SolarNews OCTOBER 1995

The next Hale Prize is to be awarded in 1996, and we anticipate that the recipient will deliver the Hale Prize Lecture at the summer meeting of the AAS to be held in Madison, Wisconsin, in June. SPD Chairman Jack Thomas has set up the following committee to make a recommendation on this matter: Mukul Kundu, John Leibacher, Bob Lin, Neil Sheeley and Peter Sturrock (chair).

All members of the Division are encouraged to submit recommendations for the next Hale Prize recipient. Nominations should include a biography, bibliography and a statement advocating the nomination. Supporting letters are helpful.

Please send your nominations, that should arrive by October 31, 1995, to

I am pleased to announce that the following people have agreed to serve on the 1995-96 SPD Nominating Committee:

Terry Forbes (chair)
Judy Karpen
Dick Shine

The combined CSSP/CSTR (Committee on Solar and Space Physics/ Committee on Solar Terrestrial Research) committees of the National Research Council met at the Beckman Center in Irvine on August 1-4 for their summer meeting. Several teleconferences were held for the purpose of both getting an update on the NASA reorganization and budgetary situations, and hearing about Space Physics Division plans and also progress on the interagency National Space Weather Program initiative. Office of Space Science Associate Administrator Wes Huntress described the ongoing NASA headquarters reorganization, which still includes the single science division concept. There are no announcements at this time regarding any changes in activities or personnel at the Research and Analysis program level, nor has a director of the single science division been named. However, Dr. Huntress did suggest that the post would be mainly administrative and that the science authority would rest in the new "Board of Directors" and the Associate Administrator's office. At the research and analysis program level, which is the level most of the science workforce interacts most directly with, Civil Servant scientists will remain, although the Visiting Senior Scientist positions will be phased out within a year. Dr. Huntress is attempting to retain the "IPA" position, however, to help fill some of those vacated discipline scientist positions. The reorganization should be in effect by October. The NASA Zero-Based Review progress was described, mainly in terms of the move to "privatize" many previously NASA-run activities (e.g. Shuttle operations, parts of Wallops launch facilities, Space Science data archiving and distribution). The current problems with use of Pegasus-class launch vehicles are a top priority action item in the OSS.

Space Physics Division Director, Dr. George Withbroe, described some changes that we may see in the launch opportunities area. In particular, a formal "secondary payloads" opportunities NRA or AO may appear in order to take advantage of piggyback launches. In addition to the partial commercialization of the Wallops launch facility, there may be incentives for surplus rocket use in the suborbital program. Dr. Withbroe also described some new mission concepts for a Solar Polar Imager that would image coronal mass ejections that are Earth-bound. He also mentioned the NASA participation in the Japanese Solar-B mission, which is similar to "SOT" (the NASA Solar Optical Telescope mission concept of some years ago). There is also some activity in the division related to outreach that should become visible during the GGS program.

NSF Atmospheric Sciences Division Director Dr. Richard Behnke, who is also a co-chair (with Col. T. Tascione of DoD) of the organizers of the National Space Weather Program interagency initiative, described their ongoing activities. On June 15-16 a small panel was brought together in Washington to draft an implementation plan for a National Space Weather Program. The panel included Solar/Interplanetary, Magnetospheric, and Upper Atmosphere/Ionosphere subgroups. These subgroups were charged with the task of defining key issues, needed research and/or observations, and applications transitions, and with constructing a strawman timeline for implementation of these based in part on present and planned activities already considered within the agencies (NSF, DoD, NASA, NOAA). One goal is to have an interagency announcement of opportunity for participation in and contributions to a National Space Weather Program. However, the time scale for that is still to be determined.

The committees spent the bulk of the meeting completing the "Atmospheric Science in the 21st Century" report for BASC (the CSTR parent board). Next report activities include an assessment of the NASA OSS Strategic Plan in light of the committees' recently completed science strategy report (to be released in the fall), and the preparation of an Academy Briefing document on Space Weather. The next meeting of the CSSP/CSTR is in November in Washington DC.

Forty-three proposals were submitted to the current Medium-class Explorer (MIDEX) competition. The first part of a two part evaluation process has been completed. The Step-One selection was made on the basis of proposals which emphasized the planned science investigation and instrumentation required. Proposals for Step-Two evaluations have been requested from thirteen missions. Two primes and two alternatives will be downselected from these thirteen in the spring of 1996.

Fifteen of the submitted proposals addressed areas of interest to the Space Physics Division. The innovative ideas and quality of these clearly demonstrate the vitality and creativity of the space physics community. Five of the space physics oriented proposals are being carried forward to Step Two. The Principal Investigators and titles associated with these five proposals follow.

