustenis, M. Blanc, A.
Coradini, P. Drossart, L. Fletcher, H.
Hussmann, R. Jaumann, O. Prieto-Ballesteros,
P. Tortora, F. Tosi, T. Van Hoolst, D.Titov,
C.Erd, Plasma interactions with Ganymede,
Europa, Callisto and Jupiter: the prospects for
ESA’s JUICE mission.
“The Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer mission” at the
Hereford and Worcester branch of the Institute
of Physics, 18 Sept and at the Hull and East
Riding Astronomical Society, 8 Oct.
“The Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn” at
Crystal Palace Radio Club, 2 Nov.
“Exploring the Solar System with Robots” at the
Sheffield branch of the Institute of Physics on
20 Nov.
Chris also:

participated in the UCL Horizons careers fair on
15 Sept;

visited The Brooksbank School, Halifax on 10
October for a day of space science and careers
talks;

attended the Royal Society Research Fellows'
Reception at St. James' Palace, 18 Oct;

gave a talk as part of Bright Club at the
Bloomsbury Theatre, 24 Oct;

visited Ashford Park School for an afternoon of
space science activities for year 6 students on
8 Nov.
Geraint Jones attended the first meeting of the
International Space Science Institute international
team on Kinetic Plasma Processes at Airless
Bodies at ISSI, Bern, 12-16 Nov.
Andrew Coates:

Talk at MSSL open day on planetary
exploration and JUICE, 8 Sept.

Talk at Wiltshire Astronomical Society, on
Recent results from Cassini, 2 Oct.

Talk at Hampshire Astronomical Group on Mars
exploration – and the ExoMars mission, 9 Nov.
Graziella Branduardi-Raymont participated in a
Europlanet workshop on “Giant Planet
Magnetodiscs and Aurorae” at ISSI, Bern, 26-30
November and presented a talk on “Spectral and
spatial properties of the X-ray aurora of the giant
6


with two groups presenting at each. Also a series
of solar system seminars started with Lyndsay
Fletcher (Glasgow) giving the first seminar on 16
October 2012.
Talk at UCL Diploma Club (Astronomy Evening
Diploma/Certificate
graduates)
on
Mars
exploration – and the ExoMars mission, 15
Nov.
Talk at Orpington Astronomical Society on Mars
exploration – and the ExoMars mission, 22
Nov.
Geraint Jones spent several weeks as a British
Science Association Media Fellow at The Guardian
during July-September. During that time, he wrote
several articles for the print and online editions of
the newspaper, as well as contributing to the
weekly podcast. In September, he was the paper's
correspondent at the British Festival of Science,
held in Aberdeen.
Colin Forsyth:




with Andrew Walsh and colleagues from the
University of Leicester and Imperial College,
exhibited the “Cluster: Aurora Explorer” display
at the British Science Festival in Aberdeen as
part of the British Astronomical Association
program;
was invited to speak on the effect of the Sun
and space weather on radio communication at
the Radio Society of Great Britain’s annual
convention and to the Dorking and District
Radio Society;
presented at the annual National Space
Academy careers event aimed at informing Alevel students about space careers in the UK;
with David Long attended the “Explore Your
Universe” Training Academy run by the
Association of Discovery & Science Centres
(ADSC) and supported by STFC. Colin and
David will begin working with ADSC as part of
the “Explore Your Universe” program in the new
year.
After 7 years at MSSL as both a student and postdoc, Andrew Walsh has left to take up an ESA
Fellowship at ESTEC. We wish Andrew all the best
for his future.
Acknowledgements
Huge thanks are due to the JUICE proposal team
(particularly Richard Cole, Barry Hancock, Chris
Arridge, Geraint Jones, Alan Spencer, Gethyn
Lewis, Andrew Fazakerley and many others) for
the hard work leading up to proposal submission
Next Issue
The next issue of The Newsletter (Volume 10,
Issue 4) will be published in March 2013. This will
cover activities from 1 December 2012 to 28
February 2013.
Jamie Jasinski held a rocket making activity at
Westminster Under School, London, 13 Nov.
Kirthika Mohan represented the Cluster and
Double Star missions at the MSSL open day in
early September.
Media Broadcasts and Features
Chris Arridge:

Interview for an article in Physics World on
Cluster observations of Kelvin-Helmholz
vortices in the Earth's magnetosphere.
Andrew Coates:

Interview on BBC radio 4 Material World on
Voyager at the edge of the solar system, 13
Sept.

Interview on Voyager mission on BBC World
Service, Newshour, 8 Oct.
Other News Items/Activities
PhD student Roger Duthie made a presentation on
space plasma for visiting MSc students, 17 Oct.
The solar system side of the lab began a series of
regular monthly meetings to replace individual
group meetings in the last week of each month,
7