I am pleased to announce that the 10th RHESSI workshop will be held from August 1-5, 2010, in Annapolis, MD, USA. An intrepid local organizing committee led by Gordon Holman, ably assisted by Steven Christe, Ryan Milligan and Albert Shih, will be working on the details of the scientific program and other arrangements over the next few months. We’ll let you know when the (fledgling) website is up and running.

Experience has shown that as much advance notice of the dates and location of these workshops is highly beneficial to the level of participation. So, mark your calendars, and see you on the East Shore next summer!

Gordon

Meeting website

The IAU Symposium 273 on “Physics of Sun and Star Spots” will be held in Los Angeles during August 23-26, 2010 coinciding with the 400 years of Sunspot observations since Galileo and Harriot, the 100 years of the discovery of sunspot magnetism and the 50 years of discovery of Babcock Model. The symposium will focus on the following topics. Formation and Decay of Sunspots, Solar Magnetism, Origin of Solar Activity, Formation and Evolution of Star Spots, Stellar Magnetism, Star Spots and Stellar Activity, Observational Techniques, Unified Approach in Understanding Sun and Star Spots.

Scientific Organizing Committee: Debi Prasad Choudhary (Co-Chair), USA
Klaus G. Strassmeier (Co-Chair), Germany
Ashoke K. Sen, India
Brigitte Schmieder, France
Carsten Denker, Germany
Cristina Mandrini, Argentina Donald B. Melrose, Australia
Edward Rhodes, USA
Eric Priest, UK
Haimin Wang, USA
Jan O. Stenflo, Switzerland
Karel van der Hucht, Netherlands
Michal Sobotka, Czech Rep
Oddbjorn Engvold, Norway
Siraj Hasan, India
Suzanne Hawley, USA
T. Sakurai, Japan
Z. Hongqi, China

Local Organising Committee:
Ana Cristina Cadavid (Chair)
Angie Cookson
Cristian Damian
Debi Prasad Choudhary
Dora Preminger
Gary Chapman
Jan Dobias
John Hodgson II
John Lawrence

For more information please contact
Debi Prasad Choudhary
California State University Northridge
Phone: 818 677 7113
Debiprasad.choudhary@csun.edu

16th Cambridge Workshop on Cool Stars, Stellar Systems, and the Sun

http://www.confcon.com/coolstars16/

The 16th Cambridge Workshop on Cool Stars, Stellar Systems and the Sun (Cool Stars 16) will be held on the campus of the University of Washington, in Seattle, Washington, USA. The opening reception will be on Saturday evening, August 28, 2010. Science sessions will run from Sunday, August 29 through Thursday, September 2. The morning plenary sessions will focus on formation and evolution of cool stars, fundamental parameters, cool stars in the time domain, magnetic fields and magnetic activity, and cool stars in the Galactic context. Many of the invited speakers are already confirmed. As usual, there will be afternoon splinter sessions on topics to be proposed by meeting attendees, and there is also ample space and time for displaying and viewing posters. Of course we will have a full slate of excursions and a Pacific Northwest banquet.

STFC Advanced Summer School in Solar Physics – impending deadline

http://www.star.uclan.ac.uk/summerschool2010/

The High Resolution Sun: Theory and Observations
STFC Advanced Summer School in Solar Physics
University of Central Lancashire
31st August – 3rd September

Reminder: the registration deadline for STFC PhD students who want a funded place on the Summer School is Friday 16th July.

For further details about the science programme and registration, please visit our webpage:
http://www.star.uclan.ac.uk/summerschool2010/

____________________________________________________________________________________________
STFC Advanced Summer School in Solar Physics

http://www.star.uclan.ac.uk/summerschool2010/

The High Resolution Sun: Theory and Observations
STFC Advanced School in Solar Physics
University of Central Lancashire, Preston
31st August – 3rd September 2010

Registration is now open for the STFC Advanced School in Solar Physics, to be held at UCLan in September 2010.

