With the upcoming 16th European Solar Physics Meeting (https://indico.ict.inaf.it/event/794/) comes the renewal of the board of the European Solar Physics Division (ESPD) of the European Physical Society (EPS). The board members are elected for three years, until the following ESPM meeting. Researchers who are active in the field covered by the ESPD and who are interested in supporting, animating and organizing the life of the European solar physics community are invited to declare their intent to stand for election by filling out the online nomination form: https://forms.gle/xU7cSJL66jiMfkDb8 or by directly contacting etienne.pariat@lpp.polytechnique.fr The deadline for application is July 20th. Information about the ESPD can be found on its webpage: https://www.eps.org/members/group.aspx?id=85203 Etienne Pariat for the ESPD Board Candidate Nominating Committee

The European Solar Physics Division board is delighted to present the 2021 ESPD Prize winners:

 

PhD Thesis Prize to Dr. Camilla Scolini (PhD carried at Centre for mathematical Plasma Astrophysics, KU Leuven, Belgium):

Prize awarded for significant contributions on numerical modelling and observational analyses of the propagation of coronal mass ejections.

 

Early Career Researcher Prize to Dr. Daniel Nóbrega-Siverio (working at Rosseland Centre for Solar Physics, Norway, at the time of award):

Prize awarded for important contributions to the understanding of solar chromospheric phenomena and related processes, combining theory, observations and numerical experimentation.

We are pleased to announce that the winner of the ESPD Media of the Month contest for February is David Kuridze (Aberystwyth University), with the following image of a large flare at the limb:

Description: During September 2017, the Sun produced the most powerful flares and explosions of solar cycle 24. These events were observed with the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope on La Palma, Spain. Unique measurements of the magnetic loop structures that formed in the aftermath of a large X8.2 solar flare on September 10, 2017 were made. The image shows the flare coronal arcade captured by the CHROMIS instrument at 0.45 Å from the center of the H-beta line, which samples the chromosphere. The loops were created by the flare through reconnection of magnetic field lines from two separate flux systems. The intense emission at the loop top indicate a region of higher density formed through the accumulation of evaporated plasma. Usually, the flare loops are too faint to be observed in polarized light. However, in this case the loops were very bright, which allowed a uniquely clean estimate of the magnetic field strength to be made at an unprecedented spatial resolution.

See full resolution image on Wikimedia Commons.

We are pleased to announce that the winner of the ESPD Media of the Month contest forJanuary is G. Vigeesh (Leibniz-Institut for Solar Physics, KIS), with the following movie of magnetoconvection:

Description: The solar convection appears as a cell-like pattern known as granulation, where hot rising plasma creates bright columns called granules that cools off sinking into the dark narrow intergranular lanes. Magnetic fields present at the solar surface are carried by the motion of the plasma and accumulate in these dark lanes. The animation shows a vertical section (~1000 km wide and ~400 km deep) below the visible solar surface, encompassing parts of two granules and the intergranular space in between them. The solar surface is represented by the black curve that moves up and down in response to the rising and sinking plasma. The temperature on this plane is shown in a white (cool) to blue (hot) colorscale and the arrows denote the velocity field. The magnetic field lines that cross the section plane are shown in pink color. In the beginning of the animation, the velocity field beneath the surface shows a vortical flow structure near the edge of the granule; a common characteristic of granules. Nearby, a horizontal magnetic flux bundle is visible above the surface. The vortex flow grabs this magnetic field bundle from the intergranular lane, burying it beneath the visible surface, only to later raise it up again on top of the granule and bring it back to the intergranular lane. During the course of its journey, the magnetic fields get twisted and stretched. Such shallow recirculation of surface magnetic fields is thought to play an important role in the small-scale dynamo acting in the surface layers of the Sun. The 3D radiation-magnetohydrodynamic (R-MHD) computer simulation was carried out using the CO5BOLD code (Freytag et al 2012) by Calvo (2018). More details of this simulation can be found in Fischer et al (2020). The visualization was created using ParaView.

See full resolution movie on Wikimedia Commons.

Deadline: February 7th, 2021 Since 2017, the European Solar Physics Division (ESPD) of the European Physical Society (EPS) awards two prizes yearly: the ESPD PhD Thesis Prize, the ESPD Early Career Researcher (Postdoc) Prize. The deadline for nomination is February 7th, 2021. The 2021 ESPD PhD Thesis Prize will be awarded to a young researcher whose PhD thesis/viva was defended in 2020. The 2021 ESPD Early Career Prize will be awarded to a young researcher whose PhD was awadered after 01/01/2017 (with possible extension). Further information about eligibility, documents to be included in the nomination package, and submission process for each prize can be found on the ESPD prizes webpage: https://www.eps.org/members/group_content_view.asp?group=85203&id=641304#CallPrize Étienne Pariat for the ESPD Prize Committee