Issue 19-04, February 2, 2019
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- REMINDER: EPSC-DPS 2019 CALL-FOR-SESSIONS DEADLINE (5TH FEBRUARY)
- CALL FOR DPS 2019 PRIZE NOMINATIONS
- AOGS SESSION PS02: PLASMA – SURFACE INTERACTIONS WITH AIRLESS BODIES IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM
- AOGS SESSION ST08: MAGNETIC FLUX ROPE THROUGHOUT THE SOLAR SYSTEM
- NEW HORIZONS IN PLANETARY SYSTEMS
- INTERNATIONAL MEETING ON PALEOCLIMATE: CHANGE AND ADAPTATION
- EUROPEAN LUNAR SYMPOSIUM
- EUROPLANET COMETARY PLASMA SCIENCE WORKSHOP
- THE DPS COMMITTEE REMINDS YOU TO VOTE IN THE AAS ELECTIONS
- NEW DEADLINE FOR CASSINI SPECIAL ISSUE: 15 FEBRUARY
- JOBS, POSITIONS, OPPORTUNITIES
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REMINDER: EPSC-DPS2019 CALL-FOR-SESSIONS DEADLINE (5TH FEBRUARY)
Dear colleagues,
Reminder: The upcoming deadline to submit session proposals for the EPSC-DPS
Joint Meeting 2019 is on 5 February 2019.
Important note: a call for workshops and splinter meetings will be posted later.
The meeting will cover the whole scope of planetary science. You may propose
sessions for the following Programme Groups (PG):
TP – Terrestrial Planets
OPS – Outer Planet Systems
MIT – Missions, Instrumentation, Techniques
SB – Small Bodies (comets, KBOs, rings, asteroids, meteorites, dust)
EXO – Exoplanets and Origins
ODA – Outreach, Diversity, Amateur Astronomy
Please submit your proposal to the most appropriate Programme Group (PG).
All session proposals will be considered and reviewed by the Scientific Organizing
Committee. During the consolidation phase of the programme, sessions may be
listed across two or more PGs.
Please feel free to contact us at [email protected] if you have any
questions regarding your session proposal.
To submit a proposal, please access https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/epsc-dps2019/provisionalprogramme
Then select a PG at the top and click on “suggest a session here” to fill out your
session proposal.
We look forward to more good proposals for exciting sessions.
Best regards,
Maria Cristina De Sanctis, Joe Spitale, Frank Sohl & Devon Burr
Scientific organizing committee chairs
Jean-Pierre Lebreton
Executive EPSC committee chair
Linda Spilker
DPS Chair
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CALL FOR DPS 2019 PRIZE NOMINATIONS
Deadline: April 1, 2019
Every year the DPS recognizes exceptional achievement in our field.
Please consider nominating a respected colleague for one of the annual
DPS prizes. The DPS sponsors five prizes:
The Gerard P. Kuiper Prize honors outstanding contributions to the field
of planetary science.
The Harold C. Urey Prize recognizes outstanding achievement in planetary
research by a young scientist.
The Harold Masursky Award acknowledges outstanding service to planetary
science and exploration.
The Carl Sagan Medal recognizes and honors outstanding communication
by an active planetary scientist to the general public.
The Jonathan Eberhart Planetary Sciences Journalism Award recognizes and
stimulates distinguished popular writing on planetary sciences.
DPS members and the planetary science community-at-large are encouraged to
submit nominations for DPS prizes.
A complete nomination submitted by the deadline will be considered by the
DPS Prize subcommittee for 3 years (i.e. for this year’s award, next year’s award,
and the year after that), or for the duration of a candidate’s eligibility, whichever
is less. Please fill out the nomination form, and it will be submitted to the prize
subcommittee. The Eberhart Award has different rules and procedures than the
other DPS Prizes, please see its page for more information.
Scroll to the bottom of prizes for rules and procedures.
Questions: [email protected]
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AOGS SESSION PS02: PLASMA – SURFACE INTERACTIONS WITH AIRLESS BODIES IN
THE SOLAR SYSTEM
We would kindly like to bring to your attention our session entitled
“Plasma – Surface Interactions with Airless Bodies in the Solar
System”, organized at the 2019 Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS)
meeting, held from 28 July to 2 August in Singapore.
