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      M I S T   E L E C T R O N I C    N E W S L E T T E R

No. 8                                         22 September 2004
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Dear Colleagues,

As we begin another academic year, I would like to bring you up to 
date with MIST events and activities.


AUTUMN MIST 2004

This year's autumn MIST meeting in London will be on Friday 26th 
November at the Geological Society Lecture Room, Burlington House, 
Piccadilly, beginning at 10.30 am. Coffee will be available in the 
Geological Society library from 10.00 am. Afternoon tea will also be 
provided, but as the sandwich lunch has not been well supported in 
recent years, it will not be provided this time. There are plenty of 
eating establishments in the environs of Burlington House, and you 
are welcome to bring sandwiches, etc. back to the GS library. 
Contributions are invited on all MIST topics. The abstract deadline 
is 8th November, and the programme will be published shortly after 
that date. There is a webform for submitting your abstract, which may 
be found at:
www.mist.ac.uk/mistas04.html
The lecture room must be vacated by 5.30 pm, but proceedings usually 
continue informally over a pint at the "Walkers of St James" pub in 
Duke Street (across Piccadilly from Burlington House). Many thanks to 
the Royal Astronomical Society for supporting our meetings.


RAS/MIST DISCUSSION MEETING; 8TH OCTOBER 2004

This meeting, titled: "The magnetospheric cusps revealed: Results 
from the CLUSTER mission", will take stock of what has been learned 
after three years of the CLUSTER mission about this key region for 
regulating the transfer of solar wind energy to the ionosphere and 
inner magnetosphere. The meeting is being organised by Peter Cargill 
(Imperial College), Chris Owen (Mullard Space Science Lab.) and 
Malcolm Dunlop (Rutherford Appleton Lab.). It will be held in the 
Geological Society Lecture Theatre, Burlington House, beginning at 
10.30am. The deadline for submission of contributed abstracts has 
passed, and the programme is now available at:
www.sp.ph.ic.ac.uk/~cargill/cluster_ras.html
At the RAS Ordinary meeting, held in the same lecture room at 4.00pm, 
there will be a talk by Dr Benoit Lavraud (LANL) on "The 
magnetospheric cusps as seen by CLUSTER". It should be a most 
interesting day and you are encouraged to attend. As with all RAS 
Discussion meetings, attendance is free to all RAS Fellows, but there 
is small charge for non-Fellows. The Ordinary meeting is free to all.


SPRING MISTs

Since the last Newsletter, 2004 MIST/UKSP 'Auld Reekie' meeting has 
been held in Edinburgh. This was a very successful meeting, and many 
thanks are due to the local organising team led by Alan Thomson (BGS) 
for MIST and Lyndsay Fletcher (Glasgow University) on the Solar side. 
Thanks also to Neil Arnold (Leicester University) and Robertus 
Erdelyi (Sheffield University), who together with Alan and Lyndsay 
wrote up the report of the meeting for the June issue of Astronomy 
and Geophysics (the MIST part of the report is also available on the 
MIST website). If you don't receive this journal (free to members of 
the Royal Astronomical Society) every two months, you should consider 
joining the Society which is the independent learned society 
representing MIST science, and is the professional body for MIST 
scientists. There are reduced fees for students, new members, young 
members, and retired members. Details on the RAS website 
www.ras.org.uk/

The spring 2004 MIST meeting ("Granta MIST") will be held at Selwyn 
College, Cambridge, 5-7 April 2005, hosted by British Antarctic 
Survey. We at BAS are looking forward to welcoming you in Cambridge. 
More details will be published in due course on the meeting website:
www.antarctica.ac.uk/Meetings/2005/MIST/
Information about registration, accommodation, and abstract 
submission will be published on the website later this year or early 
next year.

Alternate spring MIST meetings, in even numbered years, are held 
jointly with the UK Solar Physics Community; the 2006 meeting will be 
in Aberystwyth, hosted by the Solar Terrestrial Physics Group of the 
University of Wales, Aberystwyth. More details in due course.


MIST COORDINATOR

At the Auld Reekie MIST I announced that I would be stepping down as 
MIST Coordinator in 2005, after 10 years in the role. I am very 
pleased to be able to report that Neil Arnold of the University of 
Leicester has volunteered to take over from me. Neil has been a 
supporter of MIST for many years and since 1999 has been MIST 
reporter, writing reports of all the MIST meetings for "Astronomy & 
Geophysics" and the MIST website. Soundings I have taken show that 
Neil will be very acceptable to the community, and I am sure you will 
support him as you have me, and that MIST will continue to flourish 
in the future. The changeover will take place at the 2005 Spring MIST 
in Cambridge.


LONDON MIST 2005

This will be on Friday 25 November 2005 at Burlington House. More 
details nearer the time.


2005 INTERNATIONAL MAGNETOSPHERES OF OUTER PLANETS (MOP) CONFERENCE

This meeting will be hosted during 7-12 August 2005 at the University 
of Leicester. More details soon, but put the dates in your diary if 
you are interested.


RAS AWARDS

Each year the Royal Astronomical Society makes a number of awards 
(including the prestigious Gold Medal) to scientists in the fields of 
Astronomy and Geophysics (which in this context includes MIST). 
Nominations close on 12 November, so if you wish to nominate anyone, 
please look at the details given on the RAS website.


MIST WEBSITE AND MAILING LIST

The MIST website continues to be at www.mist.ac.uk/ 
It contains information about future meetings, reports of past ones, 
links to research groups, the MIST email directory, and other 
relevant information. There are currently about 260 on the MIST 
mailing list. Posting guidelines, plus instructions on how to 
subscribe to the list, may be found at www.mist.ac.uk/misteml.html

I will look forward to seeing you at one of more of the forthcoming 
meetings.


Best wishes,

                        Andy Smith, MIST Coordinator
-- 
Dr A.J. Smith,                   
British Antarctic Survey,        Phone: +44-1223-221544
Madingley Road,                  Fax:   +44-1223-221226
Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK.           Email: A.J.Smith@bas.ac.uk

MIST Home page: http://www.mist.ac.uk/