Newsletter Newsletter Published on Division for Planetary Sciences ( Issue 14-17, July 24, 2014

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1 Issue 14-17, July 24, CONTENTS ) IN MEMORIAM: BARNEY J. CONRATH ( ) 2) 2014 DPS ELECTIONS VOTING DEADLINE COMING UP 3) ABSTRACT DEADLINE FOR THE 46TH DPS MEETING IN TUCSON COMING UP AND GRANTS AVAILABLE 4) PRELIMINARY ANNOUNCEMENT CALL FOR THE ESA CV M4 MISSION 5) UPCOMING MEETINGS IN MEMORIAM: BARNEY J. CONRATH ( ) Dr. Barney Conrath passed away peacefully in his sleep on April 23, 2014, at his home in Charlottesville, Virginia, after a bout with cancer. He is survived by his wife, Marjorie, three children, and five grandchildren. He was born June 23, 1935 in Quincy, Illinois and grew up near Hannibal, Missouri. In 1957 he graduated from Culver-Stockton College in northeast Missouri with a BA in Physics, then earned an MA in Physics at the University of Iowa under the direction of James Van Allen. In July 1960, Barney joined the staff of NASA's new Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, where he would spend most of his professional career. However, Goddard was not ready to accommodate him, since the Center's buildings were still under construction. Goddard's scientists and engineers were housed in temporary quarters scattered over greater Washington, D.C., and Barney spent nearly two years working at the US Naval Receiving Station in the Anacostia section of the city. Later, he won a Robert Goddard Fellowship and took a leave to earn a PhD in Physics at the University of New Hampshire in 1966, his dissertation being on the violation of the 2nd and 3rd adiabatic invariants by hydromagnetic waves. Fortunately for atmospheric science, Barney fell in with the wrong crowd at Goddard, and his career in space plasma physics was short lived. The atmosphere at the Center in its early days was charged with excitement: Earth-orbiting satellites were being launched at a regular rate and Goddard was supplying many of the experiments. Barney's group was heavily involved with the Tiros and Nimbus weather satellites, which, respectively, had radiometers and spectrometers to measure the thermal radiation field of Earth's atmosphere. This was a new area of exploration, and techniques were needed to interpret the observed radiation and derive physical atmospheric parameters, e.g., the distributions of temperatures, clouds, and gaseous constituents. Beginning in the mid 1960s, Barney contributed a series of seminal studies on the inversion of planetary infrared spectra observed from space-borne platforms, which was to occupy much of his career. The course of Barney's work was strongly influenced by his close association with Rudolf Hanel, who built a series of Infrared Interferometer Spectrometers (IRIS) that were onboard the Nimbus satellites, and then on spacecraft that went to Mars (Mariner 9) and the outer planets (Voyager 1 & 2). Barney was a co-investigator on all these experiments and became the Voyager IRIS principal investigator in Early on, Barney appreciated the value and sheer enjoyment of combining the activities of data acquisition and spectral inversion with detailed theoretical modeling of the results. His passion became understanding the atmospheric thermal structure and dynamics of the bodies he observed. Using terrestrial analogies to interpret data from strange worlds is usually a reasonable starting point, but sometimes one's mind needs to be nimble. This was true of the hydrogen-dominated atmospheres in the outer solar system, where Barney and his colleagues discovered that conversion between the ortho and para forms of molecular hydrogen in disequilibrium could be an important energy source driving atmospheric motions. Barney twice received the NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement (1981, 1990), and he American Astronomical Society. Page 1 of 9

