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Newsletter #8 / December 2012

Introduction

Editors: Nicolas André, Christelle Feugeade, Etienne Pallier
Contact: europlanet-newsletter{at}irap.omp.eu


Contents

  1. Management: Europlanet comes to its end
  2. NA1/NA2: WS#21 Summer School Alpbach 2012 "Exploration of the giant planets and their systems"
  3. NA1/NA2: WS#23 Workshop on Exoplanets "Characterizing exoplanetary environments by observations and advanced models", Graz, October 22-23, 2012
  4. NA1/IDIS: WS#24 Workshop "Europlanet in IDIS", Vienna, November 05-07, 2012
  5. NA2: Europlanet second ISSI book
  6. NA2: Workshop "Giant Planet magnetodisc and aurorae", November 26-30, 2012
  7. NA2:ISSI-Europlanet-CSH forum on "Future science of exoplanets and their systems"
  8. NA3: Films on planetary scientists and Venus transit
  9. NA3/NA4: Muchas gracias to EPSC 2012 and see you all in London for EPSC 2013
  10. NA3/NA4: EPSC 2014, Portugal, September 2014
  11. NA4: Europlanet technology foresight / presentations and tutorials from the JUICE radiation modelling workshop, Aberystwyth, November 28-30, 2012 available online
  12. JRA3:EXOtim and PICsim
  13. IDIS: Jupiter magnetospheric and plasma data archive available at IRAP/CDPP for the preparation of JUICE
  14. IDIS: JUICE trajectory available in 3DView/CDPP at IRAP for the preparation of JUICE
  15. Job oportunities: Ph.D. position and postdoctoral fellowships
  16. Other: Conferences and workshops .

Management: Europlanet comes to its end

  • The Europlanet-RI project will terminate on December 31 2012. If we include the FP6 period with its first contract with the EC, Europlanet will have served the planetary science community during a total of 8 full years, which started on the year of the successful landing of Huygens on the surface of Titan, and which will terminate on the year of the selection of JUICE by ESA in view of a new, breath-taking, tour of the Jupiter system and its fascinating satellites.
    During this period, Europlanet with the support of the European Commission has made every effort for a better integration of the planetary science community in Europe, for increasing synergies between space missions, ground-based observations, laboratory studies and simulations, and for developing tools and access to facilities corresponding to the fundamental needs of the science community.

    IDiS is on its way to becoming a real Virtual Observatory for planetary sciences; the Trans-National Access activities have given access to lab facilities, analogue field sites, and extraterrestrial matter repositories for scientists across Europe. Many additional tools have been developed for the service of the community. And, every year now, the community has met in the framework of the European Planetary Science Congress (EPSC), presenting cutting-edge discoveries and collectively discussing and elaborating plans for the future.
    As the Europlanet FP7 contract is nearing its end, we would like in the name of the Europlanet management team of CNRS in Toulouse to extend our warmest and most sincere thanks to all those who contributed to the many achievements of Europlanet over these 8 years. The next _ and last _ Europlanet newsletter, to be published in January 2013, will be devoted to a review of our major achievements, and will constitute part of our heritage.

    But while the Europlanet contract with the EC terminates, will Europlanet itself also terminate? Certainly not.
    We are making plans to consolidate the friendly circle of labs that constituted and carried out the Europlanet adventure into a long-term agreement between all these labs _ and hopefully more. This european circle of labs will continue in another form to work for an ever better integration of our nice European planetary science community, and for the development of services that will help it to achieve the best scientific results and remain on the forefront of the exploration of planets in the Solar System _ and beyond!
    And, to be very concrete, the EPSC will continue to be this unique place for the gathering of our community that it has become over the years. So, we will meet soon again: stay tuned, and unite with us to make sure that Europlanet continues to live and to carry some of our dearest hopes for the coming years and decades.
    See you at the EPSC 2013 meeting in London, from september 8th to 13th, 2013, and at the newly selected EPSC 2014 meeting in Portugal, september 1st to 7th, 2014.

    Long life to Europlanet!
    Michel Blanc, Philippe Louarn, Christelle Feugeade, Gaelle Terrier.

