UCL – DEPARTMENT OF SPACE AND CLIMATE PHYSICS
MULLARD SPACE SCIENCE LABORATORY
The Newsletter - Volume 10, Issue 1
11 July 2012
Covers events between 1 March 2012 and 31 May 2012
STOP PRESS - Euclid Adopted
Mark Cropper and Richard Cole report
that at its SPC meeting on 19-20 June
2012, ESA adopted Euclid as the
second medium mission in its Cosmic
Vision programme. Euclid was selected
last October, and in the interim period
the international agreements between
the different countries involved in Euclid
have been formalised. The adoption now
authorises ESA to go ahead with the
selection of a Prime Contractor, and
moves the programme from the initial
study phases to the implementation
phase.
Euclid will investigate the nature of dark energy
and dark matter, the little understood entities which
appear to make up more than 95% of the Universe.
Alternatively, it may be that the theory of gravity is
incorrect on cosmological scales. In any case the
science that Euclid will do will be profoundly
important.
The Euclid satellite is based around a 1.2m
telescope with a visible imager and an infrared
imager-spectrometer.
1
MSSL is responsible for one of the two instruments in Euclid, the visible imager, a 576 Mpix high spatialresolution camera, which will be the 2nd largest camera in space after the Gaia one. We lead a team including
institutes in France, Italy and Switzerland. Euclid launch is early 2020.
Euclid: An exanded view of the focal plane array for the visible imager:
this instrument also has a shutter, calibration unit and digital processing
and instrument control electronics.
There were a number of press releases to mark this event, for example
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMZS3BXH3H_index_0.html
http://www.bis.gov.uk/ukspaceagency/news-and-events/2012/Jun/illuminating-the-dark-ahead-with-the-euclid-mission
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/1206/20062012-euclid
Two new staff have already joined the Euclid team at MSSL: Dr Sami Niemi is the VIS instrument scientist, and
Jamie Denniston is the VIS System Engineer. A project manager, Dr Sabrina Pottinger, will start next month,
initially assisting Richard Cole.
****************
Contents
New Staff Member ...................................................................................................................................................3
Prizes and Awards ...................................................................................................................................................3
Appointments ...........................................................................................................................................................3
Visitors .....................................................................................................................................................................3
Grants and Contracts...............................................................................................................................................3
Proposals .................................................................................................................................................................3
Mission Status and Developments ..........................................................................................................................3
Publications – Refereed...........................................................................................................................................4
Outreach ..................................................................................................................................................................9
Other News Items/Activities .....................................................................................................................................9
Press Releases ........................................................................................................................................................9
Media Broadcasts and Features ..............................................................................................................................9
Next Issue ..............................................................................................................................................................10
2
Anne Wellbrock has started as a Research
Assistant in the Planetary Science Group.
out to lead the AUREX proposal, but terminated
that activity due to lack of UK funding for Smissions and for lack of time due to an
unexpectedly early new baby.
Prizes and Awards
Mission Status and Developments
Andrew Fazakerley was formally awarded the
Chapman medal at NAM 2012.
Cassini – The CAPS instrument was successfully
turned on again in mid-March and worked
successfully until the end of the reporting period,
gathering excellent data from three Enceladus
encounters and a Titan encounter. The Planetary
rd
Science group hosted the 43 CAPS team meeting
on 31 May-1 June with over 35 international
attendees. MSSL-led science talks were given by
Coates (2), Wellbrock, Arridge (for Jones),
Arridge, Jasinski, Walsh, Coates (for Jones), and
operations talks by Gilbert, Lewis and Arridge.
Unfortunately another on-board anomaly involving
CAPS occurred on 2 June and the instrument has
been off since. The scientific output from CAPS at
MSSL continues to be excellent (see publications
and presentation lists).
New Staff Member
Congratulations to Chris Arridge who was awarded
a Royal Society University Research Fellowship
from October 2012, and a newly-created academic
post in the Planetary Science Group following this.
Appointments
Lucie Green has become a member of the Science
Museum Advisory Board.
Colin Forsyth stood down from MIST Council
having served a 3-year term.
Visitors
Cluster – All four Cluster spacecraft and all four
PEACE instruments continue to operate well.
Licia Ray from UCL and Lewis Dartnell from
Leicester University both gave seminars when they
visited the Planetary Science Group.
A Cluster Science Operations Working Group
meeting was held on 15/6 March. Andrew
