MIST

Magnetosphere, Ionosphere and Solar-Terrestrial

Latest news

RAS Awards

The Royal Astronomical Society announced their award recipients last week, and MIST Council would like to congratulate all that received an award. In particular, we would like to highlight the following members of the MIST Community, whose work has been recognised:
  • Professor Nick Achilleos (University College London) - Chapman Medal
  • Dr Oliver Allanson (University of Birmingham) - Fowler Award
  • Dr Ravindra Desai (University of Warwick) - Winton Award & RAS Higher Education Award
  • Professor Marina Galand (Imperial College London) - James Dungey Lecture

New MIST Council 2021-

There have been some recent ingoings and outgoings at MIST Council - please see below our current composition!:

  • Oliver Allanson, Exeter (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), to 2024 -- Chair
  • Beatriz Sánchez-Cano, Leicester (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), to 2024
  • Mathew Owens, Reading (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), to 2023
  • Jasmine Sandhu, Northumbria (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), to 2023 -- Vice-Chair
  • Maria-Theresia Walach, Lancaster (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), to 2022
  • Sarah Badman, Lancaster (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), to 2022
    (co-opted in 2021 in lieu of outgoing councillor Greg Hunt)

Charter amendment and MIST Council elections open

Nominations for MIST Council open today and run through to 8 August 2021! Please feel free to put yourself forward for election – the voting will open shortly after the deadline and run through to the end of August. The positions available are:

  • 2 members of MIST Council
  • 1 student representative (pending the amendment below passing)

Please email nominations to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by 8 August 2021. Thank you!

Charter amendment

We also move to amend the following articles of the MIST Charter as demonstrated below. Bold type indicates additions and struck text indicates deletions. Please respond to the email on the MIST mailing list before 8 August 2021 if you would like to object to the amendment; MIST Charter provides that it will pass if less than 10% of the mailing list opposes its passing. 

4.1  MIST council is the collective term for the officers of MIST and consists of six individuals and one student representative from the MIST community.

5.1 Members of MIST council serve terms of three years, except for the student representative who serves a term of one year.

5.2 Elections will be announced at the Spring MIST meeting and voting must begin within two months of the Spring MIST meeting. Two slots on MIST council will be open in a given normal election year, alongside the student representative.

5.10 Candidates for student representative must not have submitted their PhD thesis at the time that nominations close.

SSAP roadmap update

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:

Comments and input on the current "Roadmap for Solar System Research" via the survey by clicking here.

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..

Quo vadis interim board

 

A white paper called "Quo vadis, European space weather community" has been published in J. Space Weather Space Clim. which outlines plans for the creation of an organisation to represent the European space weather community.
Since it was published, an online event of the same name was organised on 17 March 2021. A “Quo Vadis Interim Board” was then set up, to establish a mechanism for this discussion, which will go on until June 21st.

The Interim Board is composed of volunteers from the community in Europe. Its role is to coordinate the efforts so that the space weather (and including space climate) European community can:

  1. Organise itself
  2. Elect people to represent them

To reach this goal, the Interim Board is inviting anyone interested in and outside Europe to join the “Quo Vadis European Space Weather Community ” discussion forum.

Eligible European Space Weather Community members should register to the “Electoral Census” to be able to vote in June for the final choice of organisation.

This effort will be achieved through different actions indicated on the Quo Vadis webpage and special Slack workspace.

Quo vadis, European Space Weather community?

A group of European space weather actors believe that now is the right time to frame the Space Weather and Space Climate discipline in Europe for the coming years. This group comprises Jean Lilensten, Mateja Dumbović, Luca Spogli, Anna Belehaki, Ronald Van der Linden, Stefaan Poedts, Teresa Barata, Mario M. Bisi, Gae ̈l Cessateur, Erwin De Donder, Antonio Guerrero, Emilia Kilpua, Marianna B. Korsos, Rui F. Pinto, Manuela Temmer, Ioanna Tsagouri, Jaroslav Urbāř, and Francesca Zuccarello.

A series of reasons for this have been formulated in an article that has been submitted to the JSWSC. The group will be holding a virtual kick-off meeting on Wednesday 17 March at 12:00 UT to present their findings and to make propositions to the European Space Weather community at large (scientists, engineers, forecasters, users, educators, etc.) for a future organisation. A Q&A chat will be open during the presentations, and this will be followed by a two-month discussion period.

Registration for the virtual kick-off meeting is now open.

 

 

 

UK Space Safety Engagement Meetings

The UK Space Safety Engagement Meetings are a series of meetings that are scheduled to run over 24–26 March 2021 in the afternoons (UK time). These meetings are UK-focussed, but are of interest to the international space weather and space safety communities and are not restricted to participants from the UK. 

If you would like to register for free, visit the website and select which of the days you would like to register for. The meetings will take place over the Zoom platform – you must register in order to receive the Zoom link – and this link will be e-Mailed out to registrants on Monday 22nd March 2021. The deadline for registration is 12:00 UT on 19 March 2021.

RAS Specialist Discussion Meeting on system-scale observations and modelling of SW-M-I-T coupling (April 2021)

Abstract submission is now open for the 9 April 2021 RAS G Meeting, on “System-scale observations and modelling of solar wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere-thermosphere coupling”. The convenors are John Coxon (Southampton), Rob Shore (BAS), Anasuya Aruliah (UCL) and Sarah Bentley (Northumbria). Abstracts can be submitted online, with a deadline of 15 March 2021. Please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you have any questions for the convenors, or visit the RAS website for the meeting for more detalils.

The schedule and the abstracts for the meeting can be found here.

The invited talk will be given by Prof. Colin Waters (University of Newcastle, Australia). Prof. Waters is an expert in the field of system-scale science and has made several huge contributions to the field, including work on the AMPERE and SuperMAG datasets and a recent book highlighting the potential for multi-spacecraft science. We are excited to hear him speak at the meeting!

Read more: RAS Specialist Discussion Meeting on system-scale observations and modelling of SW-M-I-T coupling...

Call for RAS Specialist Discussion Meeting suggestions

The Royal Astronomical Society are inviting Fellows of the RAS to propose and organise Specialist Discussion Meetings for the academic year 2021–22, with a deadline of 1 March 2021. All convenors must be prepared to run meetings virtually if necessary.

Proposals not be longer than one page of A4 and should include the following:

  • Title of meeting and organiser(s), at least one of whom should be an RAS Fellow
  • The topics to be covered in the meeting
  • Rationale for the meeting, including timeliness
  • Suggestions for invited speakers
  • Preferred date for meeting, if any

For more details, consult detailed guidance from RAS. Geophysics proposals should be This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and Astronomy proposals should be This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Mathematics for nonstationary signals and applications in geophysics and other fields

A Summer School plus Conference on “Mathematics for Nonstationary Signals and applications in Geophysics and other fields”, will take place at the Dipartimento di Scienze Umane of the Università degli Studi dell'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy, 19–24 July 2021.

It is being organised by Antonio Cicone, Giulia D'Angelo, Mirko Piersanti, Enza Pellegrino, and Angela Stallone and the submission deadline is 30 April, 2021.

For more information, and to apply, click here.

Read more: Mathematics for nonstationary signals and applications in geophysics and other fields