MIST

Magnetosphere, Ionosphere and Solar-Terrestrial

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2026 MIST Council Election Results

It is our pleasure to announce the results of the latest MIST Council Election.

  • Samuel Wharton (University of Leicester) is elected for a 3 year term as a MIST Councillor
  • Jewel Abbey Relampagos (Lancaster University) is elected for a 1 year term as the MIST Student Representative

In addition, due to concerns from the community regarding the ongoing UKRI/STFC funding situation, MIST Council have also decided to charter Mark Lester (University of Leicester) as an additional councillor to inform and steer the council in matters related to this specific brief, as set out in Article 4.5 of the MIST Charter.

We would like to congratulate everyone on their new roles. The full composition of Council can be found on the MIST website (https://www.mist.ac.uk/community/mist-council). We would like to thank all the candidates for putting themselves forward and everyone who took part in the voting. We received votes from 132 people which represents a turnout of 21.5% of people registered to receive the MIST emailing list.

Finally, MIST Council would like to extend their thanks and gratitude to our outgoing members: Fiona Ball and Georgios Nicolaou. We would also like to say a special thank you to Andy Smith who was co-opted to be on MIST council while Rosie Johnson was on maternity leave, thank you for all of your hard work.

Open Letter Ready For Signatories

Protect MIST Science! Sign the MIST Community Open Letter on the STFC funding cuts!

https://sites.google.com/view/uk-mist-community-open-letter

 

Statement from MIST Council regarding the STFC Funding Situation

Statement from MIST Council regarding the STFC Funding Situation

MIST Council is deeply concerned by the ongoing STFC funding uncertainty and its impact on our community and beyond.

The current combination of prospective delayed and reduced funding, together with already volatile financial situations at universities across the UK, is placing significant strain on research groups. In some cases, institutions may be unable to support researchers through gaps between projects, increasing precarity across the community and adding significant pressure on early-career researchers.

We are concerned that continued uncertainty risks accelerating a brain drain from the UK, as skilled researchers reconsider their future in a system offering limited stability. The loss of expertise at any career stage would have lasting consequences for UK space science.

 

What is going on?

For those that are unaware of the situation, it is complex and evolving. We suggest the following sources to get up to speed on the current developments.

https://www.sciencecampaign.org.uk/analysis-and-publications/detail/what-is-happening-with-ukri-funding-and-the-stfc-cuts/

https://ras.ac.uk/news-and-press/news/proposed-budget-cuts-catastrophe-uk-astronomy

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2514481-physicists-warn-of-catastrophic-impact-from-uk-science-cuts/

 

What are we doing about it?

Behind the scenes, MIST Council is actively engaging with relevant parties to understand the scale of the challenge and to identify constructive ways forward.

  • We are seeking seasoned members of the community to join MIST Council on a task force to help develop options and represent the needs of our community. If you would like to be involved, please reach out to us via the MIST Council email (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) by the end of this week (13th February 2026).
  • In addition to the task force, we want to provide an open forum for discussion and collective input among all members of the wider MIST community. We are exploring options and will be in touch as soon as possible with further details.
  • We believe in working together in the face of the current challenges and we are collaborating with UKSP and others to strive for a fair and positive outcome for all. We are reaching out to members of the SSAP (Solar System Advisory Panel) to explore the hosting of a community town hall meeting, like the one already being organised by the AAP (Astronomy Advisory Panel), to provide an open forum for discussion and collective input.

 

What can you do to help?

There are several open letters representing people in various career stages that have been made available to sign. We encourage you to read the relevant letter(s) and to sign them if you support them:

The Royal Astronomical Society are also urging Fellows to lobby their MPs against the cuts, and have included a template letter that can be used to do so:
https://ras.ac.uk/news-and-press/news/ras-fellows-urged-lobby-against-unprecedented-cuts

 

MIST Council will continue to advocate for transparency, stability, and funding structures that recognise both the long-term nature of our science and the people who deliver it.
We thank you for your continued support in this period of uncertainty.

 

Please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you have further suggestions.
MIST Council

Announcement of New MIST Council 2025

We are very pleased to announce the following members of the community have been elected to MIST Council:

  • Gemma Bower (University of Leicester), MIST Councillor
  • Tom Elsden (University of St Andrews), MIST Councillor
  • Cameron Patterson (Lancaster University), MIST Councillor
  • Fiona Ball (University of Southampton), Student Representative

They will begin their terms in July 2025.