In this session we invite contributions that will move forward our
understanding of fundamental plasma-surface interaction mechanisms with
airless bodies in our Solar System. Investigations that explore key
challenges by exploiting the synergies between in-situ observations,
simulations models and laboratory experiments to characterize the
fundamental physical processes determining the global and local
near-surface plasma environments are especially welcomed.
Full session details here:
https://www.meetmatt-svr.net/Public/SessionDetailsPartial?id=13
With many successful missions to airless bodies recently completed,
currently active, and in preparation, and with both simulation models
and laboratory experiments resolving the finer details of plasma
interactions better each year, this will surely be an exciting session!
Feel free to spread this announcement. Before February 12, submit your
abstract here:
http://www.asiaoceania.org/aogs2019/public.asp?page=abstract.htm
Thank you, we look forward to seeing you in Singapore!
Jan Deca, Li Hsia Yeo, Charles Lue
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AOGS SESSION ST08: MAGNETIC FLUX ROPE THROUGHOUT THE SOLAR SYSTEM
At the AOGS 2019 conference held in Singapore 28 July – 2 August 2019,
we will convene a session titled: “ST-08 Magnetic Flux Rope Throughout
the Solar System”.
We invite abstracts that address a wide range of topics on the
fundamental physics of magnetic flux ropes from the solar atmosphere to
the magnetospheres of Earth and planets (inner and outer planets,
including Venus and Mars) using spacecraft observations, theoretical
analysis, and numerical simulations. Magnetic flux rope is one of the
most fundamental magnetic structures in space plasma physics and are
ubiquitous in the solar system. They can exist in a wide range of
spatial scales, from tens-of-million km coronal mass ejection in
interplanetary space, to tens-of-thousands km flux transfer events and
plasmoid-type flux ropes in global/induced planetary magnetospheres,
down to the electron inertial scale length magnetic islands forming
during the early stages of reconnection in thin current sheets. Despite
having been extensively studied using classical plasma theory,
numerical simulations and observations, many aspects of magnetic flux
ropes remain unexplored, primarily their origins, dynamics (e.g.
plasmoid instability) and their effects on field-aligned current
generation, energetic particle acceleration and thermal plasma
transport.
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NEW HORIZONS IN PLANETARY SYSTEMS
NOTE: February 8th is the deadline for abstract submission and applications
for travel and childcare support
New Horizons in Planetary Systems
Understanding planetary systems from protoplanetary disks through to
the solar system, exoplanets and debris disks 13-17 May 2019 Victoria,
British Columbia, Canada
Financial Assistance
Travel support as well as childcare support will be available for those who
need financial assistance to attend.
For more information, see the meeting website:
http://go.nrao.edu/NewHorizons
Web: http://go.nrao.edu/NewHorizons
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vicplanetsys
Twitter: #VicPlanetSys
The meeting is jointly organized by NRC Herzberg and NRAO – as part of
their roles within the North American ALMA Science Center (NAASC) and
will have a broad scope, including planetary systems in formation within
protoplanetary disks, minor objects in the solar system, debris disks and
exoplanets. Experts will be asked to provide insights from all these fields to
enhance our understanding of how planets form and evolve.
Although it is organized by the NAASC, the meeting is not ALMA-centric,
with a strong focus on the impact of the New Horizons mission flyby of a
Kuiper Belt Object in January 2019, as well as experts from the Transiting
Exoplanet Survey Satellite and other facilities, who will be asked to provide
a multi-chromatic picture of the current understanding in their fields. Invited
speakers have been asked to provide broadly accessible talks.
The meeting will be held at the Victoria Conference Centre in the heart of
picturesque Victoria, British Columbia, on Canada’s Pacific coast. Local
attractions include whale watching, wine tours, the world-famous Butchart
Gardens, and the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory. Excellent beaches,
diving, camping and hiking are all within a day’s drive from Victoria.
Invited speakers
• Diana Dragomir (MIT Kavli Institute): TESS early results
• Brett Gladman (UBC): theory of planet formation
• Grant Kennedy (Warwick): debris disk constraints on planet formation
• Heather Knutson (Caltech): exoplanet atmospheric composition
• Emmanuel Lellouch (Obs de Paris): solar system objects, constraints on formation
• Karin Öberg (Harvard): protoplanetary disk composition and chemistry
• John Spencer (SWRI): New Horizons KBO flyby: first results
• Geronimo Villaneuva (NASA Goddard): cometary chemistry and early planet formation
• Zhaohuan Zhu (UNLV): Protoplanetary disk composition/chemistry
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INTERNATIONAL MEETING ON PALEOCLIMATE: CHANGE AND ADAPTATION
Coimbra, Portugal
18-19 July, 2019
The Directors of the Geosciences Centre (CGEO) and of the Centre for
Earth and Space Research (CITEUC) of the University of Coimbra
(Portugal) invite members of your institution to participate in the
International Meeting on “Paleoclimate: Change and Adaptation”, at the
University of Coimbra (Portugal), on the 18th-19th June, 2019. The goal
is to promote an open discussion on paleoclimatic signals in order to
improve our look at the present and to ground future perspectives.