2 became a Goddard Senior Fellow in In 1996 he received the DPS Kuiper Prize for his scientific contributions to planetary science. He retired from Federal service in 1995 and became a Senior Research Associate at Cornell University, continuing his close collaboration with Peter Gierasch that had begun during the Voyager IRIS days. During this time, he participated in the Mars Global Surveyor Thermal Emission Spectrometer experiment. He was also a co-investigator on Cassini's Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS), an ambitious Fourier Transform Spectrometer that built on the earlier IRIS instruments. He worked with other CIRS investigators in studying the seasonally varying thermal structure and dynamics of Titan s stratosphere and the large structural changes effected by Saturn s great northern storm, which erupted in late He actively pursued his research until the end, preoccupied with determining the helium abundance of Saturn s atmosphere thus far a challenge by combining CIRS data with radio occultations and with stellar occultations observed by the Cassini Visual Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS). In his career, Barney led by quiet example, and he epitomized unselfish cooperation in research. He was attentive and encouraging. His integrity and competence were unquestioned. Those who knew him well will never forget those qualities, nor will they forget him. Prepared by Michael Flasar, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center DPS ELECTIONS VOTING DEADLINE COMING UP DEADLINE FAST APPROACHING: ONLY ONE MORE WEEK! Please remember to vote! The 2014 election for DPS Vice-Chair and Committee will close soon now, on July 31st Go to [1] You will need your AAS member login ID (which defaults to your membership number), and your password. If you have trouble voting on line, the AAS can do a proxy vote and vote on your behalf (send an to dpssec@aas.org [2]). You will still get an automated confirmation and a separate manual , both with who you voted for and a confirmation number. You should vote for one of the two candidates for Vice-Chair: o Jason W. Barnes, University of Idaho o Stephen J. Mackwell, LPI, Universities Space Research Association The elected Vice-Chair will take his/her functions in October 2014 and will become the DPS Chair in October You should also vote for two of the four candidates for DPS Committee: o Maria Antonietta Barucci, LESIA, Paris Observatory o Joshua Emery, Dept of Earth & Planet. Sci., University of Tennessee o Amy Lovell, Dept of Physics & Astronomy, Agnes Scott College o Gerald Wesley Patterson, APL, Johns Hopkins University The successful candidates will serve on the committee for three years after October The detailed vitae and position statements for each of the candidates can be found on the main election page, [1] It is very important for all of us to participate to these elections, so please take a moment to vote! Thank you! Page 2 of 9

3 ABSTRACT DEADLINE FOR THE 46TH DPS MEETING IN TUCSON COMING UP AND GRANTS AVAILABLE Tucson, AZ, 9-14 November 2014 at the JW Marriott Starr Pass [3] DPS members you are invited to attend the 46th Annual DPS meeting! * Important dates 21 August 2014 : Abstract deadline, coming up quickly now! See [4] and go to: [5] Other important dates: DPS 46 Exhibitor Regular Deadline 6 August 2014 DPS 46 Regular Abstract Deadline 22 August 2014 DPS 46 Exhibitor Final Deadline 26 August 2014 DPS 46 Early Registration Deadline 11 September 2014 DPS 46 Regular Registration Deadline And also: - 24 September 2014 : 46th DPS Late Abstract Submission Deadline - 9:00pm ET - 10 October 2014 : 46th DPS Hotel Reservations Deadline * DPS Grants A) DPS Dependent Care Grants [6] In 2011, the DPS began a pilot program to help parents of small children attend the DPS meeting. After surveying the DPS membership (see 2011 Childcare Survey spreadsheet), it was clear that the economic burden of child, elder, and disabled dependent care affects a small fraction of our membership, but the impact is so great that it can often prevent attendance at meetings, especially for early career scientists or those with limited funding. Therefore, members may apply to subsidize dependent care services during the DPS conference week, for use either at the DPS meeting location or at home. These grants are intended to reimburse some categories of expenses (see : [7]) All expenses should be justified with a receipt to claim the award. The DPS Susan Niebur Professional Development Fund provides financial assistance to qualifying members in order to facilitate their meeting attendance by offsetting dependent care costs at the meeting location or at home during the DPS conference week. Online applications are solicited no later than 1 month prior to the DPS meeting. B) Hartmann travel grants [8] A generous contribution from William K. Hartmann, supplemented by member contributions and Page 3 of 9