Fazakerley participated.
The Space Plasma Group were visted by Kyle
Murphy of the University of Alberta for two weeks
in April. Kyle was a guest of Andrew Walsh, who
had visited Alberta in 2008. They were partially
funded by an RAS grant to aid international
collaboration.
A Cluster Cross-Calibration Workshop was held at
UCL on 17-19 April. It was organized by the
PEACE team from MSSL, with excellent support
from the MSSL General Office. Presentations were
given by Iryna Rozum and Natasha Doss; Andrew
Fazakerley also participated.
Grants and Contracts
Lunar Pancam: We have been awarded an ESA
contract to study the adaptations required to use
the ExoMars Pancam for the proposed lunar lander
(instrument to be called L-CAM). This 6-month
study will examine the differences in the radiation
and thermal environments. We have been
responding to ESA queries relating to their recent
call for Declarations of Interest for L-CAM, and are
working towards providing the required information
by the due date in early June.
The Cluster Active Archive Annual Operations
Review meeting was held at ESTEC on 30/31
May. Presentations were given by Iryna Rozum
and Natasha Doss.
ExoMars – Some positive decisions by ESA during
the period to keep the programme going
temporarily, and involving the Swiss contribution to
PanCam. ExoMars is still awaiting final go-ahead
and positive budget decisions with a re-formulated
programme involving significant Russian
collaboration.
Chris Arridge has been awarded an RAS
undergraduate bursary to support Tim Culwick (U.
Oxford) for a four-week placement during this
summer. He will work on retrieving atmospheric
water vapour content and profiles using ExoMars
PanCam.
JUICE – The JUICE mission to Jupiter’s moons
Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, the first orbiter of
an icy satellite (Ganymede), was selected as
ESA’s first ‘L’ mission on 2 May by the ESA SPC,
following SSAC recommendation. Andrew Coates
continued ESA Science Study Team (SST) activity
with several inputs during this period culminating
the last few years of ESA SST membership,
including attending the final Science Study Team
meeting on 29 May. Several media appearances
Proposals
Lunar PanCam study, ESA – submitted.
Andrew Fazakerley supported work on the NITRO
proposal for an ESA S-Class mission, and also set
3
followed the decision on 2 May. The next stage for
MSSL activity will begin with the payload AO
expected in late June. We intend to propose
instrumentation as PI and co-I on the mission.
The SWA team worked hard in order to deliver
successfully the required documentation for the
SWA Preliminary Design Review on 8 May. The
SWA team gathered in Noordwijk for a pre-“PDR
Kick-off” team meeting on 23 May, and presented
the status of the investigation to the review panel
at the “PDR Kick-off” meeting itself at ESTEC on
the following day.
KuaFu – The ESA KuaFu Science Study Team
(which includes Andrew Fazakerley) worked on
and delivered the science case for the Yellow
Book document during the reporting period. The
collaboration included a meeting at ESTEC on 20
April and numerous telecons, as well as lots of
writing!
Chris Owen participated in the Remote Sensing
Working Group Meeting held at MSSL on 15 May,
representing the SWA consortium and the other insitu instruments.
L-Depp – MSSL are part of the L-DEPP (Lunar
Dust Environment and Plasma Package) study for
the proposed ESA funded Lunar Lander mission,
which is nearing completion. ESA have recently
released a Call for Declaration of Interest (DOI) for
science payloads on the mission and MSSL will
potentially propose a combined electron and ion
analyser as part of the dust package. The baseline
sensor is a modified version of the Solar Orbiter
EAS with a single analyser head, modified to be
able to make measurements of both electrons and
ions. A miniaturised analyser based on the ChaPS
sensor built for TechDemoSat is also being
considered.
Venus Express and Mars Express – Operations
and scientific output continue (including a paper in
Science, see publications list).
Publications – Refereed
Published
Arridge, Christopher S., Craig B. Agnor,
Nicolas André, Kevin H. Baines,
Leigh N. Fletcher, Daniel Gautier,
Mark D. Hofstadter, Geraint H. Jones,
Laurent Lamy, Yves Langevin, Olivier Mousis,
Nadine Nettelmann, Christopher T. Russell,
Tom Stallard, Matthew S. Tiscareno,
Gabriel Tobie, Andrew Bacon, Chris Chaloner,
Michael Guest, Steve Kemble, Lisa Peacocke,
Nicholas Achilleos, Thomas P. Andert,
Don Banfield, Stas Barabash,
Mathieu Barthelemy, Cesar Bertucci,
Pontus Brandt, Baptiste Cecconi,
Supriya Chakrabarti, Andy F. Cheng,
Ulrich Christensen, Apostolos Christou,
Andrew J. Coates, Glyn Collinson,
John F. Cooper, Regis Courtin,
Michele K. Dougherty, Robert W. Ebert,
Marta Entradas, Andrew N. Fazakerley,
Jonathan J. Fortney, Marina Galand,
Jaques Gustin, Matthew Hedman, Ravit Helled,
Pierre Henri, Sebastien Hess, Richard Holme,
Özgur Karatekin, Norbert Krupp, Jared Leisner,
Javier Martin-Torres, Adam Masters,
Henrik Melin, Steve Miller, Ingo Müller-Wodarg,
Benoît Noyelles, Chris Paranicas,
Imke de Pater, Martin Pätzold, Renée Prangé,
Eric Quémerais, Elias Roussos,
Abigail M. Rymer, Agustin Sánchez-Lavega,
Joachim Saur, Kunio M. Sayanagi,
Paul Schenk, Gerald Schubert, Nick Sergis,
Frank Sohl, Edward C. Sittler Jr.,
Nick A. Teanby, Silvia Tellmann,
Elizabeth P. Turtle, Sandrine Vinatier, JanErik Wahlund and Philippe Zarka, Uranus
Pathfinder: exploring the origins and evolution
of Ice Giant planets, Exp. Astron.,
Solar Orbiter - Members of MSSL's PI team for
the Solar Orbiter SWA investigation went to
Toulouse to meet with consortium colleagues from
France, Italy and the USA at the 10th SWA team
meeting (5-7 March). Latest developments of the
SWA hardware were reviewed, together with the
status of the consortium as it heads towards ESA's
formal “Preliminary Design Review” (see
below). Chris Owen (SWA Principal Investigator),
Chris Brockley-Blatt (SWA Project manager), Barry
Hancock (SWA Systems Engineer) and Dhiren
Kataria (SWA Instrument Scientist) represented
MSSL at the meeting.