NA1/NA2: WS#21 Summer School Alpbach 2012 "Exploration of the giant planets and their systems"

  • The Summer School Alpbach enjoys 35 years of tradition in providing in-depth teaching on different topics of space science & technology, featuring lectures and concentrated working sessions on mission studies in self-organised working groups. 60 young highly qualified European science and engineering students converge annually for stimulating 10 days of work in the Austrian Alps. 4 teams compete to design a space mission judged by a jury of experts. Students learn how to approach the design of a satellite mission and explore new and startling ideas supported by experts. The Summer School 2012 focused on Exploration of the Giant Planets and their Systems.

  • Website: http://www.summerschoolalpbach.at/index.php?file=start_uk.php

NA1/NA2: WS#23 Workshop on Exoplanets "Characterizing exoplanetary environments by observations and advanced models", Graz, October 22-23, 2012

  • A two day meeting led by Dr. Helmut Lammer from the Space Research Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Europlanet Networking Activity 2 (NA2: Science Networking) and Networking Activity 1 (NA1: Observational Infrastructure Networking), building on the successful preceding Exoplanet Workshops under EuroPlaNet FP7, took place during October 22-23, 2012 at IWF, Graz, Austria.
    The workshop provided an update on the latest discoveries and studies, observations, modelling activities and proposals in the field of exoplanetary research in general, and in UV transits of exoplanets in special. The first day of the meeting consisted mainly on update talks, whose preliminary titles are listed below, whereas the second day was used for broad discussions on modelling efforts, studies and proposals of planned observations

  • SOC: Helmut Lammer, Maxim Khodachenko
    LOC: Helmut Lammer, Manuel Scherf
  • Presentations available at: http://europlanet-na1.oeaw.ac.at/9.html#c92

NA1/IDIS: WS#24 Workshop "Europlanet in IDIS", Vienna, November 05-07, 2012

  • EuroPlaNet RI is coming to its end next December 31, 2012, together with all its building activities. Among them IDIS, combination of a Service and a Joint Research Activity devoted to the preparation of the planetary VO.
    Several EuroPlaNet Work Packages stated plans to deliver products to IDIS. One full day was reserved for presentations of each of these teams on what has been achieved, and previsions of deliveries for what remains to be done. Half a day has been devoted to IDIS experts of the VO who will present tools designed under JRA4 to publish data in the VO. Then a full day (November 7, 2012) has been devoted to a practical session aimed at using the VO tools for data providers.
    SOC: M.T. Capria, G. Chanteur, S. Miller, H.O. Rucker, K. Szego, W. Thuillot
    LOC: H.O. Rucker, M. Scherf, F. Topf

  • SOC: Maria Teresa Capria, Gérard Chanteur, Steve Miller, Helmut Rucker, Karoly Szego, William Thuillot
    LOC: Helmut Rucker, Manuel Scherf, Florian Topf
  • Presentations available at: http://europlanet-na1.oeaw.ac.at/9.html#c94

NA2 : Europlanet second ISSI book

  • The ISSI-Europlanet Workshop entitled "Quantifying the Martian Geochemical Reservoirs" was held in Bern in April 2011 with the objective to create a diverse interdisciplinary forum composed of scientists directly involved in space-based exploration of the Martian surface, meteoriticists studying SNC meteorites, and planetary and/or Earth scientists simulating, numerically or experimentally, the physical and chemical processes occurring on or within Mars. The participants' diverse fields of expertise led to stimulating and thought-provoking cross-disciplinary discussions that have led to a series of papers now available on-line in Space Science Reviews (http://link.springer.com/journal/volumesAndIssues/11214).

    These publications will appear as a special issue of the journal and as a subsequent book to be published in 2013 by Springer in the Europlanet-ISSI book series. This book will be the fourth of the series, and constitutes one of the scientific products of activity NA2.

