Newsletter 11-11

Issue11-11, July 26th 2011

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1) IN MEMORIAM: CONWAY LEOVY (1933-2011)
2) UPDATE FROM THE CHAIR
3) EPSC-DPS 2011 JOINT MEETING PROGRAMME AVAILABLE
4) REMINDER : DPS ELECTIONS
5) HELP OUR COLLEAGUES IN SENDAI AND THE PEOPLE OF JAPAN
6) ESA POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIPS IN SPACE SCIENCE
7) UPCOMING MEETINGS
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IN MEMORIAM: CONWAY LEOVY (1933-2011)
DPS 2000 Kuiper Prize Recipient, Conway Leovy, passed away on July 9, 2011, aged 78. Conway was a prominent planetary scientist with major contributions in our understanding of the terrestrial planets, Mars and Venus, but also of Jupiter and Saturn’s satellite, Titan. In particular, Conway was very actively involved in Mars’ exploration and participated and contributed to the Mariner 6, 7 and 9 missions, the Viking landers and more recently in the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Furthermore, Leovy furthered our knowledge in different branches of Earth’s atmospheric science.

Leovy was Emeritus professor of Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysics at the University of Washington, Seattle.
For his DPS prize see:
prizes/2000

He will be sorely missed by his family, colleagues and friends. A more detailed tribute and memorial information related to Leovy can be found at:
http://www.atmos.washington.edu/people/leovy

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UPDATE FROM THE CHAIR
The DPS Committee, with the support of the AAS meeting planning staff, has been hard at work on planning upcoming meetings.

The Science Program for the fall joint EPSC-DPS meeting is now available. I call to your attention the two plenary sessions, Monday and Thursday at 10:30am, during which we will award the Prizes and hear the Prize lectures.
The annual Members (Business) Meeting will be Thursday at lunch time (12 – 1:30), and the Agency night will be on Thursday.

After discussing several options for the 2014 and 2015 meetings, the Committee has approved the following dates and venues:
• Tucson, Arizona; November 9-14, 2014 at the JW Marriott Starr Pass Hotel
• Washington, DC; November 8-13, 2015 at the Gaylord National Harbor Hotel

Melissa McGrath
DPS Chair

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EPSC-DPS 2011 JOINT MEETING PROGRAMME AVAILABLE
Join us in Nantes, France, from 2-7 October for the Joint EPSC-DPS 2011 meeting !
http://meetings.copernicus.org/epsc-dps2011/

Manuel Grande and Renu Malhotra, with the EPSC-DPS 2011 SOC, have completed the meeting’s schedule. The full details of the program are now available at: http://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/epsc-dps2011/meetingprogramme

Note that 1698 abstracts were received, including 1236 requests for oral presentations and 473 requests for poster presentations. Given the practical constraints of the 5 days of the meeting and the number of meeting rooms at the conference center, it was not possible to accommodate all the requests for oral presentations, so that in order to accommodate as many requests as possible and do so fairly to all participants, the SOC has adopted a policy of “one oral presentation per person”, with an exception for those presenters who are also presenting invited and outreach talks.

Pre-registration deadline is 18 August.

Detailed and latest information on pre-registration, splinter meetings, accommodations, social events, sight-seeing trips and more is provided on the conference webpage http://meetings.copernicus.org/epsc-dps2011.

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REMINDER: DPS ELECTIONS
We are coming very close to the elections deadline of July 30th, 2011.

Please take a moment to vote by going to http://aas.org/vote/ .
You will need your AAS member login ID (which defaults to your membership number), and your password.

You should vote for one of the two candidates for Vice-Chair: Rosaly Lopes and Alan Stern.
The Vice-Chair will become the DPS Chair in October 2011.

You should vote for two of the four candidates for DPS Committee:
Ralph McNutt, Patrick Michel, Ingo Mueller-Wodarg and Bob Pappalardo.
The successful candidates will serve on the committee for three years.

The detailed vitae and position statements for each of the candidates can be found on the main election page at:
http://aas.org/vote/

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HELP OUR COLLEAGUES IN SENDAI AND THE PEOPLE OF JAPAN
The American Red Cross’ work in Japan can be advanced by the purchase (from Amazon.com) of a memoir of the March 11th disasters.
Purchase of AN EARTHQUAKE, A TSUNAMI AND A MEANINGFUL LIFE
by Michael Mendillo (Boston University) is now available via
http://tinyurl.com/SendaiMemoir

All net proceeds go to towards earthquake and tsunami relief efforts.
The author, a member of AAS/DPS and a Fellow of the AGU and, was the sole American at the Sendai Airport when the disasters occurred.”

Direct contributions to the Red Cross and other relief agencies are encouraged as well. Reports from colleagues in Sendai are encouraging, but it will be some time before recovery efforts and complete and they can return to “science as normal”. Your contributions will help.