Dr. James L. Burch/Southwest Research Institute

Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE)

Dr. Paul A. Evenson/University of Delaware

POsitron Electron Magnet Spectrometer (POEMS)

Dr. Roderick A. Heelis/University of Texas, Dallas

ElectroMagnetic Energy Coupler (EMEC)

Dr. Robert P. Lin/University of California, Berkeley

High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (HESSI)

Dr. Robert P. McCoy/Naval Research Laboratory

Thermospheric and Ionospheric Remote Sensing (TIGERS)

Submitted by George Withbroe, NASA Space Physics Division.

A total eclipse of the Sun will be visible from Asia and the Pacific Ocean on 1997 March 9. The path of the Moon's umbral shadow begins in eastern Kazakhstan, and travels through Mongolia and eastern Siberia where it swings northward to end at sunset in the Arctic Ocean. A partial eclipse will be seen within the much broader path of the Moon's penumbral shadow, which includes eastern Asia, the northern Pacific and the northwest corner of North America.

A new NASA solar eclipse bulletin covering this event is now available. "Total Solar Eclipse of 1997 March 9" (NASA RP 1369) is a 64 page publication containing detailed predictions and includes besselian elements, geographic coordinates of the path of totality, physical ephemeris of the umbra, topocentric limb profile corrections, local circumstances for 280 cities, maps of the eclipse path, weather prospects, the lunar limb profile and the sky during totality. Tips and suggestions are also given on how to safely view and photograph the eclipse. NASA's eclipse bulletins are prepared in cooperation with the IAU's Working Group on Eclipses and are provided as a public service to both the professional and lay communities, including educators and the media.

Single copies of the bulletin are available at no cost and may be ordered by sending a 9 x 12 inch SASE (self addressed stamped envelope) with sufficient postage (11 oz. or 310 g). Use stamps only; cash or checks cannot be accepted. Requests within the U. S. may use the Postal Service's Priority Mail for $3.00. Please print either the eclipse date (year & month) or the NASA RP number in the lower left corner of the SASE. Requests from outside the U. S. and Canada may send nine international postal coupons to cover postage. Exceptions to the postage requirements will be made for international requests where political or economic restraints prevent the transfer of funds to other countries. We will also relax the SASE requirements to professional researchers and scientists provided their request comes on official stationary. It would also be helpful if they included a self addressed mailing label. Bulletin requests may be made to either of the authors.

The narrow band of totality of the 24 October 1995 solar eclipse will cross Asia from Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Bangaladesh to Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. A partial eclipse will be more widely visible, extending through Guam and other Pacific islands. A Committee of Commission 46 on the Teaching of Astronomy of the I.A.U. has been making material on observing the eclipse safely to astronomers and others in several of those countries for distribution. (The Committee consists of Julieta Fierro of Mexico, Ralph Chou of Canada, and me.) Please let me know of any other needs.

The HAO Home Page is now opened and accessible directly by

In August 1994, IAU Commission 10 endorsed the recommendation by the Board of JOSO that the DPR be published henceforth by electronic means beginning with the year 1978. Accordingly, from now

is given in ASCII version.

With the help of the Hungarian Program for the Development for Information Infrastructure, the Heliophysical Observatory of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Debrecen, Hungary received a SUN SparcServer 10. On it we established an anonymous FTP server to make some data available to the solar community. The server is under construction now, the first data loaded are the Debrecen Photoheliographic Results for 1978 (see the letter of Prof. Dezso of today). We plan to gradually put there more data, as our resources allow. The Internet address of our server is fenyi.sci.klte.hu (193.6.137.102).

The Solar Data Analysis Center (SDAC) at NASA Goddard will be moving during the week of 1 October. Since we are moving into an area adjacent to the SOHO Experimenters' Analysis Facility (EAF), the move entails a change in IP domain as well as physical location.

Starting roughly at noon (EDT; 16:00 UT) on 3 October, the SDAC Web pages will be reachable at URL:

The Third SOLTIP Symposium will be held in Beijing, PRC, on 14-18 October 1996. SOLTIP (a SCOSTEP project on SOLar connection to Transient Interplanetary Phenomena) will schedule both invited and contributed papers (including posters) on:

(a) New scientific results on the 3D solar wind and IMF from the Sun into the heliosphere as deduced from Yohkoh, Coronas, SOHO, Ulysses, Spartan, Wind, Imp-8, and Interball missions;

(b) Theory and Observations of both steady-state and disturbed solar wind, IMF, and energetic particles and their solar origins;

(c) Progress on 3D MHD simulations of data accumulated during six SOLTIP Interval campaigns (see below) and other cases via in situ and remote sensing (IPS) techniques;

(d) Interaction between models and observations of dynamic CMEs as observed by SOHO white light and EUV imagers, Coronas soft X-ray imager and radio experiment, and their in situ detection during the rise of Cycle 23 by Wind, Interball and Imp-8, as well as by IPS;

(e) Deduction of coronal magnetic topology from experiments on SOHO, Yohkoh, and Coronas via the use of MHD models.

