Solar Physics Division
2002 Business Meeting
June 4, 2002
Minutes
Call To Order at 8:05 PM. Approximately 95 people in attendance.
- Secretary's report (S. Walton)
- Election Results: Alphonse Sterling and Sarah Gibson elected to SPD Committee; Edward deLuca is Vice Chair
- Membership Directory will be available on line at SPD Web site as PDF rather than a printed version being mailed
- Requested help for meeting writeup for AAS Newsletter
- Treasurer's report (J. Schmelz)
- SPD is very healthy; our assets total $168,882.86
- Anyone in Division can see all SPD accounts in detail on request
- We are charged with finding good ways to spend this money
- Three dues waiver reasons are on the current on-line SPD membership form. They are historical, and have been eliminated by the SPD Committee.
- We have a need to coordinate our member list with AAS better. R. Milkey says this is easy, and Schmelz will discuss this with the AAS.
Agency reports
- NSO (Steve Keil)
- ATST Site Survey runs until December 4
- Design phase runs to at least end of '04. Construction proposal submission target is April 2005.
- 76 element Adaptive Optics system to be wrapped up FY03
- Diffraction Limited Stokes Polarimeter (DLSP): phase I is in place using old cameras but new internal spectrograph
- SOLIS should go to GONG farm in July and up to KPNO in September. Two more copies may be built.
- GONG++ hires camera upgrade just about complete
- Aladdin array and IR camera update given
- Fabry Perot has been upgradaed to 20mÅ field which doesn't limit AO resolution
- CCDs becoming a problem, telescope support is ongoing (?)
- ISOON: continuous H-alpha with 3 hour cadence
- NSF (Tom Bogdan)
- Atmospheric Sciences has Solar Terrestrial Research program of which Bogdan is director. $6 million spread over about 75 programs; proposal acceptance rate is about 50%.
- Give us a try! There is no deadline for base program. SHINE program received 15 proposals of which 7 were funded at a total of $1.5 million; National Space Weather received 15 of which 7 were funded at a total of $700K
- Please consult with me
- The Future
- Present state of solar physics at universities troubles NSF. Possibility of funding a tenure track person for 3, 4, or 5 years to start up research, at a total of perhaps $300,000. If tenured, same level would be kept for some period.
- SHINE is in first year: connects corona to Earth. Real opportunity for initiative to deal with solar magnetism. Please think about ways for dynamo, active region, etc. programs to be organized.
- Solar Terrestrial Program director rotates every two years; the only one that does. So I (Bogdan) leave October 1, 2003, and want to work with the successor.
- Science and Technology Center: $4 million/year at Boston University, 10 year duration.
- HAO (Peter Gilman)
- Knoelker wants to give more talks at campuses to encourage future solar physicists
- HAO is renewing its scientific staff: it is looking for a magnetospheric scientist immediately, and anticpates a new Scientist I position at NCAR every 18 months.
- NASA (Todd Hoeksema)
- Sean O'Keefe is the new NASA Administrator
- Dick Fisher replaces George Withbroe at the end of the month
- Lika Guhathakurta was heliospheric member, but is now program scientist for Living with a Star. Hope to have new heliosphere person by 1 July
- TIMED launch December 7, 2001, RHESSI launch February 5, 2002; both are doing well
- SOLAR-B and STEREO on track for 2005 launch
- Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) AO release in Summer 2002
- Existing missions are running well
- Another executive review of all missions next year
- Lots of programs totaling $55 million/yr going into solar, magnetospheric, etc.
- Number of proposals received determines money allocation
- Average proposal success rate is 1/3; average funding is probably $80,000/yr
- The size of the grant does not affect its chances
- SEC Roadmap to go to NASA HQ in September
- Contact NASA if desired through your local MOWG member; Dana Longcope is the chair of MOWG.
- Living with a Star
- Solar Dynamics Observatory: Premission concept is complete; it will be in geosync orbit. Instrument selections Sept 2002, launch August 2007
- International LWS effort is being organized
- Solar Probe was reinserted into the budget by Congress
- Targetd Research and Technology Definition Team formed Summer 2002; please volunteer
- Bill Wagner has started to talk more seriously about retirement, perhaps in a year. He has been very good for our field and a good replacement is essential.
- Please do more E&PO stuff: press releases and the like. NASA would be glad to help.
- NOAA: Ernie Hildner
- Routines operations of Solar X-Ray Imager should commence at the beginning of 2003 with data available almost instantly at NGDC Web site
- Insturments have been selected for GOES-R (2012 launch).