Nick Schneider, for the DPS Committee

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ESA POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIPS IN SPACE SCIENCE
The European Space Agency awards several postdoctoral fellowships each
year. The aim of these fellowships is to provide young scientists, holding
a PhD or the equivalent degree, with the means of performing space science
research in fields related to the ESA Science and Robotic Exploration
Programmes. Areas of research include planetary science, astronomy and
astrophysics, solar and solar-terrestrial science, plasma physics and
fundamental physics. The fellowships have a duration of two years and are
tenable at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in
Noordwijk, Netherlands, or at the European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC)
in Villafranca del Castillo, near Madrid, Spain.

Applications are now solicited for fellowships in space science to begin
in the fall of 2012. Preference will be given to applications submitted by
candidates within five years of receiving their PhD. Candidates not
holding a PhD yet are encouraged to apply, but they must provide evidence
of receiving their degree before starting the fellowship.

The deadline for applications is 1 October 2011.

More information on the ESA Research Fellowship programme in Space
Science, on the conditions and eligibility, as well as the application
form can be found on the world-wide web at this address:
http://www.rssd.esa.int/fellowship
Questions on the scientific aspects of the ESA Fellowship in Space Science
not answered in the above pages can be sent by e-mail to the fellowship
coordinator, Dr. Guido De Marchi, at the address [email protected]

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UPCOMING MEETINGS
See also The Planetary Exploration Newsletter announcements at http://planetarynews.org

1) 2011 Fall AGU Meeting
San Francisco (5-9 December)

Abstract submission is now open at:
http://agu-fm11.abstractcentral.com/
Abstracts are due August 4.

Among other sessions please note:

SA06: Ionospheres of Unmagnetized Planets: Venus, Mars and Titan
Atmospheric dynamics, solar photons, energetic particles and induced and intrinsic magnetic fields combine in myriad ways to create planetary ionospheres. Venus has a dense dayside ionosphere and mysterious ionospheric ‘holes’ on the night side. Locally intense remnant crustal magnetic fields alter Mars’ otherwise Venus-like ionosphere to create a plasma laboratory unique in the solar system. Titan is bombarded by solar photons and Kronian energetic electrons, creating a dynamic ionosphere and rich hydrocarbon chemistry. In all cases, these ionospheres are the reservoirs for atmospheric escape. Related contributions are sought covering recent advances or reviews of observations, numerical modeling or relevant laboratory experiments.

More information on the session can be found at:
http://sites.agu.org/fallmeeting/scientific-program/session-search/744

Robert Lillis [email protected]
Paul Withers [email protected]
Matthew Fillingim [email protected]
Guillaume Gronoff [email protected]

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You may also want to consider submitting an abstract to one or more of the following Cassini-related sessions (Go to http://sites.agu.org/fallmeeting/announcements/abstract-submission-open/ to see all sessions and to submit.)

P08/B ………… Eyes on Enceladus (Porco, McKay, conveners)
P21 ……………. Origins and Interactions of the Outer Planet Satellites (Hansen, Khurana, conveners)
P27 ……………. Planetary Rings: Theory and Observation (Schmidt, Spilker, Esposito, conveners)
P31 ……………. Saturn: New Discoveries from the Cassini Orbiter and Earth-Based Observatories (Baines, Ingersoll, conveners)
P33/A/EP ….. Titan: An Earth-Like World (Turtle, Nelson, Lopes, conveners)
SM04 …………. Dynamics in the Saturnian Magnetosphere (Masters, Leiser, Hospodarsky, conveners)
SM10/P ……… Moon-Magnetosphere Interactions throughout the Solar System (Plaschke, Saur, Hansen, Simon, conveners)

2) The 2011 PERC Planetary Geology Field Symposium
The symposium will take place on 5-6 November 2011 at the Kitakyushu
International Conference Center, Japan, followed by a three-day field
trip to a volcanic zone in the central Kyushu island during 7-9 November.

Please take look at our web site
http://www.perc.it-chiba.ac.jp/meetings/pgfs2011/
for details. Abstracts are due August 31st, 2011.

In spite of the extremely diverse geological settings existing in Asia,
relatively little attention has been paid to this region in terms of
terrestrial analog studies for planetary application. Planetary
Exploration Research Center (PERC) of Chiba Institute of Technology will
host the first planetary geology field symposium in Asia for presenting
results and exchanging ideas among planetary scientists and terrestrial
geologists about terrestrial analog studies, in a western Japanese
island (Kyushu) of extremely diverse volcanic landforms and active
geothermal features. The symposium will be open also to engineers with
interest in instrument development for planetary missions.

During the three-day field trip, we will visit several areas along the
Beppu-Shimabara graben with geologic features for planetary
significance. These sites include centers of geothermal activity (e.g.
hot springs, mud pools), one of the largest volcanic calderas in the
world, and recent pyroclastic flow deposits. We will have a
demonstration of planetary exploration rovers at Aso Volcano.

The organizers:
Takafumi Matsui (PERC/Chiba Institute of Technology)
Goro Komatsu (IRSPS/Universita d’Annunzio)
Noriyuki Namiki (PERC/Chiba Institute of Technology)
Contact: [email protected]