The MSSL SWA PI team hosted Giorgio
Bagnasco, the ESA SO payload manager for a
meeting to discuss current open issues on 18
April.
Chris Owen attended the signing of the spacecraft
prime contract between ESA and Astrium UK,
which occurred as part of the ’50 Years of UK in
Space’ conference at the Science Museum on 26
April. The Business Secretary, Vince Cable, was
also in attendance.
Chris Owen was interviewed on plans for the Solar
Orbiter mission by the Discovery Channel (see
Media Coverage below).
The MSSL SWA team hosted the SWA DPU team
from AMdL in Rome on 30 April, in order to
perform the first test of DPU/EAS interface.
4
(Astrophysical Instrumentation and Methods),
10.1007/s10686-011-9251-4
Badman, S.V., N. Achilleos, C.S. Arridge, K.H.
Baines, R.H. Brown, E.J. Bunce, A.J. Coates,
S.W.H. Cowley, M.K. Dougherty, M. Fujimoto,
G. Hospodarsky, S. Kasahara, T. Kimura, H.
Melin, D. G. Mitchell, T. Stallard, C. Tao,
Correction to Cassini observations of ion and
electron beams at Saturn and their relationship
to infrared auroral arcs, J. Geophys. Res., 117,
A04220, 2012.
Baker, D., van Driel-Gesztelyi, L., Green, L.M.:
2012, “Forecasting a CME by spectroscopic
precursor”, Solar Phys., 276, 219-239.
Berthomier, M., A.N. Fazakerley, O. Alexandrova,
A. Anastasiadis, A. Aruliah, P.-L. Blelly, C.
Briand, R. Bruno, P. Canu, B. Cecconi, T.
Chust, I. Daglis, J. Davies, M. Dunlop, D.
Fontaine, C. Forsyth, V. Génot, B. Gustavsson,
G. Haerendel, M. Hamrin, M. Hapgood, S.
Hess, D. Kataria, K. Kauristie, S. Kemble, Y.
Khotyaintsev, H. Koskinen, L. Lamy, B.
Lanchester, P. Louarn, E. Lucek, R. Lundin, M.
Maksimovic, J. Manninen, A. Marchaudon, O.
Marghitu, G. Marklund, S. Milan, J. Moen, F.
Mottez, H. Nilsson, N. Ostgaard, C. J. Owen, M.
Parrot, T. Passot, A. Pedersen, C. Perry, J.-L.
Pinçon, F. Pitout, R. Pottelette, T. Pulkkinen, J.
Rae, L. Rezeau, A. Roux, I. Sandahl, I.
Sandberg, E. Turunen, J. Vogt, A. Walsh, C.
Watt, J. Wild, M. Yamauchi, P. Zarka, I.
Zouganelis, Alfvén : Magnetosphere Ionosphere Connection Explorers, Exp. Astron.,
(Astrophysical Instrumentation and Methods),
doi: 10.1007/s10686-011-9273-y, Volume 33,
Issue 2-3, pp 445-489, April 2012.
Branduardi-Raymont, G., S. F. Sembay, J. P.
Eastwood, D. G. Sibeck, A. Abbey, P. Brown, J.
A. Carter, C. M. Carr, C. Forsyth, D. Kataria, S.
Kemble, S. Milan, C. J. Owen, L. Peacocke, A.
M. Read, C. S. Arridge, A. J. Coates, M. R.
Collier, S. W. H. Cowley, G. Fraser, G. H.
Jones, R. Lallement, M. Lester, F. S. Porter, T.
Yeoman, AXIOM: Advanced X-ray Imaging Of
the Magnetosphere, Exp. Astron.,
(Astrophysical Instrumentation and Methods),
doi: 10.1007/s10686-011-9239-0, Volume 33,
Issue 2-3, pp 403-443, April 2012.
Carbary, J.F., N. Achilleos, C.S. Arridge, The
statistical ring current of Saturn, J. Geophys.
Res., in press.
Coates, A.J., A. Wellbrock, G.R. Lewis, C.S.
Arridge, F.J. Crary, D.T. Young, M.F. Thomsen,
D.B. Reisenfeld, E.C. Sittler Jr, R.E. Johnson,
K. Szego, Z. Bebesi, G.H. Jones, Cassini in
Titan’s tail: CAPS observations of plasma
escape, J. Geophys. Res., 117, A05324,
doi:10.1029/2012JA017595, May 2012.
Coates, A.J., Enceladus, in McGraw-Hill Yearbook
of Science & Technology 2012, ISBN 978-007177403-1, pp72-76, McGraw-Hill, Nw York,
2012.
Coates, A.J., Ion Pickup and Acceleration:
Measurements From Planetary Missions, in
‘Physics of the heliosphere: a 10-year
retrospective’, 10th Annual Astrophysics
Conference, AIP proceedings volume 1436,
ISBN: 978-0-7354-1026-8, Editor(s): Jacob
Heerikhuisen, Gang Li, Nikolai Pogorelov, Gary
Zank, p89-102, May 2012.
Collinson, G.A., D.G. Sibeck, A. Masters, N.
Shane, J.A. Slavin, A.J. Coates, T.L. Zhang, M.
Sarantos, S. Boardsen, T.E. Moore, and S.
Barabash, Hot Flow Anomalies at Venus, J.
Geophys. Res., 117, A04204, Apr 2012.
Collinson, G.A., J.C. Dorelli, L.A. Avanov, G.R.
Lewis, T.E. Moore, C. Pollock, D.O. Kataria, R.
Bedington, C.S. Arridge, D.J. Chornay, U.
Gliese, A. Mariano, A.C. Barrie, C. Tucker, C.J.
Owen, A.P. Walsh, M.D. Shappirio, M.L. Adrian,
Publisher's Note: ``The geometric factor of
electrostatic plasma analyzers: A case study
from the Fast Plasma Investigation for the
Magnetospheric Multiscale mission'' [Rev. Sci.
Instrum. 83, 033303 (2012)], Rev. Sci. Instrum.,
83(5), pp. 059901, doi: 10.1063/1.4717726,
May 2012.
Collinson, G.A., J.C. Dorelli, L.A. Avanov, G.R.
Lewis, T.E. Moore, C. Pollock, D.O. Kataria, R.
Bedington, C.S. Arridge, D.J. Chornay, U.
Gliese, A. Mariano, A.C. Barrie, C. Tucker, C.J.
Owen, A.P. Walsh, M.D. Shappirio, M.L. Adrian,
The geometric factor of electrostatic plasma
analyzers: A case study from the Fast Plasma
Investigation for the Magnetospheric Multiscale
mission, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 83(3), pp. 033303,
doi:10.1063/1.3687021, 2012.
Gurgiolo, C., M. L. Goldstein, A. F. Viñas, and
A. N. Fazakerley, Direct observations of the
formation of the solar wind halo from the strahl,
Ann. Geophys., 30, 163-175, 2012
Harra, L.K., Archontis, V., Pedram, E., Hood,
A.W., Shelton, D.L., van Driel-Gesztelyi, L.:
2012, “The creation of outflowing plasma in the
corona at emerging flux regions: comparing
observations and simulations”, Solar Phys.,
278, 47-71.
Hill, T.W., M.F. Thomsen, R.L. Tokar, A.J. Coates,
G.R. Lewis, D.T. Young, F.J. Crary, R.A.
Baragiola, R.E. Johnson, Y. Dong, R.J. Wilson,
G.H. Jones, J.-E. Wahlund, D.G. Mitchell, and
M. Horányi, Charged nanograins in the
Enceladus plume, J. Geophys. Res., 117,
A05209, May 2012.
Krupp, N., E. Roussos, P. Kollmann, C. Paranicas,
D.G. Mitchell, S.M. Krimigis, A. Rymer, G.H.
5
Jones, C.S. Arridge, T.P. Armstrong, K.K.
Khurana, The Cassini Enceladus encounters
2005-2010 in the view of energetic electron
measurements, Icarus 218(1), pp. 433-447,
2012.
Lai, H.R., H.Y. Wei, C.T. Russell, C.S. Arridge,
M.K. Dougherty, Reconnection at the
magnetopause of Saturn: Perspective from FTE
occurrence and magnetosphere size, J.
Geophys. Res. 117, A05222,
doi:10.1029/2011JA017263, May 2012.
Lybekk, B., A. Pedersen, S. Haaland, K. Svenes,
A. N. Fazakerley, A. Masson, M. G. G. T.
Taylor, and J.-G. Trotignon, Solar cycle
variations of the Cluster spacecraft potential