The School will provide an opportunity to explore theory and the most recent observations in the field in great depth, and will allow PhD students and other participants (such as PDRAs new to the field) to interact scientifically and socially with each other and with the course lecturers. The programme will include time for short presentations by the participants on their research work, as well as a practical session on SDO data analysis.

The deadline for registration is 16th July 2010.

Full details are available at:
http://www.star.uclan.ac.uk/summerschool2010/

Dear Colleagues,

we would like to draw your attention to our

PostGraduate School on Computational Plasma Physics, September 06-09, 2010

here in Bochum. Further information is available on the web page:

http://compschool2010.tp1.ruhr-uni-bochum.de

Please note that the number of participants is limited to 30.

Best wishes

Rainer

—————————————————–
Prof. Dr. Rainer Grauer
Institut fuer Theoretische Physik I
Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum
email: grauer@tp1.ruhr-uni-bochum.de
www: www.tp1.ruhr-uni-bochum.de

This is to announce the IAU Symposium 274, “Advances in Plasma Astrophysics”, http://plasma.oact.inaf.it/ , which will take place from 6 to 10 Sept. 2010, at the Naxos Beach Resort in Giardini-Naxos, Italy.

The symposium topics will focus on recent observational, theoretical and experimental efforts in understanding the basic plasma processes in the Universe, with broad synergies with many areas of astrophysics, including:

- the origin and dynamics of magnetic fields in astrophysical systems (the dynamo problem);
- the origin of x-ray emitting coronas and the role of magnetic reconnection, acceleration of charged particles and cosmic rays;
- winds and jets from protostars, highly evolved stars and activegalactic nuclei;
- plasma radiation processes;
- turbulence of the magnetized plasma in astrophysical objects, in the interstellar and intergalactic media and the solar wind;
- quantum plasmas under extreme conditions in planetary interiors and in exotic stars;
- other key problems in modern plasma astrophysics.

The conference venue is the Naxos Beach Resort in Giardini Naxos, where a block of rooms as been reserved at special rates for the IAU partecipants (for direct reservation please use the Hotel Booking form at the http://plasma.oact.inaf.it/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54&Itemid=58)

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN AT THE CONFERENCE WEB SITE:

http://plasma.oact.inaf.it/

Important dates:
Early Registration 31 March 2010
Financial Support request 31 March 2010
Accomodation at Naxos Beach 30 April 2010
Abstract 1 June 2010
Late Registration by 25 August 2010

The scientific programme is available at the conference website.
Looking forward to meeting you in Giardini !

Alfio Bonanno on behalf of the SOC & L

Fifth Solar Image Processing Workshop: First Announcement

http://sipworkv.sipwork.org/

First Announcement
Fifth Solar Image Processing Workshop
12 ? 16 September 2010.
Eurotel Victoria Les Diablerets, Les Diablerets, Switzerland,

This series of workshops brings together members of the solar physics and image processing communities to present and discuss advances in solar image processing techniques. The design and implementation of existing algorithms as reliable and robust tools are discussed, as well as automated techniques for processing very large amounts of data.

The fifth Solar Image Processing Workshop (http://sipworkv.sipwork.org/) will concentrate on the role played by solar image processing as we enter the petabyte era of solar physics. For example, the Solar Dynamics Observatory vastly increases the amount of data we have about our Sun, and solar image processing is taking a central role in reducing SDO and other data into useful information about the underlying physics.

Contribution to oral and poster sessions will be solicited in the second announcement, including presentations of image processing methods, software and visualization tools. Contributions involving SDO, PROBA2, STEREO, Hinode, SOHO are particularly solicited.

The workshop will consist of a 3.5 day meeting. In common with previous workshops in this series, mornings will be given over to talks, whilst in the afternoon the workshop will split up into working groups, each of which will cover a given topic in greater depth. Special attention will be given to the results from the Solar Dynamics Observatory mission. The meeting will address topics in the application of computer vision techniques to the challenges of solar
physics, such as solar tomography, 3-d reconstruction of solar features, automated feature detection, multiwavelength and motion analysis, blind source separation, and distributed data analysis infrastructure.