- Air Force, NASA and NOAA all have a total solar irradiance requirement. Current spacecraft have a possible gap in 2007-08 (?), but we should have TSI in perpetuity after that
- Space Weather Week meeting was a great success. It is interesting to note that United Airlines alone diverted 25 polar flights due to space weather in March 2001
Program Reports
- Solar Probe (Barry Labonte)
- Now a mission under study in SEC Theme
- Not a forgotten mission
- JHU/APL are doing a one-year concept study with GSFC oversight and JPL support
- Schedule: January kickoff, August preliminary report, December final report (all in 2002). Answer feasibility question
- Using Science Definition Team report
- New elements: more bandwidth, RTG power, new materials for thermal protection, and leverage advances from MESSENGER (new Mercury mission)
Some discussion: Alan Title expressed disappointment that current SDT report being used, since it was written under severe constraints. Todd Hoeksema responds that Ed Weiler will go to Congress for more funds if Solar Probe is high on Decadal Survey and SEC Roadmaps
- FASR (Dale Gary)
- Frequency Agile Solar Radiotelescope
- Very broad science goals: coronal fields, CME's, and flares
- Specifications shown
- Good news: have money. Design study began in March and runs until end of 2003. Design and development in 2004-05, with construction in 2005-08.
- Definitely want additional participants
SPD Committee Reports (Leibacher)
(chairs are underlined)
- Hale Prize: Terry Forbes, Leon Golub, Shadia Habbal, Barry Labonte, and Jack Harvey, all continuing
- Nominating Committee: Markus Aschwanden, Yuhong Fan, Barbara Thompson. Next year Fan will stay on as chair
- Popular Writing: Jeff Brosius, Mark Giampapa, Terry Kucera, Curt Suplee, Dave Webb
This year's winners (Jeff Brosius): Professional winner is Carolus Schriver and Alan Title's article, "Today's Science of the Sun" in Sky and Telescope. Journalist winner is a two-part article in Science News, the first by Ron Cohen and the second by Sid Perkins - Electronic Communications: Rick Bogart, Dale Gary, Steve Walton, John Leibacher Bogart: We are migrating all Web pages to spd.aas.org. Leibacher: we also want to reinvigorate the site, if nothing else to get a "list of lists" on the SPD site
- Studentships: Gordon Emslie
- Audit Committee: Ken Dere and Karen Harvey carried out this task
Liaison Reports
- Press (Craig de Forest): Moderately successful this year in the press. My job is to put plugs in sockets: if you have interesting results, tell me. I've tried to write press releases and organize press conferences; there were some results this year which would have made good press, but the abstracts were too abstract.
- Other liasions (John Leibacher) listed; I didn't get the names; Karpen: Most AAS Prizes can go to a wide variety of topics. She is on Heinemann Prize Committee, an astrophysics prize. Please nominate solar folks for AAS prizes!
New Business
- By-Laws Changes (John Leibacher)
Current election rules changes to allow (not require) electronic balloting and to make deadlines more sensible. Per the current by-laws, these will be discussed at next year's business meeting and voted on afterward.- Remove phrase "in a sealed unmarked envelope enclosed within a sealed envelope" from by-laws. Incidentally, DPS simply collects votes by e-mail with not checking.
- In Section VI, move all deadlines forward four weeks.
Both changes already approved by AAS Council.
- Young Person's Award (John Leibacher)
The following is tentative:- Objective: To recognize and encourage new talent in solar physics
- Terms: For a significant contribution to the study of the Sun by a person under 36 years of age or having less than ten years of professional experience after the Ph.D. or equivalent degree
- Naming: The "Karen Harvey Prize'' to honor her contributions to the study of the Sun and to the SPD
- Frequency: At least once every two years
- Endowment: The existing "New Prize Fund'' will be used.
- Sunset Clause: The endowment is to be exhausted after 25 years and another prize will replace it.
The above has been approved by the AAS Council. Bornmann comments that she would like to hear a talk from the winner, and Kundu says he would like it to be annual. Exact wording is under discussion; it will be made final soon and solicitation for nominations made via both SolarNews and the AAS Newsletter.
New Actions to be pursued (John Leibacher unless otherwise noted)
- SPD Logo: SPD Committee will solicit a new logo, with Sarah Gibson chairing a committee to judge submissions. A suggestion from the floor for a cash prize for the chosen log was made.
- Solar Physics in Universities: listed a few new faculty positions at NJIT, MSU, and others. It is hard to make a good case one way or the other, so the SPD will undertake to collect some metrics. Dana Longcope heads this; he asks what we want to see in such a count?
- Education/Outreach: David Alexander will work with Cheri Morrow, AAS Education Officer. Alphonse Sterling and Joan Schmelz are aiding this.
- International Liasions: Alphonse Sterling is chairing this new effort to bring us inter contact with overseas solar physics communities, aided by David Alexander and John Leibacher.
- Program Committee: Ed deLuca is chair of this in his new capacity as SPD Vice Chair; he will be complemented by the chairs of other recent standalone SPD meetings
- SPD Display: David Alexander has taken charge of this. We want to encourage the use of this display to represent the breadth of solar physics.
- Future Meetings: 2003 SPD meeting is standalone at JHU/APL. The 2004 meeting will be joint with AAS in Denver. 2005 is open; East Coast of US is probably preferred, but joint with AGU may be eliminated if they are meeting in Europe.
- Officer Changes: Thomas Rimmele and K.D. Leka are leaving the SPD Committee. Judy Karpen is no longer Vice Chair but is moving to SPD Committee. Steve Kahler has left the Committee after his six years as Vice Chair, Chair, and Committee member (hearty applause).
Adjournment at 10:05 PM.