4 matching funds from the DPS Committee, has enabled a limited number of student travel grants to assist participation by early-career scientists at the annual DPS meeting. Application details are athttp://dps.aas.org/meetings/travel_grant_application [9]. Travel grants are primarily intended for students, but post-doctoral scientists without other means of support will also be considered. The due date for applications is August 29, :59 PM. The DPS Leadership is also soliciting additional contributions from members for the Hartmann Fund. Your tax-deductible gift promotes the careers of our next generation of planetary scientists. Thanks so much for your generosity PRELIMINARY ANNOUNCEMENT CALL FOR THE ESA CV M4 MISSION The Director of Science and Robotic Exploration intends to release in the second half of August 2014 a Call for the M4 mission, soliciting proposals for a mission with a ceiling to the ESA Cost at Completion (CaC) of 450 M, and a readiness for launch foreseen in The proposal process will foresee the submission of a mandatory Letter of Intent by September 16, with a briefing meeting foreseen on September 26 in ESTEC (date and place subject to confirmation). The deadline for proposal submission is foreseen to be in mid January Letters of support from national funding agencies for whatever mission elements will be proposed to be nationally funded will be required (with the same deadline as for the full proposals). The Call will solicit proposals in any field of space science, and will be open to ESA-only missions as well as to missions in cooperation with international partners, whether ESA-led or partner-led. Any international cooperation scheme can be considered within the ESA CaC ceiling stated above. Letters of support from the potential international partners will be requested. The Call will contain a technical annex illustrating a number of possible mission profiles that would be feasible within the foreseen cost ceiling. These will include both Vega-based and Soyuz-based mission profiles, and span a variety of mission profiles, from Earth-bound orbits to deep-space and planetary missions, covering the different areas of space science. The "Call" will be published on the web site [10] UPCOMING MEETINGS A) ASTEROID IMPACT DEFLECTION ASSESSMENT (AIDA) WORKSHOP The first International Asteroid Impact Deflection Assessment (AIDA) Workshop will be held October 2014 in Laurel, Maryland. AIDA is a technology demonstration of the kinetic impactor concept. It is composed of the DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) and AIM (Asteroid Impact Mission) spacecrafts, each under consideration by NASA and ESA.The combination of both spacecrafts is referred to as AIDA. Abstracts are solicited for participants to the workshop. Topics include studies relevant to the two concepts (DART projectile and AIM rendezvous spacecraft), knowledge of the Didymos binary system (the target of the AIDA demonstration), and on binary origins, dynamics and properties (e.g. regolith and surface characteristics, internal structure), impact observing strategies, additional science opportunities during an impact demonstration and associated payloads, impact modeling and momentum transfer of an artificial projectile, ejecta dynamics etc. Abstracts are due 1 September Please visit [11] for Page 4 of 9

5 further details, including abstract format. B) IPM-2014 November 4-7, 2014 Greenbelt, MD, USA The objective of the Workshop is to have a broad canvas of instrumentation and technology available to 'Decadal Survey' missions and those further out. It is also meant to be a forum of collaboration, exchange and discussions where science questions, and the technology needed to address them, are discussed. Exceptional keynote and invited speakers are a highlighted part of the program. Visit the link below to submit an abstract by Aug 25, 2014 and view details regarding registration: [12] We encourage you to submit an abstract and be part of this unique international gathering focused on instrumentation for planetary missions. POC: Brook Lakew <brook.lakew@nasa.gov [13]> C) 2014 AGU FALL MEETING December 15-19, 2014 San Francisco, CA, USA The abstract deadline for all submissions is 6 August 23:59 EDT/03:59 +1 GMT and no abstracts will be accepted after this date. See hereafter for some planetary-related sessions. - Cassini-related sessions : Dear Colleagues, With Cassini s Tenth Anniversary behind us and more exciting science opportunities yet to come, let s keep up our momentum of informing the planetary community about the mission. To this extent, I have compiled a list of sessions (see attached) occurring at the 2014 Fall AGU Meeting (San Francisco December 2014) that are related to Cassini science. I would like to encourage you to submit an abstract and present at this venue. Abstracts must be submitted by August 6 at 23:59 EDT (this is a hard deadline). Submission fees apply ($65 or $35-Student). The abstract submission website is [14] Best regards, Scott Edgington Cassini at Saturn: Science Today and in the Final Three Years Session ID#: 3530 This session will focus on recent findings in the Saturn system and unique science investigations planned for Cassini's final three years. It will highlight both theoretical and observational studies, including their significance for astrobiology, exoplanets, and giant planet formation and evolution. Page 5 of 9