For the latest updates please consult the meeting website

http://sipworkv.sipwork.org/.

LOC Chair: Andre Csillaghy, University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland
SOC Chair: Jack Ireland, ADNET Systems Inc./NASA GSFC

http://www.sipwork.org/sipworkV/

Third Announcement: Fifth Solar Image Processing Workshop

The Fifth Solar Image Processing Workshop to be held in Les Diablerets, Switzerland, 12-16 September, will discuss the application of modern computer vision methods to the challenges of understanding and predicting the behavior of our Sun.

Registration and abstract submission are now open at http://www.sipwork.org/sipworkV/

Important dates:

15 July: Early registration (CHF 180) closes.
15 July: Deadline for student financial support
31 July: Deadline for Hotel Reservation — no room availability guaranteed after this
15 August: Abstract submission closes.
12 September: Registration closes (CHF 200) closes.
12 September: Conference dinner registration closes (CHF 50).
12-16 September: Conference.

The fifth Solar Image Processing Workshop will concentrate on the role played by solar image processing as we enter the petabyte era of solar physics. For example, the Solar Dynamics Observatory vastly increases the amount of data we have about our Sun, and solar image processing is taking a central role in reducing SDO and other data into useful
information about the underlying physics. Many other facilities, such as the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO), the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI), PROBA2, Picard and the H-alpha network each present varied and significant challenges in applying computer vision techniques to help understand the physics of
the Sun.

Confirmed invited speakers:

- Piet Martens (Harvard-Smithsonian), on the SDO Science Center and the image processing techniques being used there,

- Michaele Piana (University of Genoa), on inverse problems in relation to image processing,

- Hassan Foroosh (U. Central Florida), on spatial/temporal tracking of features

- Ian Jermyn (INRIA-Sophia), on image segmentation,

- Mark Butala (UIUC), on three dimensional coronal structure reconstruction.

In addition, Jean-Marc Odobez from the Idiap Research Institute located in the nearby town of Martigny will give an evening lecture on computer vision.

The structure of the workshop is as follows. The morning is given over to plenary sessions, with breaks being poster sessions. Participants are expected to attend all talks and poster sessions. In the afternoons, the conference splits into splinter sessions, where the following subject areas are covered. We solicit contributions in these areas.

Splinter session 1: Solar Eruptive Events

This session examines solar eruptive events of all types such as flares and coronal mass ejections, including:

* detectable precursors
* automated tracking of events via image processing algorithms
* physics of eruptive events
* energy and mass storage in the corona
* flow into the extended solar atmosphere
* prediction of eruption

Splinter session 2: Solar Disk Features

This session deals with all types of features and events on the solar disk and how they may be tracked in time, space and wavelength. Topics of particular interest are:

* prediction of the emergence of active regions
* automated tracking of features in time, space and wavelength during their passage across the disc.
* cataloging of features and the comparison of feature catalogs
* detection of changes to solar features with time as precursors to shorter time-scale behavior such as flares and prominence eruptions.
* physics of sunspots, coronal holes, filaments/prominences and other solar features

Splinter session 3: Reconstruction of the 3-D solar atmosphere

This session deals with the reconstruction of the true structure of the solar atmosphere from multiple viewpoints, wavelengths and times. Topics of particular interest are:

* reconstruction of the three-dimensional dynamics of coronal mass ejections as a function of time
* propagation of 3-dimensional structures in the extended solar atmosphere
* three-dimensional structure of coronal magnetic fields
* changes in three-dimensional structure in time as a precursor to subsequent events

Splinter session 4: Differential emission measure, solar activity and irradiance reconstruction

This session deals with the differential emission measure (DEM) of various solar features; how solar activity changes the DEM, and the reconstruction of the solar irradiance spectrum from the spatial features we see on the Sun. Topics of particular interest are:

* DEM reconstruction methods
* using DEM to recover the physics of solar features
* connecting DEM to the observed spatial and temporal behavior of solar features
* reconstruction of the irradiance spectrum.

