--------------------------------------------------------------- M I S T E L E C T R O N I C N E W S L E T T E R No. 8 22 September 2004 --------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Colleagues, As we begin another academic year, I would like to bring you up to date with MIST events and activities. AUTUMN MIST 2004 This year's autumn MIST meeting in London will be on Friday 26th November at the Geological Society Lecture Room, Burlington House, Piccadilly, beginning at 10.30 am. Coffee will be available in the Geological Society library from 10.00 am. Afternoon tea will also be provided, but as the sandwich lunch has not been well supported in recent years, it will not be provided this time. There are plenty of eating establishments in the environs of Burlington House, and you are welcome to bring sandwiches, etc. back to the GS library. Contributions are invited on all MIST topics. The abstract deadline is 8th November, and the programme will be published shortly after that date. There is a webform for submitting your abstract, which may be found at: www.mist.ac.uk/mistas04.html The lecture room must be vacated by 5.30 pm, but proceedings usually continue informally over a pint at the "Walkers of St James" pub in Duke Street (across Piccadilly from Burlington House). Many thanks to the Royal Astronomical Society for supporting our meetings. RAS/MIST DISCUSSION MEETING; 8TH OCTOBER 2004 This meeting, titled: "The magnetospheric cusps revealed: Results from the CLUSTER mission", will take stock of what has been learned after three years of the CLUSTER mission about this key region for regulating the transfer of solar wind energy to the ionosphere and inner magnetosphere. The meeting is being organised by Peter Cargill (Imperial College), Chris Owen (Mullard Space Science Lab.) and Malcolm Dunlop (Rutherford Appleton Lab.). It will be held in the Geological Society Lecture Theatre, Burlington House, beginning at 10.30am. The deadline for submission of contributed abstracts has passed, and the programme is now available at: www.sp.ph.ic.ac.uk/~cargill/cluster_ras.html At the RAS Ordinary meeting, held in the same lecture room at 4.00pm, there will be a talk by Dr Benoit Lavraud (LANL) on "The magnetospheric cusps as seen by CLUSTER". It should be a most interesting day and you are encouraged to attend. As with all RAS Discussion meetings, attendance is free to all RAS Fellows, but there is small charge for non-Fellows. The Ordinary meeting is free to all. SPRING MISTs Since the last Newsletter, 2004 MIST/UKSP 'Auld Reekie' meeting has been held in Edinburgh. This was a very successful meeting, and many thanks are due to the local organising team led by Alan Thomson (BGS) for MIST and Lyndsay Fletcher (Glasgow University) on the Solar side. Thanks also to Neil Arnold (Leicester University) and Robertus Erdelyi (Sheffield University), who together with Alan and Lyndsay wrote up the report of the meeting for the June issue of Astronomy and Geophysics (the MIST part of the report is also available on the MIST website). If you don't receive this journal (free to members of the Royal Astronomical Society) every two months, you should consider joining the Society which is the independent learned society representing MIST science, and is the professional body for MIST scientists. There are reduced fees for students, new members, young members, and retired members. Details on the RAS website www.ras.org.uk/ The spring 2004 MIST meeting ("Granta MIST") will be held at Selwyn College, Cambridge, 5-7 April 2005, hosted by British Antarctic Survey. We at BAS are looking forward to welcoming you in Cambridge. More details will be published in due course on the meeting website: www.antarctica.ac.uk/Meetings/2005/MIST/ Information about registration, accommodation, and abstract submission will be published on the website later this year or early next year. Alternate spring MIST meetings, in even numbered years, are held jointly with the UK Solar Physics Community; the 2006 meeting will be in Aberystwyth, hosted by the Solar Terrestrial Physics Group of the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. More details in due course. MIST COORDINATOR At the Auld Reekie MIST I announced that I would be stepping down as MIST Coordinator in 2005, after 10 years in the role. I am very pleased to be able to report that Neil Arnold of the University of Leicester has volunteered to take over from me. Neil has been a supporter of MIST for many years and since 1999 has been MIST reporter, writing reports of all the MIST meetings for "Astronomy & Geophysics" and the MIST website. Soundings I have taken show that Neil will be very acceptable to the community, and I am sure you will support him as you have me, and that MIST will continue to flourish in the future. The changeover will take place at the 2005 Spring MIST in Cambridge. LONDON MIST 2005 This will be on Friday 25 November 2005 at Burlington House. More details nearer the time. 2005 INTERNATIONAL MAGNETOSPHERES OF OUTER PLANETS (MOP) CONFERENCE This meeting will be hosted during 7-12 August 2005 at the University of Leicester. More details soon, but put the dates in your diary if you are interested. RAS AWARDS Each year the Royal Astronomical Society makes a number of awards (including the prestigious Gold Medal) to scientists in the fields of Astronomy and Geophysics (which in this context includes MIST). Nominations close on 12 November, so if you wish to nominate anyone, please look at the details given on the RAS website. MIST WEBSITE AND MAILING LIST The MIST website continues to be at www.mist.ac.uk/ It contains information about future meetings, reports of past ones, links to research groups, the MIST email directory, and other relevant information. There are currently about 260 on the MIST mailing list. Posting guidelines, plus instructions on how to subscribe to the list, may be found at www.mist.ac.uk/misteml.html I will look forward to seeing you at one of more of the forthcoming meetings. Best wishes, Andy Smith, MIST Coordinator -- Dr A.J. Smith, British Antarctic Survey, Phone: +44-1223-221544 Madingley Road, Fax: +44-1223-221226 Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK. Email: A.J.Smith@bas.ac.uk MIST Home page: http://www.mist.ac.uk/