6 After ten years at Saturn, Cassini's final three years extend its observational baseline by 30%, studying the Saturn system in a seasonal setting never before seen by any spacecraft, and visiting unexplored regions between the innermost ring and top of Saturn s atmosphere. Outstanding opportunities include: observing seasonal processes on Saturn, Titan, icy satellites, rings, and magnetosphere as summer arrives at Saturn s northern hemisphere; studying time variability of many phenomena, including Enceladus plume activity and ring system variations; determining Saturn's internal structure using gravitational and magnetic field measurements; determining ring mass and its radial distribution; and sampling the composition of ring particles and upper atmosphere during the unique end-of-mission phase. - Enceladus: A Habitable World Session ID#: 1492 Geysers of icy particles and vapor, with trace amounts of organic compounds, erupting from warm fractures and deriving from a salty, subsurface sea make the Saturnian moon Enceladus the most accessible extraterrestrial habitable zone in our solar system. In this special session, now in its 9th year, we continue our focus on those topics relating to the origin and state of the moon's geologically active south polar terrain (SPT). These include observational, theoretical and modeling investigations of the composition, state, and dynamics of Enceladus' jets and plume, its thermal and interior state and evolution, and the geomorphology of the SPT and similar provinces. We also welcome studies addressing future spaceflight missions and the moon's potential for biological activity. - The Rite of Spring: The Changing Seasons on Titan Session ID#: 2347 Intense scrutiny by the Cassini Saturn Orbiter (celebrating its 10th anniversary in orbit), combined with extensive ground based observing campaigns, has established Titan s seasonal weather pattern over more than a third of a Saturn orbital period. Many of the changes seen in the atmosphere are associated with changes on the surface. These changes are the product of atmospheric processes such as evaporation, rainfall and/or infiltration and fluvial activity most probably in combination with dynamic processes ongoing in Titan s interior. The relative contribution of each of these processes to Titan s state at a given point in time is gradually being understood. The session will present recent spacecraft and ground-based results and test the veracity of the current models. - Planetary Rings: Theory and Observation Session ID#: 3091 This session will focus on theoretical and observational studies of planetary rings. Subjects to be covered include the structure, dynamics and composition of the rings; the interaction of the rings with the ionosphere, magnetosphere and interplanetary meteoroids; and the origin and evolution of the rings. Cassini observations obtained in the last decade will be highlighted, along with Earth and HST observations, theoretical models and laboratory results. - Solar System Dusty Plasma Session ID#: 3403 Dust has been identified as an important component in space plasma environments in the Solar System. Through various charging processes, the plasma properties can be significantly altered due to the presence of macroscopic charge carriers (dust). Dust dynamics, on the other hand, can be strongly, or even collectively, decided by ambient plasma conditions. This session seeks contributions on general dust science but with special focus on dusty-plasma studies in various environments, including: laboratory experiments, Noctilucent clouds and polar mesospheric summer echoes, the plume of Saturn's moon Enceladus, planetary rings, surfaces of airless objects, and cometary environments. The goal of the session is to compare dusty-plasma phenomena under various conditions to improve our understanding of the processes responsible for dust charging, altering the properties of the plasma, and Page 6 of 9