Limited funding is available for students who wish to attend the conference. Please contact the Chair of the Science Organizing Committee (Jack.Ireland@nasa.gov) before 15 July stating:

* name
* institution
* proposed contribution (title + abstract + presentation type ? talk or poster)
* A short paragraph on why you want to attend this meeting

Students will be selected for funding on a first come, first served basis and on the suitability of their work with respect to the stated areas of interest of the workshop.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact the SOC and LOC chairs at the email addresses below.

See you in Switzerland in September!

LOC Chair: Andre Csillaghy, University of Applied Sciences Northwestern
Switzerland (andre.csillaghy@fhnw.ch)
SOC Chair: Jack Ireland, ADNET Systems Inc./NASA GSFC
(Jack.Ireland@nasa.gov)
_______________________________________________________________________________

Second Announcement: Fifth Solar Image Processing Workshop

http://www.sipwork.org/sipworkV

Registration for the Fifth Solar Image Processing Workshop is now open at

http://www.sipwork.org/sipworkV/registration/

The workshop is located at Eurotel Victoria, Les Diablerets, Switzerland September 12-16, 2010 (http://www.sipwork.org/sipworkV/). We have negotiated a special rate at the conference hotel; forCHF230/night ($200, EUR165, GBP136) we provide accommodation, breakfast, lunch, dinner and coffee/tea for the duration of the meeting. The meeting location is in a village in the Swiss Alps, so alternative accommodation is sparse. Participants are strongly encouraged to register at the conference hotel to take advantage of
this rate.

The fifth Solar Image Processing Workshop will concentrate on the role played by solar image processing as we enter the petabyte era of solar physics. For example, the Solar Dynamics Observatory vastly increases the amount of data we have about our Sun, and solar image processing is taking a central role in reducing SDO and other data into useful information about the underlying physics. We are pleased to confirm at this time four invited speakers – Piet Martens (Harvard-Smithsonian), discussing the SDO Science Center and the image processing techniques being used there, Michaele Piana (University of Genoa), discussing inverse problems in relation to image processing, Ian Jermyn (INRIA-Sophia), discussing image segmentation, and Mark Butala (UIUC), discussing three dimensional coronal structure reconstruction.

The structure of the workshop is as follows. The morning is given over to talks presentations, with all breaks also being poster sessions. Participants are expected to attend all talks and poster sessions. In the afternoons, the conference splits into splinter sessions, where the following subject areas are covered. We solicit contributions in these areas.

(1) Solar Eruptive Events

This session examines solar eruptive events of all types such as flares and coronal mass ejections, including:
- detectable precursors
- automated tracking of events via image processing algorithms
- physics of eruptive events
- energy and mass storage in the corona
- flow into the extended solar atmosphere
- prediction of eruption

(2) Solar Disk Features

This session deals with all types of features and events on the solar disk and how they may be tracked in time, space and wavelength. Topics of particular interest are:
- prediction of the emergence of active regions
- automated tracking of features in time, space and wavelength during
their passage across the disc.
- cataloging of features and the comparison of feature catalogs
- detection of changes to solar features with time as precursors to
shorter time-scale behavior such as flares and prominence eruptions.
- physics of sunspots, coronal holes, filaments/prominences and other
solar features

(3) Reconstruction of the 3-D solar atmosphere

This session deals with the reconstruction of the true structure of the solar atmosphere from multiple viewpoints, wavelengths and times. Topics of particular interest are:
- reconstruction of the three-dimensional dynamics of coronal mass
ejections as a function of time
- propagation of 3-dimensional structures in the extended solar
atmosphere
- three-dimensional structure of coronal magnetic fields
- changes in three-dimensional structure in time as a precursor to
subsequent events

(4) Differential emission measure, solar activity and irradiance reconstruction
This session deals with the differential emission measure (DEM) of various solar features; how solar activity changes the DEM, and the reconstruction of the solar irradiance spectrum from the spatial features we see on the Sun. Topics of particular interest are:
- DEM reconstruction methods
- using DEM to recover the physics of solar features
- connecting DEM to the observed spatial and temporal behavior of
solar features
- reconstruction of the irradiance spectrum.