The six SOLTIP Intervals, as discussed at the SOLTIP II meeting in Japan, and again at the Solar Wind 8 meeting in California and during the IAGA meeting in Colorado, are as follows:

Interval #1: 22-27 March 1991 (Coordinators: M. Shea, D. Smart)
Interval #2: 1-18 June 1991 (Coordinators: S. Kahler, E. Cliver)
Interval #3: 4-10 May 1992 (Coordinators: S. Ananthakrishnan, T. Watanabe)
Interval #4: 4-31 July 1994 (Coordinator: S. McKenna-Lawlor)
Interval #5: 30 Oct.-3 Nov. 1993 (Coordinator: D. Knipp)
Interval #6: 14-20 April 1994 (Coordinator: I. Veselovskii)

These Intervals were chosen for both their flare-associated and non-flare-associated solar activities and their consequences at Earth and other heliospheric locations. Other periods of interest to the scientific community will, of course, also be welcome for discussion.

Regular triennial meetings are organised by the board of the Solar Physics Section of European Physical Society and the European Astronomical Society. The 8th European Meeting on Solar Physics will be held in Thessaloniki, Greece and will cover a variety of issues, from the solar interior to the heliosphere and cosmic rays. Particular emphasis will be given to the Ulysses results. Invited talks, oral presentations and posters will cover most of the research activity in solar and space physics. Young scientists are encouraged to attend and present their research.

• Solar interior and oscillations
• Physics of flux-tubes and waves
• Structure and flows in the upper atmosphere
• Restructuring of magnetic fields
• Particle acceleration physics
• Heliosphere and cosmic rays
• New instrumentation

Contact address:Prof. Loukas Vlahos
S P M - 9 6
University of Thessaloniki
Department of Physics
Section of Astrophysics, Astronomy and Mechanics
GR-54006, Thessaloniki, Greece

Sponsored by (preliminary list)

• Mullard Space Science Laboratory
• Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
• Naval Research Laboratory
• National Astronomical Observatory of Japan

The Japanese Yohkoh mission has now been operating for more than four years. During that time magnetic reconnection has emerged as a key issue in the interpretation of quiet Sun, active region, and flare observations. The purposes of this conference are to:

• Bring together the wealth of recent observations related to magnetic reconnection

• Examine current theoretical thinking about reconnection

• Begin to synthesize a unified picture of the role that magnetic reconnection plays in the outer layers of the solar atmosphere

Topics suitable for this conference include:

Reconnection phenomena and their consequences in both the impulsive and gradual phases of solar flares

Coronal mass ejections and other large-scale reconnection phenomena

Active region structure and evolution

Surges, jets, bright points, and other small-scale reconnection phenomena

Critical examinations of evidence for and against reconnection in the outer layers of the solar atmosphere

Critical examinations of the observational consequences of theoretical models of reconnection phenomena in the solar atmosphere, especially as they relate to Yohkoh observations

J. L. Culhane, Mullard Space Science Laboratory (Chair)
L. Acton, Montana State University
G. A. Doschek, Naval Research Laboratory
K. J. H. Phillips, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
E. Priest, University of St. Andrews
K. Shibata, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
S. Tsuneta, Institute of Astronomy, University of Tokyo (provisional)
Y. Uchida, Physics Department, Science University of Tokyo
T. Watanabe, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan

The conference will consist of single sessions arranged around specific topics in reconnection phenomena in the outer layers of the solar atmosphere. Each session will begin with an invited presentation on the topic. Following the invited presentation will be contributed presentations on the same topic. Ample time will be allowed for discussion. Oral presentations will be limited in number to allow sufficient time to present fully each topic. If demand for oral presentations is too great, poster sessions will be added.

The conference is tentatively scheduled to take place in Bath, England, about about 115 miles west of London. Bath has a good rail link with London Waterloo (Eurostar trains for Brussels and Paris also leave from this station), and is easily accessible from either Heathrow or Gatwick airports (via bus, or the British Rail rail/air links); road links with the city are also good.