Research topics covers, without being limited to, the following areas:
T1 – Paleoclimates in the Solar System: external forcing and divergent
evolutions
T2 – Climate changes in geological time: lessons to learn
T3 – Climate memory in the geological record
T4 – Climate changes and human adaptations throughout the Quaternary
T5 – Climatic events and human-environment interactions in the Holocene
A Special Issue of papers for the “International Meeting on
Paleoclimate” meeting will be launched by Geosciences (ISSN 2076-3263;
CODEN: GBSEDA), an interdisciplinary, international peer-reviewed open
access journal of geoscience, future earth and planetary science
published monthly online by MDPI.
Registration and additional information:
https://paleoclimate2019.wixsite.com/paleoclimate2019
Maria Helena Henriques (CGEO) and Joao Fernandes (CITEUC)
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EUROPEAN LUNAR SYMPOSIUM
We are pleased to announce that the abstract submission is now open for
the 7th European Lunar Symposium (ELS), which will be held in
Manchester, UK on 21-23 May 2019.
Please note that because of the continuing shutdown of the US
Government, the primary website for ELS 2019 is currently unavailable.
For now we have thus put together a temporary page where you can
download the abstract template and submit your abstract, and which
should provide sufficient information about registration processes and
deadlines. Please bookmark this page as we will provide further updates
as and when necessary. For any query, please e-mail:
[email protected] and/or
To submit your abstract please visit:
http://sservi.nasa.gov/els2019
Please make a note of the following important dates:
Registration opens: 1 January 2019
Abstract submission closes: 12 February 2019
Early-bird registration closes: 7 April 2019
To register for ELS, please visit:
https://estore.manchester.ac.uk/conferences-and-events/faculty-of-
science-engineering/school-of-electrical-and-electronic-engineering/
european-lunar-symposium-2019/european-lunar-symposium-2019
The number of attendees is limited by room capacity, and we will take
registration on a 1st come, 1st served basis.
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EUROPLANET COMETARY PLASMA SCIENCE WORKSHOP
Helsinki,Finland
March 28-29, 2019
We welcome contributions to the Europlanet sponsored cometary plasma
science workshop hosted by the Rosetta Plasma Consortium (RPC).
The scope of the workshop covers all cometary plasma physics related
topics, including the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and the Rosetta
mission, other comets and missions as well as remote sensing, theory
and laboratory studies.
The organizer of the workshop is the Aalto University (Espoo, Finland)
and it will be held at the Finnish Meteorological Institute at the
Kumpula Campus in Helsinki.
For further information and registration please follow this link:
http://space.aalto.fi/cometplasma2019/
Deadline for the registrations is March 1, 2019.
Sincerely,
Local Organizing Committee:
Esa Kallio, Aalto University
Riku Jarvinen, Aalto University
Markku Alho, Aalto University
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THE DPS COMMITTEE REMINDS YOU TO VOTE IN THE AAS ELECTIONS
Don’t forget to vote in AAS elections. The DPS is the largest AAS division.
The following DPS members are candidates for AAS Officers and At-Large Trustees:
President – Chick Woodward
Vice President – Stephen Unwin
Secretary – Alice K.B. Monet
At-Large Trustee – Hannah Jang-Condell
Balloting closes at 11:59 pm EST on 8 February 2019
https://aas.org/posts/news/2018/12/vote-2019-aas-election
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NEW DEADLINE FOR CASSINI SPECIAL ISSUE: 15 FEBRUARY
Dear colleagues and attendees of the Cassini Science Symposium
in Boulder, August 2018:
Now that the government shutdown has ended, the deadline for submissions
to the special Icarus issue on Cassini Mission Science Results (formerly 15
January 2019) will be 15 February 2019. Both authors and reviewers may
need to work a little faster to meet the planned schedule for publication this
fiscal year.