NA2 : Workshop "Giant Planet magnetodisc and aurorae", November 26-30, 2012

  • Magnetodiscs are large current sheets surrounding Jupiter and Saturn that are filled with plasma principally originating in the natural satellites. They are also solar system analogues for astrophysical discs. Magnetodiscs are special features of the fast rotating giant planets, a special feature of rotationally driven magnetospheres. Auroral signatures in the optical and radio spectrum allow diagnostic of these dynamical processes and enable the visualisation of the large plasma and field structures in the magnetospheres

  • The objective of this workshop is to address outstanding issues in the structure and dynamics of magnetodiscs using a comparative approach (see details under topics):

    • Review current understanding of magnetodiscs and auroral responses to magnetodisc dynamics.
    • Characterise and understand radial plasma transport in magnetodiscs.
    • Determine how magnetic reconnection works in magnetodiscs, what are the effects on plasma transport, and what are the associated auroral responses to magnetic reconnection.
    • Characterise how the solar wind influences magnetodiscs and the auroral responses to solar wind-driven dynamics.
    • Characterise the spectral and spatial properties of auroral emissions produced by magnetodisc dynamics – are there significant differences between solar wind- and internally-driven dynamics?
    • Determine the sources of local-time asymmetries in magnetodiscs.

    The workshop had 31 partcipants. The workshop results will be published in Space Science Review, and reprinted as a hardcover book in the Space Sciences Series of ISSI.

  • Convenors and participants : http://www.issibern.ch/workshops/giantplanet/?page_id=56
    Program : http://www.issibern.ch/workshops/giantplanet/?page_id=6

NA2 : ISSI-Europlanet-CSH forum on "Future science of exoplanets and their systems"

  • This forum co-sponsored by Europlanet and ISSI and coordinated also with the Center for Space and Habitability (CSH) of the University of Bern was held on december 5 and 6 in Bern. It gathered 24 of the most expert exoplanets and planetary science specialists to discuss the future of the fast-expanding field of exoplanet science, which has now more than 800 objects to analyze and compare and will develop ever more quickly over the coming years. The forum discussions included a review of our current observational knowledge of exoplanets, of our efforts for modeling exoplanets from their formation through their evolution and possibly to the emergence of habitability and life, and of our understanding of how exoplanets interact with their stellar and galactic environment through their life. Very lively discussions led to the identification of several "hot" areas for focusing further research efforts in the field, and of areas where the interdisciplinary confrontation of complementary viewpoints permitted by ISSI workshops will strongly and critically benefit to the field.
    From the forum, several ideas of ISSI workshops to be implemented over the coming two or three years emerged, which will be presented in the final report, to be edited and published early in 2013. This forum constituted the fourth and last joint meeting co-organised by Europlanet and ISSI in the framework of our FP7 contract.
    We expect that, following the publication of the forum report and its recommendations, a series of ISSI workshops on exoplanets science will be implemented, constituting a component of the Europlanet heritage and one of its contributions to the development of the field.

  • Contacts: Michel Blanc (michel.blanc@irap.omp.eu)
    Helmut Lammer (Helmut.Lammer@oeaw.ac.at)
    Maurizio Falanga (maurizio.falanga@issibern.ch)
  • Information on the forum can be found at http://www.issibern.ch/program/forum_archive.html.

NA3 : Films on planetary scientists and Venus transit

  • Maarten Roos, from Lightcurve films, realised 22 short films on planetary scientists and their findings presented at the EPSC2012: http://vimeo.com/channels/epsc2012
  • The SOPRON team, winners of the Europlenat Outreach Funding Scheme for a film on the footsteps of the Hungarian scientists observing the Venus transit in the 19th century, has just won the prestigious MoonBots 2012 competition run by Google Lunar X PRIZE: http://moonbots.org/teams/hungarobots

NA3/NA4 : Muchas gracias to EPSC 2012 and see you all in London for EPSC 2013

  • The European Planetary Science Congress 2012 was a great success with 705 participants from 34 countries.
    We thank all of you very much for your attendance and your active contribution to this great event.
    We would be pleased to welcome you back at the European Planetary Science Congress 2013, 08-13 September 2013, University College London, United Kingdom.
    Several press releases have been published by the Europlanet Media Centre during EPSC 2012.