Limited funding is available for students who wish to attend the conference. Please contact the Chair of the Science Organizing Committee (Jack.Ireland@nasa.gov) stating
- name
- institution
- proposed contribution (title + abstract + presentation type – talk or poster)
- A short paragraph on why you want to attend this meeting,

Students will be selected for funding on a first come, first served basis and on the suitability of their work with respect to the stated areas of interest of the workshop.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact the SOC and LOC chairs at the email addresses below.

See you in Switzerland in September!

LOC Chair: Andre Csillaghy, University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland (andre.csillaghy@fhnw.ch)
SOC Chair: Jack Ireland, ADNET Systems Inc./NASA GSFC (Jack.Ireland@nasa.gov)

Workshop on Convection, Magnetoconvection and Dynamo Theory: Cargese, Corsica, 20-25 September 2010

http://mhd.ens.fr/MREP60

A workshop on Convection, Magnetoconvection and Dynamo Theory will be held in Cargese, Corsica from 20-25 September 2010. The meeting will provide the perfect opportunity to celebrate the 60th birthday of Michael Proctor. Further details can be found at:

http://mhd.ens.fr/MREP60

www.ria.ie

THE TRANSIENT UNIVERSE: From Exoplanets to Hypernovae
Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, Ireland
23-24 September 2010
www.ria.ie

A joint specialist two day discussion meeting of the Royal Irish Academy, the Royal Astronomical Society, and the Astronomical Science Group of Ireland.

PRINCIPAL TOPICS
o High-power transients, including gamma-ray bursts, hypernovae, TeV transients.
o Solar transients and the Sun-Earth connection.
o Stellar transients, including X-ray and radio transients, and other irregular stellar activity.
o Planetary system transients, including exoplanet and solar-system phenomena.

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS
Gibor Basri (University of California, Berkeley)
Andrew Collier-Cameron (St Andrews University)
Joanna Haigh (Imperial College London)
Gregg Hallinan (University of California, Berkeley)
Louise Harra (MSSL, University College London)
Stephen Smartt (Queens University Belfast)
Danny Steeghs (University of Warwick)
Darach Watson (University of Copenhagen)

PUBLIC LECTURE
“The Sun-Climate Connection”
Professor Mike Lockwood (University of Southampton/Rutherford Appleton Laboratory)
Thursday, September 23 at 7pm
Emmet Theatre, Trinity College Dublin

CALL FOR PAPERS AND POSTERS
There will be programme space for a number of contributed papers, as well as posters. There will be a prize for the best poster presented by a postgraduate student. Proposed contributions (Title, Author, Institute, Abstract) should be submitted by email to tohypernovae@gmail.com by August 27

REGISTRATION
www.ria.ie

ORGANISING COMMITTEE
Simon Jeffery (co-chair), Paul Callanan (co-chair), Peter Gallagher, Felix Aharonian, Andrew Shearer, Mike Redfern, Gilly Clarke, Don Pollacco, Graham Harper, Neil Trappe, Ray Bates.

EAST Workshop on Solar Physics

http://www.astro.sk/EAST/

“Science with Synoptic Solar Telescopes”
October 4- 7, 2010, Tatranska Lomnica, Slovakia

The 4th Hinode Science Meeting will take place in Mondello, Palermo, Italy, on 11-15 October 2010, organized by Universita di Palermo, and INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo. The registration and abstract submission will be open soon. Further details can be found on the Hinode-4 webpage

http://www.astropa.unipa.it/hinode4/Hinode4.html