Sincerely, the Editors
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JOBS, POSITIONS, OPPORTUNITIES
A) SWEDISH INSTITUTE OF SPACE PHYSICS IS LOOKING FOR THREE PHD STUDENTS
The positions are related to studies of space plasmas.
Applications are invited for PhD students to study space plasma regions
of fundamental importance, such as magnetic reconnection sites, shocks,
turbulence regions, ionospheres and kinetic processes there. We are
looking for students in each of the following science topics:
1. Characterization of energy conversion and identification of the
mechanisms of particle acceleration operating in turbulent layers
formed at fronts of plasma jets, based on experimental data from the
NASA multi-spacecraft MMS mission.
2. Understanding of electron heating and energetic electron generation
at collisionless shocks, in particular resolving the mechanisms of the
non-adiabatic processes using MMS data.
3. Understanding Saturn’s ionosphere and the influence of the rings on
the ionization balance using models and data acquired during the Grand
Finale of the NASA Cassini mission.
Last Application Date: 2019-02-28
http://www2.irf.se/Topical/Vacancies/
B) FULLY-FUNDED PHD ON SURFACE WIND MODELLING ON MARS
Research team based in UK and co-supervised by researchers in CalTech
and SETI. Mars has widespread deposits of sand-sized sediments forming
significant wind-blown dune fields of various typologies and scales.
Understanding the dynamics of surface atmospheric boundary layers is
therefore paramount in examining Mars’ landform dynamics.
Most research efforts have focussed on Mars atmospheric circulation at
very large scales using Global Climate Models (GCMs). Temporal and
spatial scales of these models are good first principles in
understanding atmospheric-surface interactions, but are much too coarse
when trying to understand surface landform dynamics.
Recent efforts have employed
microscale computational fluid dynamics modelling to investigate
atmospheric surface interactions and dune surface changes. Several
state-of-the-art numerical atmospheric modelling tools will be used,
including a Mars GCM, a regional Mars mesoscale climate model, and a
computational fluid dynamics model (OpenFOAM). Geospatial and
geomorphic analysis of relevant spacecraft imagery and other
observational data will be used to constrain and validate the modelling
results.
Overall objective: to combine macro- to meso- to micro-scale
airflow modelling for a more realistic modelling of meter-scale airflow
involved in the time-evolution of aeolian features on Mars.
Full info and deadlines:
https://www.ulster.ac.uk/doctoralcollege/find-a-phd/342205
C) EDUCATION AND PUBLIC OUTREACH COORDINATOR
The CLEVER Planets (http://cleverplanets.org/) research team and the
Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences (EEPS:
https://earthscience.rice.edu/) of Rice University is seeking a
full-time education and public outreach coordinator. The position requires
overseeing communication and coordination of multi-institutional,
interdisciplinary NASA-funded project on planetary habitability,
responding directly to the Principle Investigator (PI) and working
with Co-Investigators (Co-I’s) and their students and postdocs.
Responsibilities of this position include website maintenance (managing
maintenance/updates/revisions to cleverplanets.org website), science
communication (e.g., coordinating with RiceNews and Media Relations
office and the EEPS department to promote CLEVER Planets research
and stories), organization of outreach activities and social media, as well
as facilitating the collaboration needs between scientists and students
through meetings, webinars, conferences and emails. In addition to working
for the aforementioned project, some additional responsibilities will also
include helping promote the strategic goals of the Department of Earth,
Environmental and Planetary Sciences. Initial contract will be given for
one year with the possibility for extension up to the entire duration of the
proposed research activities.
Required educational qualification is a Bachelor of Science degree, although
masters or higher-degree would be preferred, preferably in STEM fields such
as Astronomy, Physics, Earth and Planetary Science or related fields. Experience
in a university setting or with academic research is desirable. Experience with
website design/maintenance using platforms such as WordPress/Squarespace,
strong interpersonal, oral and written communication skills, particularly
dissemination of science to public, and event organization and management is
necessary. Some comfort with IT and IT-interfacing is desirable. Rice is an
equal opportunity employer.
Interested applicants should send their completed application materials (1. cover
letter, 2. resume, and 3. writing and web-designing examples) to [email protected].
The review of the applications will begin immediately and the position will
remain open until filled.
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Send submissions to:
Anne Verbiscer, DPS Secretary ([email protected])
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