and its use for electron density estimations, J.
Geophys. Res., 117, A1,
doi:10.1029/2011JA016969, 2012
Masters, A., J.P. Eastwood, M. Swisdak, M.F.
Thomsen, C.T. Russell, N. Sergis, F.J. Crary,
M.K. Dougherty, A.J. Coates, S.M. Krimigis,
The importance of plasma β conditions for
magnetic reconnection at Saturn’s
magnetopause, Geophys. Res. Lett., 39,
L08103, Apr 2012.
Masters, A., N. Achilleos, J. C. Cutler, A. J.
Coates, M. K. Dougherty and G. H. Jones,
Surface waves on Saturn’s magnetopause,
Planet Space Sci., 65, 102-191, DOI
10.1016/j.pss.2012.02.007, Mar 2012.
Owen, Christopher J., Olaf Amm, Roberto Bruno,
Johan De Keyser, Malcolm Dunlop, Jonathan
Eastwood, Andrew N. Fazakerley, Dominique
Fontaine, Colin Forsyth, Hiroshi Hasegawa,
Petr Hellinger, David Hercik, Christian Jacquey,
Steven Milan, Joachim Raeder, David G.
Sibeck, Stepan Stverak, Pavel Travnicek,
Andrew P. Walsh, James Wild, IMPALAS:
Investigation of MagnetoPause Activity using
Longitudinally-Aligned Satellites – a Mission
Concept proposed for the ESA M3 2020/2022
Launch, Exp. Astron., (Astrophysical
Instrumentation and Methods), doi:
10.1007/s10686-011-9245-2, Volume 33, Issue
2-3, pp 365-401, April 2012.
Page, M.J., Symeonidis M., +76 coauthors, Nature
485, 213, "The suppression of star formation by
powerful active galactic nuclei"
Schippers, P., N. Andre, D.A. Gurnett, G.R. Lewis,
A.M. Persoon, A.J. Coates, Identification of
electron field-aligned current systems in
Saturn's magnetosphere, J. Geophys. Res.,
117, A05204, May 2012.
Srama, R.; Krüger, H.; Yamaguchi, T.; Stephan, T.;
Burchell, M.; Kearsley, A. T.; Sterken, V.;
Postberg, F.; Kempf, S.; Grün, E.; Altobelli, N.;
Ehrenfreund, P.; Dikarev, V.; Horanyi, M.;
Sternovsky, Z.; Carpenter, J. D.; Westphal, A.;
Gainsforth, Z.; Krabbe, A.; Agarwal, J.; Yano,
H.; Blum, J.; Henkel, H.; Hillier, J.; Hoppe, P.;
Trieloff, M.; Hsu, S.; Mocker, A.; Fiege, K.;
Green, S. F.; Bischoff, A.; Esposito, F.; Laufer,
R.; Hyde, T. W.; Herdrich, G.; Fasoulas, S.;
Jäckel, A.; Jones, G.; Jenniskens, P.; Khalisi,
E.; Moragas-Klostermeyer, G.; Spahn, F.;
Keller, H. U.; Frisch, P.; Levasseur-Regourd, A.
C.; Pailer, N.; Altwegg, K.; Engrand, C.; Auer,
S.; Silen, J.; Sasaki, S.; Kobayashi, M.;
Schmidt, J.; Kissel, J.; Marty, B.; Michel, P.;
Palumbo, P.; Vaisberg, O.; Baggaley, J.;
Rotundi, A.; Röser, H. P., SARIM PLUS –
sample return of comet 67P/CG and of
interstellar matter, Exp. Astron. 33(2-3), pp.
723, doi:10.1007/s10686-011-9285-7, April
2012.
Sun, W.J., Q. Q. Shi, S. Y. Fu, Z. Y. Pu,
M. W. Dunlop, A. P. Walsh, Q. G. Zong,
T. Xiao, C. L. Tang, H. Reme, C. Carr,
E. Lucek, and A. Fazakerley , Cluster and TC-1
observation of magnetic holes in the plasma
sheet, Ann. Geophys., 30, 583-595, 2012
Sylwester, J., M. Kowalinski, S. Gburek, M.
Siarkowski, S. Kuzin, F. Farnik, F. Reale, K. J.
H. Phillips, J. Bakala, M. Gryciuk, P. Podgorski,
B. Sylwester. "SphinX measurements of the
2009 Solar Minimum X-ray Emission." ApJ,
751: 111 (June 1, 2012). See
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1203.6809.pdf
Valori, G., Green, L.M., Démoulin, P., VargasDomínguez, S., van Driel-Gesztelyi, L.,
Wallace, A., Baker, D., Fuhrmann, M.: 2012,
“Nonlinear force-free extrapolation of emerging
flux with a global twist and serpentine fine
structures” Solar Phys., 278, 73-97. This paper
looks at how magnetic field emerges into the
solar atmosphere and the role of magnetic
reconnection.
Vargas-Domínguez, S., MacTaggart, D., Green, L.,
van Driel-Gesztelyi, L., Hood, A.W.: 2011, “On
signatures of twisted flux emergence”, Solar
Phys., 278, Number 1 (2012), 33-45, DOI:
10.1007/s11207-011-9789-3
Vargas-Domínguez, S., van Driel-Gesztelyi, L.,
Bellot-Rubio, L.R.: 2012, “Granular-scale
elementary flux emergence episodes in a solar
active region”, Solar Phys. 278, 99-120.
Wellbrock, A., A.J. Coates, I. Sillanpää, G. H.
Jones, C. S. Arridge, G.R. Lewis, D. T. Young,
F.J. Crary, A. D. Aylward, Cassini observations
of ionospheric photoelectrons at large distances
from Titan: Implications for Titan’s exospheric
environment and magnetic tail, J. Geophys.
Res., 117, A03216,
doi:10.1029/2011JA017113, Mar 2012.
Yershov, V.N., V.V.Orlov, A.A.Raikov, Correlation
of supernova redshifts with temperature
6
fluctuations of the Cosmic Microwave
Background", Monthly Notices of the Royal
Astronomical Society, Vol. 423, p.p. 2147-2152
(2012). In this paper, we found a statistically
significant correlation between supernova
redshifts and positive temperature fluctuations
in the cosmic microwave background as
mapped by the 7-year WMAP data. The
anomaly with the amplitude +29.9 +-4.4 microKelvin (for the redshifts z ranging from 0.5 to
1.0) is larger than the theoretical estimates for
the distortion of the cosmic microwave
background due to the integrated Sachs-Wolfe
effect(dark energy).
http://arxiv.org/abs/1205.5139
Zhang, T.L., Q.M. Lu, W. Baumjohann, C.T.
Russell, A. Fedorov, S. Barabash, A. J. Coates,
A. M. Du, J.B. Cao, R. Nakamura, W.L. Teh,
R.S. Wang, X.K. Dou, S. Wang, K.H.
Glassmeier, H.U. Auster, M. Balikhin, Magnetic
Reconnection in the Near Venusian
Magnetotail, DOI: 10.1126/science.1217013,
Science Express 5 April 2012, Science 336,
567-570, 4 May 2012.
Bernhard Kliem co-organised the session,
“Magnetic Reconnection in Space and
Astrophysical Plasmas'' and gave an invited
talk entitled, “Structure and Instability of Activeregion Magnetic Fields''.
Chris
Arridge,
Geraint
Jones,
Yudish
Ramanjooloo and Tom Nordheim attended and
presented four presentations. The planetary
science group contributed to a further two talks:
Arridge, C.S., G.R. Lewis, A.J. Coates, M.K.
Dougherty, Survey of anisotropic electron
moments in Saturn’s magnetosphere;
Jones, G.H., H. Osborn, Y. Ramanjooloo, The
Sodium Tails of Near-Sun Comets;
Nordheim, T., G.H. Jones, A.J. Coates, J.S.
Leisner, W.S. Kurth, K.K. Khurana, E. Roussos,
N. Krupp, F.J. Crary, Surface charging on small
bodies: likely detection at Saturn’s icy moon
Hyperion;
Ramanjooloo, Y., G.H. Jones, A.J. Coates,
M. Owens, The structure of the inner
heliosphere
as
revealed
by
amateur
astronomers’ images of comets;
Invited Talks and Conferences

