2011-2012 Annual Report Boston University Center for Space Physics Director: John Clarke 1 Associate Director: Josh Semeter Table of Contents Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................................................. 1 Overview ............................................................................................................................................................................. 1 Highlights ............................................................................................................................................................................ 1 CSP Operations ........................................................................................................................................................................ 2 Selected Research Highlights .................................................................................................................................................. 3 PICTURE: The Search for Extra‐solar Planets ...................................................................................................................... 3 Preparing for the Mars Science Lander ............................................................................................................................... 3 Detecting Aurora on Uranus ............................................................................................................................................... 4 SAR Arcs Observed Across Northern Europe ...................................................................................................................... 4 Arctic Incoherent Scatter Radar .......................................................................................................................................... 5 New Projects and Initiatives ................................................................................................................................................... 5 BUSAT2: Onward and Upward ........................................................................................................................................... 5 Magnetic Activity in Very Low Mass Stars .......................................................................................................................... 6 Developing New Instrumentation ....................................................................................................................................... 7 A Global Network of Airglow Observatories ................................................................................................................... 7 The Deployable Multi‐Scale Camera (DMC) .................................................................................................................... 7 Community Life and Service ................................................................................................................................................... 7 CSP Grants ............................................................................................................................................................................... 8 Outreach ............................................................................................................................................................................... 13 The BU Near‐Space Educational Program ......................................................................................................................... 13 Summer School on Plasma Processes ............................................................................................................................... 13 The CSP Research Award .................................................................................................................................................. 13 ISR Summer School ........................................................................................................................................................... 14 The Transit of Venus ......................................................................................................................................................... 14 Graduate Degrees Sponsored by the CSP ............................................................................................................................. 15 Doctoral Degrees Awarded ............................................................................................................................................... 15 Masters Degrees Awarded ................................................................................................................................................ 15 CSP Seminar Series ................................................................................................................................................................ 15 CSP Members ........................................................................................................................................................................ 17 Faculty ............................................................................................................................................................................... 17 Research Scientists ............................................................................................................................................................ 19 CSP Publications .................................................................................................................................................................... 20 On the Cover: HST UV images of aurora on Uranus (pg. 4), poster for the public outreach event for the transit of Venus (pg. 14), and SAR arcs over northern Europe imaged by a new CSP imaging system (pg. 4) from the cover of Astronomy and Geophysics. Executive Summary Overview The Center for Space Physics (CSP) was formed in 1988 to promote research and education in space science and space‐ related technologies at Boston University. The CSP is a two‐college enterprise, taking advantage of natural synergies between the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) and the College of Engineering (ENG) in the pursuit of knowledge about the universe and our place within it. The CSP is one of the largest sponsored research units on campus, with over $20M in federal grants under management in FY2012. The current CSP membership includes 17 faculty members (12 from CAS, 5 from ENG), 14 full‐time Research Scientists (6 with PI status), 8 technical and administrative staff, and over 50 graduate and undergraduate students who come in roughly equal numbers from CAS and ENG. The scientists and engineers of the CSP are prominent leaders in the international community. They serve on committees that define federal funding priorities; they serve as editors and associate editors of top scientific journals; they are fellows of international societies such as the American Geophysical Union; they are principal investigators on large multi‐institution projects; and, perhaps most importantly, they are committed to the education and professional preparation of the next generation of space scientists and engineers. Non‐teaching faculty professional scientists appointed in the Center have always played a critical role in our success, contributing immeasurably to the research efficacy of the faculty, and serving as valued PIs in their own right. Research Scientists and Senior Research Scientists are eligible to serve as PI’s on sponsored research, and collectively they generate about 1/4 of the total grant revenue of the CSP. The professional scientist track is a proud tradition of the Center, and it is common for our academic researchers to remain with the center for many years. The CSP is led by Director John Clarke (Professor of Astronomy) and Associate Director Josh Semeter (Associate Professor of ECE). Daily operations are administered by Assistant Director Despina Bokios. Two administrative staff report to the Assistant Director: a proposal development administrator (Amanda Rochette) and a fiscal administrator (Alyson Savoie). The CSP employs a work‐study student in lieu of a full‐time receptionist, and research administration of the Institute for Astrophysical Research is now shared by the same staff. Highlights In FY 2012 the CSP managed 66 active research grants with a total funding commitment of $20.6M. Of these, 12 were new awards with a total new funding commitment of $4.4M. Major new funding includes $1.8M for imaging science investigations of atmospheric processes (Michael Mendillo), $574K for kinetic 2D and 3D simulations and theory of low‐ to mid‐latitude ionospheric irregularities (Meers Oppenheim), and $401K to study the magnetospheric control of density and composition in the polar ionosphere. BU also continued work on three active sounding rocket programs (Tim Cook, John Clarke, and Supriya Chakrabarti), and on the Air Force Nano‐satellite project (Ted Fritz), which has resulted in a large number of new undergraduates being introduced to the world of space instrumentation each summer. 1 Research highlights in FY2012 include: • The launch and flight of the PICTURE sounding rocket payload at the White Sands Missile Range in Fall 2011 (Chakrabarti, Cook). The PICTURE experiment was developed to perform the first test in space of a coronagraph designed to image planets orbiting nearby stars. • Modeling and simulations