Jan. 20, 2015. 3rd SOLARNET School on "Solar Magnetic Fields: Modeling and Measuring Techniques", 18-23 May 2015, Granada, Spain. Deadline: January 31.

We are pleased to announce the 3rd SOLARNET School on “Solar Magnetic Fields: Modeling and Measuring Techniques” to be held in Granada (Spain) between 18-23 May 2015, organized by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC).
This international school aims at providing PhD students and early career researchers with
a solid background in solar spectropolarimetry, radiative transfer of polarized light, and
diagnostic techniques. The school program combines theory and hands-on activities to achieve
this goal. The latter will focus on the use of inversion codes such as SIR, NICOLE, and
HAZEL, so that the participants can apply these tools to their own observations.
The school will consist of three main courses, each of them with a total duration of 9 hours:
1. Solar polarization measurements: instruments and techniques.
Lecturer: Bruce Lites (HAO, USA)
2. Spectral line formation in the presence of magnetic fields.
Lecturer: Jose Carlos del Toro Iniesta (IAA-CSIC, Spain)
3. Solar magnetic fields: diagnostics and applications.
Lecturer: Andrés Asensio Ramos (IAC, Spain)
These courses will be complemented with the following hands-on sessions (4 hours each):
4. Stokes inversions under LTE conditions: SIR.
Lecturer: Luis Bellot Rubio (IAA-CSIC, Spain)
5. Stokes inversions under non-LTE conditions: NICOLE.
Lecturer: Jaime de la Cruz Rodríguez (ISP, Stockholm University, Sweden)
6. Hanle and Zeeman inversion of spectral lines: HAZE.
Lecturer: David Orozco Suárez (IAC, Spain)
The number of students will be limited to about 20 to ensure close interactions with the
lecturers. The participants are encouraged to attend the 3rd SOLARNET Workshop on
“Polarization in the Sun, the Solar System, and Beyond” that will take place in Granada the week after (25-28 May 2015).SOLARNET will provide the selected candidates with financial support, in the form of reduced registration fees and free accommodation for the school and the workshop.
Prospective participants should send a CV and a motivation letter, indicating clearly the benefits they expect from attending the school, to lbellot[at]iaa.es, not later than 31 January 2015.Candidates will be selected based on their research field, relevance of the school topic to their PhD thesis work, and other merits.
School Organizers: L. Bellot Rubio (Chair, IAA-CSIC), M. Collados (IAC), J.C. del Toro Iniesta (IAA-CSIC), F. Zuccarello (Università di Catania, INAF).

More information on the school will be posted on the IAA-CSIC Solar Physics Group website at: 3rd SOLARNET School.

Dec. 19, 2014. TAS ANNOUNCEMENT OF OPPORTUNITY OPEN. Deadline: January 20, 2015.

Observing time at Solar European Facilities (SOLARNET and ITP).

The SOLARNET Project and the International Time Programm (ITP) have launched the CALL FOR PROPOSALS 2015.

SOLARNET and ITP invite proposals for 2015 observing time in the Canary Islands solar telescopes SST, THEMIS, and VTT, as well as in the European instruments IBIS and ROSA installed at DST/NSO.

SOLARNET support includes travel and subsistence grants for observing campaigns, as well as help to PIs for data reduction.

Detailed informtion about eligibility criteria, how to apply, travel and subsistence grant, and allowable costs at SOLARNET Transnational Access and Service Programe (TAS).

Deadline: January 20th, 2015.

See the announcement at SOLARNET and ITP Call for Proposals 2015.

 

Oct. 30, 2014. SOLARNET TAS: Users Assessment 2014.

The SOLARNET Transnational Access and Service Programme (TAS) supports the access to some of the best European telescopes (VTT, GREGOR, THEMIS, and SST). A total of 8 observing teams were supported under the 2014 TAS campaign. User teams awarded with telescope time received a brief questionnaire to assess the quality of the access and service provided.

The questionnaire was distributed among astronomers supported with travel and subsistence grants. A total of 16 questionnaires were distributed and 15 of them returned to the SOLARNET Project Office.

Majority of the specific aspects related to the services provided by the infrastructure were assessed with the highest rating. The overall appreciation of the services provided was considered ‘very good’ by nine astronomers, ‘good’ by five of them and average by one.

 

More details at SOLARNET TAS. Users' Assessment Report 2014.

Oct. 14, 2014. 2nd SOLARNET Meeting: Solar and stellar magnetic activity (Palermo, 2 - 5 February 2015). Second Announcement.

The second SOLARNET meeting on Solar Physics will take place in Palermo, at the Grand Hotel Piazza Borsa, from 2nd to 5th February 2015. This is the second meeting in the framework of the EU-FP7 funded project SOLARNET (Capacities Program, Grant Agreement number 312495). 

The meeting has the purpose to put in contact different solar physics communities and researchers involved in different fields and to foster collaborations between ground and space solar projects, in order to
- provide a forum to discuss the use of current and future observational solar facilities, and how to optimise their scientific returns;
- identify the potentially paradigm-shifting observations that will become possible with the next generation ground - and space-based solar telescopes and their advanced instrumentation;
-  create synergies between research programs at different wavelength bands.

Specific aims of this meeting are to review the current understanding of magnetic fields in the Sun and similar stars and to discuss future directions of research.

The scientific program includes the following topics:
1) Global properties of the solar magnetic field;
2) Solar dynamo and its applications to other stars;
3) Solar differential rotation and meridional flow, stellar rotation;
4) Solar and stellar magnetic fields;
5) Activity and stellar properties;
6) Stellar activity derived from high accuracy photometry;
7) Sources of spectral and total solar irradiance variations.

and two splinter sessions:
S1) Effect of magnetic activity and internal rotation on solar and stellar pulsations
S2) Synergies between solar and stellar research

Meeting website: http://www.astropa.unipa.it/Solarnet2015/Solarnet2015.html

There you can find a preliminary program, important dates, the abstract submission form, information about the registration, contacts, financial support, the venue and the social program.

Registrations will be accessible online by credit card in due course.

Important Dates:
November 30 - abstract submission deadline;
November 30 - grant request deadline;
December 31 - early registration deadline;
Meeting: Monday February 2, 9 a.m. - Thursday February 5, 5 p.m. ;
Welcome reception: Sunday, February 1, 7 p.m.
Conference dinner: Wednesday, February 4, 8 p.m.

Registration fee: The registration fee is eu. 250 if paid no later than December 31, Eu. 300 thereafter. This includes the welcome reception, the conference dinner and coffee breaks. For the registration and payment you will be redirected to a secure website. Credit cards are accepted.

Financial support: Some grants will be available to reduce or waive the registration fee, mainly for young researchers. Applicants must submit an abstract for a talk or a poster and the applications will selected by the SOC depending on the abstract and on the relevance to the meeting topics. Applications should be sent This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. no later than November 30.

Additional information