The biannual PEACE Team Meeting, organised
by PEACE PI Andrew Fazakerley and Branislav
Mihaljcic of MSSL, was held at the lab in a
three day event from 6-8 March. Delegates
from UK, Europe and North America took part.
Yulia Bogdanova, Natasha Doss, Roger Duthie,
Andrew Fazakerley, Colin Forsyth, Branislav
Mihaljcic, Kirthika Mohan, Iryna Rozum and
Andrew Walsh gave presentations.

Bunce, E.J., D. Grodent, D.J. Andrews, C.S.
Arridge, S.V. Badman, S.W.H. Cowley, M.K.
Dougherty, W.S. Kurth, D.G. Mitchell, G.
Provan, Cassini multi-instrument observations
of Saturn;
Provan, G., D.J. Andrews, E.J. Bunce, A.J.
Coates, S.W.H. Cowley, M.K. Dougherty,
Saturn’s field aligned currents and their
relationship to the phases of the planetary
period oscillation.
RAS Specialist Discussion Colin Forsyth and
Adam Masters co-convened an RAS Specialist
Discussion Meeting with colleagues from the
University
of
Leicester.
Entitled
“Magnetosphere-Ionosphere
coupling
and
auroral emissions at planets in our solar system
and beyond” it was held on 9 March at
Burlington House, London. The meeting
explored coupling processes throughout the
solar system through both observational and
modelling studies. The Planetary Science group
contributed:
Chris Owen and Andrew Fazakerley also
attended NAM, along with Colin Forsyth and
Andrew Walsh. All four presented work from the
Space Plasma Physics group including new
work on auroral physics and the structure of
Earth's magnetotail, as well as the upcoming
ESA missions SWARM and Solar Orbiter. Apart
from presenting his own work, Colin Forsyth
also co-convened the General MIST session.
Achilleos, N., C.S. Arridge and P. Guio, Shifts
in jovian auroral features associated with timedependent mass-loading.