7 the emergence of dust collective behavior. - In and Out of Jove: Giant Planet Interiors, Atmospheres, Aurorae, and Ionospheres Session ID#: 2819 We solicit new research findings about the ionospheres, atmospheres and deep interiors of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. A special focus of our session is on the processes that reflect the interior rotation rate of Saturn. The sources of data to be covered in our session include the continuing observation by the Cassini spacecraft, now in its 10th year in orbit around Saturn. We also cover results of the recent Saturn Aurora Campaigns that coordinated observations by Cassini, the Hubble Space Telescope, and ground-based observatories. For Jupiter, we solicit long-term monitoring using groundand space-based telescopes, and studies in anticipation of the Juno spacecraft s arrival in August Observations of Uranus and Neptune are also within in our session s scope. In addition, we solicit modeling and theoretical presentations that address these observational findings. - Moon-Plasma Interactions Throughout the Solar System Session ID#: 1450 This session will focus on new observational and theoretical studies of the interaction between the moons of our solar system and the magnetized plasmas incident upon them. This includes plasma interactions with the solid surfaces, atmospheres, and intrinsic and induced magnetic fields of the moons, both inside and outside of their parent planets magnetospheres. Of special interest are results related to plasma and magnetic field observations near the terrestrial moon and from Cassini s flybys of Saturn's icy satellites Enceladus, Rhea and Dione. Studies deepening our understanding of the interconnection between Titan s ionosphere and its highly dynamic magnetospheric environment are also very welcome. The interaction of Jupiter s moons with the ambient magnetospheric plasma will be especially addressed with a view to provide support to the ongoing Juno Mission and the planning of synergistic measurements for the upcoming JUICE Mission. Comparative studies of the various moon-plasma interaction scenarios are particularly welcome. - Bow Shock, Magnetosheath, and Magnetopause Processes Session ID#: 2157 This session focuses on observations and modeling of the coupling of plasma from the bow shock, through the magnetosheath, and to the magnetopause at the Earth and other planets. In recent years a significant number of spacecraft and ground-based instruments have sampled these regions both in situ (THEMIS, Cluster, Double Star, Geotail, Cassini, MESSENGER) and remotely (IBEX, SuperDARN, magnetometers). These measurements coupled with modeling efforts have advanced our knowledge of a number of processes within these regions. Understanding coupling between these regions includes bow shock physics, plasma flow and magnetic environment in the magnetosheath, as well as plasma entry through reconnection, wave instabilities, and other magnetopause dynamics. - Magnetic Reconnection and its Universal Consequences in Magnetospheric and Solar Plasmas Session ID#: 3111 Magnetic reconnection occurs in a vast range of different plasma conditions, but yet may have similar critical consequences for plasma transport and heating. At Earth and Mercury, the balance between dayside and magnetotail reconnection, sets up the conditions for spontaneous reconnection in the collisionless magnetotail, leading to fast inward flows and heating. At Jupiter and Saturn, there is strong evidence for tail reconnection and similar fast inward flows, but rotational centrifugal forces are likely to be the more important driver triggering reconnection on closed field lines. At high altitudes in the solar corona, reconnection appears to take place with subsequent phenomena such as Supra-Arcade Downflows (SAD) and other instabilities with intriguing similarities to those occurring in planetary magnetotails. This session invites contributions on experimental and theoretical work that addresses reconnection and its consequence in the context of the wide range of plasma environments throughout Page 7 of 9

8 the heliosphere. - Surface Boundary Exospheres: Comparing the Moon, Mercury, and Much More Session ID#: 3480 Surface boundary exospheres are thin collisionless planetary atmospheres in which gas and dust constituents only collide with the surface. This class of atmosphere may be the most common among solar system objects. Mercury, the Moon, several outer planets moons, and Saturn s rings are known to host such atmospheres, and it is likely that other moons and the larger asteroids do also, including trojans and centaurs. These bodies should also host tenuous shrouds of dust, whether from actively vented plume materials or ejecta from ongoing micrometeoroid bombardment of the surfaces and ring systems of such bodies. The purpose of this session is to report results from recent missions, including MESSENGER at Mercury, LADEE and LRO at the Moon, Cassini at Saturn/Enceladus, Hubble and Galileo at Europa and Io, and Earth-based occultations of Chariklo. Comparison of observations with modeling results of source, transport and loss processes are very welcome. - Titan's Enigmatic Atmosphere and Ionosphere Session ID#: 3235 The processes that control Titan s atmosphere and ionosphere remain in many ways enigmatic even after ten years of observations and study from the Cassini mission and the Huygens probe. The instruments onboard Cassini-Huygens have studied in-situ and remotely many aspects of Titan s atmosphere and coupled ionosphere. In the mesosphere, stratosphere, thermosphere, ionosphere, and exosphere studies of atmospheric composition, structure, and chemistry have recently produced breakthroughs in our understanding of this complex system. In this session, we focus on recent and ongoing studies of Titan s atmosphere and ionosphere. Papers focusing on atmospheric observations, modeling, and laboratory studies are welcomed Send submissions to: Athena Coustenis, DPS Secretary (dpssec@aas.org [2]) To unsubscribe visit [15] or unsubscribe@aas.org [16]. To change your address address@aas.org [17]. Footer Reports History Bylaws Source URL: Links: [1] [2] mailto:dpssec@aas.org [3] [4] Page 8 of 9

9 Powered by TCPDF ( [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] American Astronomical Society. Page 9 of 9