UK Solar Missions Forum 2023 – Request for Community Input

Dear Colleagues,

For many years, a short meeting known as the UK Solar Missions Forum was held yearly to discuss current and future ground and space-based instrumentation projects and bring together different representatives from our community, STFC panels and UKSA.

After a break due to Covid, we want to organise such a meeting in 2023. The meeting will be organised by the UKSP Council and led by Professor Richard Harrison (RAL).

We hope we can use the time to discuss:
– Projects in operation
– Projects in development
– Horizon scanning future projects
– Strategy/planning/updates from UKSA/STFC

We propose that the name of the meeting is changed to ‘UK Solar Instrumentation and Facilities Forum’ to account for all categories we may discuss, including ground and space-based missions (collaborations with e.g., NASA, ESA), as well as new opportunities such as CubeSat development and the opportunities arising for our field with the construction of UK spaceports.

Also, we propose that the meeting could be held as part of a two-day hybrid workshop (1-day for the UK Solar Instrumentation and Facilities Forum and 1-day for a UKSP specialist discussion meeting that promotes the work of early career researchers in the UK).

To organise the meeting, we would value input from the community about e.g., the best time, location and format of the meeting via a very short survey:
https://forms.gle/5X8Jm9cEtPqAm73N9
If possible, please complete the survey by December 15th. Other comments and suggestions can also be added to the survey form (last box).

Kind regards,
UKSP Chair on behalf of Richard Harrison and the UKSP Council.