Royal
Astronomical
Society,
National
Astronomy Meeting (NAM), Manchester, 27-30
March:
Planetary science group contributed to 2
presentations at the 43rd Lunar and Planetary
Science Conference, 19-23 March, at The
Woodlands, Texas:
Li, R.; Li, D.; Lin, L.; Meng, X.; di, K.; Paar, G.;
Coates, A.; Muller, J. P.; Griffiths, A.; Oberst,
7
J.; Barnes, D. P., ExoMars: Pre-Launch
PanCam Modeling and Accuracy, LPI
Contribution No. 1659, p.2437;
Dougherty, M.; Grasset, O.; Erd, C.; Titov, D.;
Bunce, E.; Coustenis, A.; Blanc, M.; Coates,
A.; Drossart, P.; Fletcher, L.; Hussmann, H.;
Jaumann, R.; Krupp, N.; Prieto-Ballesteros, O.;
Tortora, P.; Tosi, F.; van Hoolst, T., JUpiter ICy
moons Explorer (JUICE): An ESA L-Class
Mission Candidate to the Jupiter System, LPI
Contribution No. 1659, p.1806.

Wei, Y., M. Fraenz, E. Dubinin, A. Coates, S.
Barabash, and T. Zhang, A comet-like
ionosphere at Venus in tenuous solar wind;
Volwerk, M., N. André, C. Arridge, F. Bagenal,
J. Birn, C. Jackman, X. Jia, A. Kidder, S. Milan,
A. Radioti, M. Vogt, A. Walsh, R. Nakamura, A.
Masters, C. Forsyth, Comparative Magnetotail
Flapping: An Overview of Selected Events at
Earth, Jupiter and Saturn;
Masters, A., S.J. Schwartz, E.M. Henley, M.F.
Thomsen, B. Zieger, A.J. Coates, N. Achilleos,
J. Mitchell, K.C. Hansen, and M.K. Dougherty,
Electron heating at Saturn's bow shock;
European Geosciences Union, Vienna, 22-27
April:
Graziella Branduardi-Raymont (Astrophysics
Group) gave a talk on the AXIOM concept
mission, for global X-ray imaging of the Earth's
magnetosphere. The talk also mentioned the
ongoing development of an ESA Small Mission
proposal, due in June and led by MSSL, for Xray imaging of the Earth's cusps.
Retinò, A., A. Vaivads, B. Zieger, R. Nakamura,
M. Fujimoto, S. Kasahara, S. Badman, A.
Masters, A. Coates, and M. K. Dougherty,
Energetic electron acceleration at reconnection
jet fronts in planetary magnetotails;
From the Plasma Physics Group, Colin Forsyth
gave an invited talk on multi-spacecraft
observations of auroral acceleration processes
in Earth's magnetosphere and Roger Duthie
presented his own work on substorm related
magnetotail dynamics as a poster.
From the Planetary Science Group, Andrew
Coates attended and gave a solicited talk:
Coates, A.J., A. Wellbrock, G.R. Lewis, F.J.
Crary, M.F. Thomsen, D.B. Reisenfeld, K.
Szego, Z. Bebesi, C.S. Arridge, G.H. Jones,
E.C. Sittler Jr, and R.E. Johnson, Cassini in
Titan's tail: CAPS observations of plasma;