The conference will be documented with a published proceedings. This will contain both the invited contributions and shorter contributed papers. The aim is to produce an up-to-date summary of the current observational and theoretical picture of reconnection in the outer layers of the solar atmosphere.

We anticipate charging a registration fee of from 100 to 130 Pounds ($150 to $200).

If you wish to receive an announcement, please contact

Dr. R. D. Bentley
Mullard Space Science Laboratory
Holmbury St. Mary, Dorking, Surrey RH5 6NT
United Kingdom

Or FAX a request to: +44-1483-278312

Dr. Leon Golub
60 Garden Street
Cambridge, Mass. 02138
Ph.: 617 495 7177
Fax: 617 496 7577

The abstract information for this meeting will be published in the December issue of APSNews and posted to the homepage at that time. Invited speakers will receive information directly, with their letter of invitation.

RELATED INFO:

The general announcement of the meeting, listed by the APS, is:

DATES: Sunday-Thursday, August 11-15, 1996

SITE: Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana

PURPOSE: To foster a significant advance toward predicting CME occurrences, their interplanetary consequences, and the strength of their geoeffective parameters.

CONVENERS: Nancy Crooker (BU) and Jo Ann Joselyn (SEC)

PROGRAM COMMITTEE:

Loren Acton (MSU) and Russ Howard (NRL)

Discussion Leaders for Solar Signatures

Hilary Cane (UTasmania and GSFC) and Bob Lin (UCBerkeley)

Discussion Leaders for Energetic Particles

Terry Forbes (UNH) and Dave McComas (LANL)

Discussion Leaders for Topology

Jack Gosling (LANL) and Ernie Hildner (SEC)

The National Optical Astronomy Observatories has a position available with the National Solar Observatory (NSO) for an Assistant Scientist . The Assistant Scientist will be responsible for providing scientific and technical support to NSO's facility for laboratory Fourier transform spectroscopy. The successful candidate must demonstrate the ability to work with sophisticated laboratory and optical instrumentation, interpret the results of observations as a critical evaluation of instrument performance, and successfully interact with the laboratory user community. This position's primary role is to provide support to visiting scientists. Interaction and collaborative research with visitors and other staff members is encouraged. Candidates must have at least three years experience in spectroscopy and a Ph.D. in Physics, Chemistry or an allied field.

We take affirmative action to employ women, minority group members, and protected classes of handicapped persons, disabled veterans, and veterans of Vietnam era. If you qualify and would like to be considered under our Affirmative Action Program, please let us know. Submission of this information is voluntary. Send Resume to:

Ms Revell Rayne
Human Resources Manager
P.O. Box 26732
Tucson, AZ 85726

The Solar Physics Theory group at Stanford University is currently seeking to fill a post-doctoral position.

The primary focus of the group is to develop insights into the origins of solar activity including coronal heating, flares and eruptions such as surges and coronal mass ejections.

The studies undertaken by the group include analysis of data (especially SXT images) from the Yohkoh spacecraft. These empirical studies are complemented by analytical and computational efforts to understand the magnetic environment (the structure and evolution of coronal magnetic fields) and the plasma environment (coronal heating both in quiet regions and in active-region coronal loops).

Candidates should have expertise in one or more of the following areas: data analysis, plasma physics, and computational MHD. Previous involvement in solar physics is highly desirable.

Stanford University is an equal-opportunity employer.

Interested persons should send a resume, a description of research interests, and the names of three references to Professor Peter A. Sturrock, Center for Space Science and Astrophysics, Stanford University ERL 306, Stanford CA 94305.

The organizing Commitee of the Symposium is pleased to announce the publication of the Proceedings, edited by M. Raljevic, F. Zaratti and J. M. Pasachoff.

The Proceedings, as a special issue of the Bolivian Academy of Sciences Review, contain more than 110 pages with color pictures and consist of three sections: Solar Coronal Physics, Solar Terrestrial Physics and Miscellaneous.

People can order one or more copies at the cost of US$ 35 per copy, postage paid, by filling the following form and returning it, as soon as possible, to:

Springer-Verlag has just released the colorful book Sun, Earth and Sky by Kenneth R. Lang. It can be ordered from them,at the cost of about $35, at:

The next issue of SolarNews will appear on November 1. The deadline for submission of articles is October 28. Contributions from the Solar Physics Community world wide is extremely valuable. However, please try to limit contributions to one page. For meeting announcements, a general description of the meeting and the addresses (email or other) of contact person(s) are sufficient. The Editor reserves the right to shorten contributions which exceed that limit. Also please note that the same rules apply to the quarterly Newsletter which is scheduled for January 1996.