We thank outgoing MIST Council members: Maria Walach, Chiara Lazzeri and Emma Woodfield. Andy Smith will remain on council a little longer as a co-opted member to cover Rosie Johnson's maternity leave.

The current composition of Council can be found on our website (https://www.mist.ac.uk/community/mist-council).

Announcement of New MIST Councillors.

We are very pleased to announce the following members of the community have been elected unopposed to MIST Council:

  • Rosie Johnson (Aberystwyth University), MIST Councillor
  • Matthew Brown (University of Birmingham), MIST Councillor
  • Chiara Lazzeri (MSSL, UCL), Student Representative

Rosie, Matthew, and Chiara will begin their terms in July. This will coincide with Jasmine Kaur Sandhu, Beatriz Sanchez-Cano, and Sophie Maguire outgoing as Councillors.

The current composition of Council can be found on our website, and this will be amended in July to reflect this announcement (https://www.mist.ac.uk/community/mist-council).

Topology of turbulence within collisionless plasma reconnection

Bogdan Hnat (University of Warwick)

Collisionless magnetic reconnection [1] and plasma turbulence [2] are fundamental mechanisms that transfer energy across scales and between electromagnetic fields and particles. Stretched turbulent vortices and thin reconnection current sheets are prime sites of plasma heating and particle acceleration. Magnetic field line topology is central to both these processes.

We have classified the magnetic field topology observed as the four MMS spacecraft fly through a well resolved reconnection site. The MMS spacecraft separation defines a spatial 'yardstick', which is of order of the ion inertial range di, for sampling magnetic field topology. However, spatial variation of the topology is indirectly captured on a much finer spatial scale due to high time resolution of the magnetic field measurements, 8192 samples per second.

We find two distinct types of the magnetic field line topology near and at the electron dissipation region (EDR). At the edges of the EDR turbulent-like topology, identical to the topology of stretched vortices in hydrodynamic turbulence, is dominant. It coincides with large high-frequency electromagnetic perturbations. At the EDR the topology departs from turbulence and the structures appear to be two-dimensional, coinciding with suppression of electromagnetic fluctuations. The topology of the magnetic field line directly orders electron acceleration and heating. Suprathermal electrons are absent where turbulent-like topology dominates, but the bulk electron temperature anisotropy is enhanced. Reduced two-dimensional topology at the EDR coincides with the suprathermal electrons. The turbulent-like topology can arise in EMHD in scales smaller than electron inertial scale when vorticity dominates the dynamics. We find that vorticity is indeed dominant at all times within our interval.

"Panels
Panels (a), (b) and (c): Time series of in situ observations of: (a) the magnetic field magnitude (black) and the electric field component E_N (blue) in the event LMN coordinates, (b) band pass filtered magnetic field components (blue) and magnetic field magnitude (black) within frequency range 64-256 Hz; the dashed red vertical lines mark the outer extent of large magnetic field fluctuations, and (c) the same quantity as panel (b) calculated for the electric field fluctuations. All traces are based on the reconnection region transit seen by MMS 3. The EDR is indicated with blue shading on all panels. Green shading indicates the time interval in which at least one spacecraft samples the EDR. Panel (d) shows the phase space of invariants of magnetic field gradient tensor. Elliptic (flux ropes) and hyperbolic (X-point) magnetic field lines are separated by the magenta line. Panel (c) shows phase space of invariants for the curl-free deformations of magnetic field lines. The red line is the boundary of possible invariants. The magenta line in panel (c) corresponds to triaxial deformations with eigenvalue ratios -3:-1:4 (Rs<0) and 3:1:-4 (Rs>0), as found in the strain tensor of a three dimensional hydrodynamic flow.


References:
[1] J. Birn, E.R. Priest, Reconnection of Magnetic Fields: Magnetohydrodynamics and Collisionless Theory and Observations (Cambridge University Press, New York, 2007).
[2] Matthaeus, W.H. and Velli, M.,Space Science Reviews, 160(1), pp.145-168 (2011).

 

See publication for further information:
Hnat, Bogdan, Sandra Chapman, and Nicholas Watkins. "Topology of turbulence within collisionless plasma reconnection." Scientific Reports 13.1 (2023): 18665.