Graziella Branduardi-Raymont attended the
Europlanet workshop on 'Aurora of the Giant
Planets' in Santorini, Greece (23-25 May) and
gave a talk on the search for X-ray aurorae on
Saturn.

Andrew Coates presented an invited talk at the
5th Isradynamics conference, Jerusalem,
Israel, 29 April-7 May: Coates, A.J., Pickup ions
in the solar system. He also gave several
invited seminars during the period:
Crary, F.J., A.J. Coates, T.W. Hill, G.H. Jones,
and R.L. Tokar, Ions and nanograin dust in the
Enceladus
plume:
Cassini/CAPS
high
resolution energy spectra;
Garnier, P., J.-E. Wahlund, M. Holmberg, A.
Eriksson, S. Grimald, M. Morooka, G.
Gustafsson, P. Schippers, D.A. Gurnett, S.M.
Krimigis, N. Krupp, A. Coates, and F. Crary,
Mapping
energetic
electrons
in
the
magnetosphere of Saturn with the Cassini
RPWS Langmuir Probe;
Seminar at Imperial College London (Space
and Atmospheric Physics) on ‘The comet-solar
wind interaction: prospects for Rosetta’, 20
March;
Dougherty, M.K., O. Grasset, C. Erd, D. Titov,
E.J. Bunce, A. Coustenis, M. Blanc, A.J.
Coates, P. Drossart, L. Fletcher, H. Hussmann,
R. Jaumann, N. Krupp, O. Prieto-Ballesteros, P.
Tortora, F. Tosi, and T Van Hoolst, JUpiter ICy
moons Explorer (JUICE): An ESA L-class
mission candidate to the Jupiter system;
Lecture on ‘Plasma measurements in planetary
magnetospheres’ at Fusion Frontiers and
Interfaces Workshop, Fusion Doctoral Training
Network, York Plasma Institute, 21 March;
Seminar at Lancaster University ‘Comparative
review of ion pickup at various solar system
bodies’, 16 April.
Jarvinen, R., A.J. Coates, T.L. Zhang, S.
Barabash, A. Fedorov, and E. Kallio, Can
magnetic connectivity be used to interpret
Venus Express photoelectron observations? - A
global hybrid modelling study;
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Outreach
Press Releases
Chris Arridge gave talks on:

“The Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn” at
Cleethorpes and District Astronomical Society
on 4 April;

“Exploring the Solar System with Robots” at the
University of Hull for the Yorkshire branch of
the Institute of Physics on 19 April;

“Strangers and Giants” at the University of
Surrey for the Southeastern branch of the
Institute of Physics on 2 May.
Sergei Zharkov was interviewed by Will Gater for
an article on sunquakes and solar eruptions in
the July issue of Sky At Night Magazine
Chris also judged physics projects for the National
Science and Engineering Competition at The Big
Bang Fair, held at the National Exhibition Centre,
Birmingham on 15 March and performed at Bright
Club: Evil Genius at the Wilmington Arms on 17
April.
Chris Owen was interviewed by:

the Discovery Channel’s “Daily Planet” program
for an item which was broadcast on 4 May. An
unofficial version of the interview was captured
and can be found on youtube at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9UO_M7Dk
uU&list=UU9oplgdixPpMBAK0Shs5LSQ&index
=1&feature=plcp

“The Engineer” magazine for an article which
can be found online at:
http://www.theengineer.co.uk/sectors/aerospac
e/in-depth/stellar-line-up-the-solar-orbitermission/1012852.article
There was a NAM/RAS press-release highlighting
MSSL’s work on sunquakes and CMEs:
http://www.ras.org.uk/news-and-press/219-news2012/2109-solar-eruptions-cause-sunquakes
Media Broadcasts and Features
Andrew Coates talked on:

“Oceans on Other Worlds” at Cody
Astronomical Society, 6 March;

“Saturn, Titan and Enceladus: recent results
from Cassini”, at Basingstoke Astronomical
Society, 24 May.
Lucie Green:

gave a talk about the Sun as part of the Arts
Catalyst's Kosmica event;

took part in a Slooh's online broadcast of the
annular eclipse, discussing the Sun and current
research;

with Libby Daghorn, Craig Theobald and John
Coker ran activities for a group of students who
visited from St Teresa's school.
Andrew Coates and Geraint Jones:

UCL news article on oxygen at Dione, 1 March,
also BBC News, 2 March.
Andrew Coates:

Info for the Observer on space weather,
appeared 18 Mar

Info for BBC News on Mars, Titan, Europa and
Ganymede exploration, appeared 19 Mar

Interview on BBC radio 5 live Drive, on
extrasolar planets and planetary exploration, 28
March;

Quoted on BBC News website 2 April on JUICE
mission;

Interview on Sky News, 17 April, on Discovery
flight to Washington and future space
exploration;

Interview on JUICE selection BBC News, 19
April (for 2 May); used BBC1 6&10pm TV
News, BBC radio 4 PM, BBC online, Guardian,
FT (19 May);

Info for Guardian on UK space strengths, 20
April used 27 April;

Interview on Space X Falcon 9 launch, BBC
World TV news, 22 May;

Interview for ‘Awesome astronomy’ podcast on
JUICE, May.
Other News Items/Activities
Congratulations to Alan Brown and Kay Thi on
their wedding, Amy and Neville Shane on the birth
of their baby, Daisy, and Hannah and Andrew
Fazakerley on the birth of their baby, Eleanor.
Jo O’Regan cycled from London to Paris on 9-12
May in aid of Barnardo's Children's Charity, raising
£1,550.00 (£1,770.41 with gift aid) in total, with in
excess of £1,000 raised from activities and donors
at MSSL! Jo would like to thank each and
everyone at MSSL again for their support and
generosity for this event.
Thanks to all involved (office, kitchen) in muchappreciated arrangements for the successful
CAPS meeting 31 May-1 June.
PoleCATS, the MSSL-based, student-led UKSEDS
payload for a REXUS sounding rocket launch
successfully passed its preliminary design
review. The launch is scheduled for March 2013.
Lucie Green:

was one of the presenters of BBC's Horizon
programme on the Venus transit - looking at the
history of this rare event and its modern
9

relevance to studies of our own solar system
and beyond.
took part in the media event related to Solar
Orbiter and Astrium signing the contract to lead
the build of the satellite.
Next Issue
The next issue of The Newsletter (Volume 10,
Issue 2) will be published in September 2012. This
will cover activities from 1 June to 31 August
2012.
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