  • Website: http://www.europlanet-eu.org/media-centre/62-epsc/epsc-2012/547-epsc-2012-press-releases
    http://www.epsc2013.eu/

NA3/NA4 : EPSC 2014, Portugal, September 2014

  • It's with great pleasure that we announce that EPSC2014 will be in Portugal. We received an extremely strong bid from our Portuguese colleagues, for an EPSC by the sea, near Lisbon.  The event will gave very good synergy with several large astronomy and science  outreach events which will run at the same time. Moreover, it was strongly felt by many of us that now is the time to move out beyond the traditional space nations, and this seems a perfect opportunity. The facilities we have seen are excellent, and the local organisers are enthusiastic. This promises to be a great meeting!

NA4:Europlanet technology foresight / presentations and tutorials from the JUICE radiation modelling workshop, Aberystwyth, November 28-30, 2012 available online

  • As part of the Europlanet technology foresight initiative, and in collaboration with ESA, this workshop aimed to gather experts from the various fields of radiation modelling. There has been a strong emphasis on hands-on learning, with the use of a dedicated computing teaching lab.

  • Workshop organisers: Manuel Grande, Balazs Pinter, Martin Vickers, Jimmy Carter, Tom Knight, Alexander Leatherland (Aberystwyth University)
  • Link to the official website : http://juice2012.imaps.aber.ac.uk/prog.shtml
    Link to talks and tutorials : http://juice2012.imaps.aber.ac.uk/JRWSh/

JRA3:EXOtim and PICsim

  • Two simulation codes developed by UCL researchers, Exotim and PICsim, have been successfully ported to CINECA, the Italian national High Performance Computing facility.
    Exotim is a general circulation model for the upper atmospheres of giant planets. It has been ported to the IBM PLX linux cluster and has been MPI-enabled to parallelise computation and partially distribute memory.
    PICSim is a parallel versatile suite of 5D/6D Particle-In-Cell plasma simulation codes to study wave-particle kinetic processes. It has been ported to both IBM PLX and SP6 systems, benchmarked and its scalability has been measured. Collaboration between UCL and CINECA has been extended through the pan-European research infrastructure for HPC trans national access HPC-Europa2.

  • Website :http://www.hpc-europa.eu/

IDIS: Jupiter magnetospheric and plasma data archive available at IRAP/CDPP for the preparation of JUICE

  • A Jupiter database including all publicly available magnetospheric and plasma data from previous missions to Jupiter has been built in the CDPP/AMDA (Automated Multi-Dataset Analysis) tool.
    This tool can be used to re-analyze past datasets (including Galileo) in order to prepare and optimize proposed JUICE instrumentation to the potential benefit of the JUICE teams and the broader science community.
    The AMDA service provides functionalities for

    • performing automated search of events, producing time-tables. This tool scans the content of the data and automatically test mathematical criteria edited by the user
    • performing semi-automated search of events, producing time-tables. This tool allows the user to browse the data she/he selected by sequentially producing a figure he has predefined
    • performing automated and semi-automated characterisation of events, producing catalogues (time-tables + extracted parameters)
    • extracting sub-database from an input time-table
    • performing basic data treatment (formatting, bad point filtering, re-sampling, data merging, ) in order to provide to the user data ready to use with her/his favourite software

  • Contacts: Nicolas André (CNRS/IRAP) and Vincent Génot (CNRS/CDPP)
  • Website: http://cdpp-amda.cesr.fr/DDHTML/index.html

IDIS:JUICE trajectory available in 3DView/CDPP at IRAP for the preparation of JUICE

  • The JUICE mission trajectory and ephemerids have been added to 3DView/CDPP by IRAP, a tool for scientists that offers immediate 3D visualization of position and orientation of spacecrafts (including Voyager, Ulysses, Galileo, Juno), planetary ephemerides, as well as scientific data representation.
    This tool can be used to visualize JUICE mission phases as well as prepare science mode operation plans, and will be regularly updated as the mission progresses to the potential benefit of the JUICE teams and the broader science community.

  • Contacts: Nicolas André (CNRS/IRAP) and Vincent Génot (CNRS/CDPP)
  • Website:http://3dview.cesr.fr/

Job opportunities

Other: Conferences and workshops



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The contents of this newsletter are the sole responsibility of the authors, and they do not represent necessarily the views of the European Commission or its services. Whilst all reasonable effort is made to ensure the accuracy of information contained in this newsletter, it is provided without warranty and we accept no responsibility for any use that may be made of the information.

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