Dear Colleague
Due to the ongoing Covid situation, Interact 2021 will now be held as an online event. Entitled V- Interact, this free one day online symposium will take place on Tuesday 14 September 2021 as a series of themed workshops. Commencing with an opening plenary, we will then focus on two core topics: running and evaluating online engagement and supporting an equitable Covid recovery. Above all, it is a chance to share your online experiences and take part in discussions which will help shape engagement work going forward.
The event will also help shape our programme for Interact 2022, which will go ahead in person on 13–14 September 2022, hosted by Cardiff University.
V- Interact offers something for everyone wanting to hear from others and discuss how the pandemic has affected their engagement activities, it will provide a great opportunity to learn how people have adapted their engagement for online delivery, explore how this was evaluated, and provide a chance to share your experience and good practice.
Objectives for V-Interact can be viewed here, alongside evaluations of previous meetings. We will publish a draft programme in the summer and if you would like to receive more details, then please register here.
The STFC Solar System Advisory Panel (SSAP) is undertaking a review of the "Roadmap for Solar System Research", to be presented to STFC Science Board later this year. This is expected to be a substantial update of the Roadmap, as the last full review was carried out in 2012, with a light-touch update in 2015.
The current version of the SSAP Roadmap can be found here.
In carrying out this review, we will take into account changes in the international landscape, and advances in instrumentation, technology, theory, and modelling work.
As such, we solicit your input and comments on the existing roadmap and any material we should consider in this revision. This consultation will close on Wednesday 14 July 2021 and SSAP will try to give a preliminary assessment of findings at NAM.
This consultation is seeking the view of all members of our community and we particularly encourage early career researchers to respond. Specifically, we invite:
Short "white papers" on science investigations (including space missions, ground-based experimental facilities, or computing infrastructure) and impact and knowledge exchange (e.g. societal and community impact, technology development). Please use the pro-forma sent to the MIST mailing list and send your response to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
The Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies (DIAS) will be hosting a seminar by Jesper Gjerloev, Sam Yee, and the entire EZIE Team on 2 June at 3pm (Dublin). Jesper will give an overview of the EZIE mission to study Earth's auroral electrojets. The title and abstract are below; the Zoom link can be found on the MIST mailing list.
EZIE will image the magnetic signature of the ionospheric electrojets using the Zeeman splitting of the O2 thermal emissions originating from around 80km altitude. EZIE’s 3 smallsats each carry a microwave electrojet magnetogram (MEM) instrument for multipoint vector magnetic field measurements proximate to the source current thereby revealing the structure and evolution of the electrojets. In situ measurements of the electrojet region have proved elusive because the altitudes are too high for balloons and too low for satellites. EZIE’s multi-point measurements will provide unprecedented 2D current maps allowing for a separation of spatial and temporal variations of the electrojets.
EZIE will address two primary science questions that have remained elusive because of observation limitations:
EZIE’s science augmentation characterizes the spatiotemporal structure of equatorial electrojets and explores the physical mechanisms of their generation, resulting in EZIE’s third science question:
The presentation will provide an overview of the mission with a focus on science and implementation. We will show results from comprehensive and realistic end-to-end simulations to illustrate the unprecedented observational capabilities of the EZIE mission.