December 2016 IAGA News No. 53

IAGA, the International Association of Geo-magnetism and Aeronomy,

is the premier international scientific asso-ciation promoting the study of terrestrialand planetary magnetism and space physics

Contents

1 Message from the President 2

2 Preparation for the 2017 JointIAPSO-IAMAS-IAGA ScientificAssembly 2

3 Swarm mission – probing the geoag-netic field 3

4 Reports on Meetings: IAGA-Sponsored or of IAGA interest 44.1 7th VLF/ELF Remote Sensing of Iono-

spheres and Magnetospheres Workshop 44.2 23st EM Induction Workshop . . . . 54.3 MT3DINV3: 3rd Workshop on 3-D

Magnetotelluric Inversion . . . . . . 64.4 6th IAGA/ICMA/SCOSTEP Work-

shop on Vertical Coupling in theAtmosphere-Ionosphere System . . . 7

4.5 15th Castle Meetings Workshop . . . 84.6 XVIIth IAGA Workshop on Geomag-

netic Observatory Instruments, DataAcquisition and Processing . . . . . 9

4.7 IAGA-IV Symposium ”Influence ofshort and long term solar variability onclimate” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

4.8 International Conference “Data Inten-sive System Analysis for GeohazardStudies” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

5 In Memorium 12

6 General information about IAGA 186.1 IAGA books series published by Springer 186.2 IAGA website . . . . . . . . . . . . 196.3 IAGA contact . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Foreword

This issue of IAGA Newscontains informationabout the IAGA activi-ties over the year 2016,with a forward look atpreparations for the Sci-entific Assembly in 2017.Indded, I am thrilled towelcome you to the 2017Joint IAPSO-IAMAS-IAGA Assembly whichwill take place from 27August to 1 September2017 at the Cape TownInternational Convention

Centre (CTICC), South Africa. Cape Town acts as anenvironmental gateway to many of our scientific interestsand thus provides an ideal scientific destination for aninternational conference on various earth system studies.I look forward to seeing as many of you as are able toattend in Cape Town next summer.

This issue also contains reports on IAGA activities of dif-ferent kinds and provides information about recently de-ceased IAGA scientists. In its present form, IAGA Newscontains only brief summaries of different activities andtopics; the reader is referred to the newly disigned IAGAwebsite (www.iaga-aiga.org) for more details. Informa-tion on activities at Division level can be found on eachDivision’s website.

IAGA News is distributed – in its electronic form – to theNational Correspondents in the Member Countries, to allIAGA officers and to scientists who have attended recentIAGA assemblies. Please feel free to distribute IAGA newsaround, especially to national policy makers and leaders,whose decisions can affect the activities of IAGA scien-tists.

Mioara Mandea(Secretary-General)

IAGA on the Web

Information on IAGA is regularly updated at the IAGAsite:http://www.iaga-aiga.org/

IAGA News 2016 – Page 1

1 Message from the President

Dear friends and col-leagues, dear Geomag-netists and Aeronomers,It might seem that ayear without an IAGAassembly is not thatbusy. However, the con-trary is true; this yearwas full of small eventsand actions, organizedfrom the bottom, whichare (and should be alsoin the future) the core ofIAGA activities. Later inthe IAGA News you will

find more details in reports from these topical meetings,organized by the IAGA working groups. I had the oppor-tunity to personally attend two of them. The first one wasa must for me, the 15th “Castle Meeting” on Paleo, Rockand Environmental Magnetism, excellently organised byour Belgian colleagues in Dinant, Belgium. I would like tohighlight the number of young researchers, i.e. graduateand undergraduate students, comprising about 30 out ofsome 90 participants at the meeting. And they performedvery well, giving excellent presentations, as pointed outby the jury that evaluated the students’ presentations.This promising trend will hopefully be maintained in thefuture. A summer school for students was organised inthe preceding days at the Geomagnetic Observatory inDourbes, which was attended by some 20 students fromall around the world. The excellent informal atmosphereand enthusiasm of all the lecturers contributed signifi-cantly to the success of the event and to the reputationof IAGA amongst the younger generation. The othermeeting I attended was the 17

th Geomagnetic Observa-tory Workshop in Dourbes, Belgium. It was my first timeat this meeting and I am happy to say that the event wasgreat from both the point of view of the scientific leveland the general workshop and family-like atmosphere.

Next year we are heading for the scientific assembly, whichwill be held jointly with IAMAS and IAPSO in Cape Town,South Africa. Thanks to great effort of all the conveners,working group and division leaders, and our SecretaryGeneral, 44 IAGA symposia and 4 joint symposia led byIAGA represent a great appeal and “magnetism” to manyof us. Moreover, the 3

rd IAGA Summer School will beheld during the days before the Assembly. I firmly believethat these events will be well attended and will representmemorable events in the IAGA records.

I would like also to mention that we were also active withrespect to other organizations and upon their requestwe nominated our representatives in, e.g., the revitalisedIUGG Union Commission for Data and Information. Lastbut not least, IAGA contributed to the IUGG StrategicPlan for 2016-2023 (many thanks are due to Mioara andKathy for this).

And not to forget, it is my great pleasure to mention thatour Mioara is awarded the National Order of Merit bythe decree of the French President for her outstandingscientific career and public service. She will be raisedto the rank of Chevalier (Knight) at a special ceremony.Congratulations to Mioara!

To conclude, I am very optimistic with respect to thefuture; IAGA is viable, with a sizeable number of activecolleagues serving the community, and with a promis-ing growth in the number and quality of our young re-searchers. I only hope that this will be confirmed by theparticipants at the forthcoming IAGA scientific assemblyin Cape Town. Despite this being a remote location formany, this event should become a highlight of next year.Finally, let me wish you all the best in your work, as wellas in your personal life, and I look forward to seeing younext year in Cape Town.

Eduard Petrovsky(President)

2 Preparation for the 2017 Joint IAPSO-IAMAS-IAGA Scientific Assembly

For the 2017 joint IAPSO-IAMAS-IAGA Scien-tific Assembly the route is to South Africa!

South Africa is host to many National ResearchFacilities including the Hermanus Magnetic Ob-servatory (where IAGA plans to organise the3rd Summer School), South African Institute forAquatic Biodiversity, South African Environmen-tal Observation Networks and many others thatwill be of interest to the participants.

The meeting will bring many occasion for sci-entists to discuss a wide range of topics, overbreaks, poster sessions, and the IAGA special din-ner party!

Time and Place

The 2017 Joint IAPSO-IAMAS-IAGA ScientificAssembly will be organised in Cape Town, SouthAfrica. The Joint Assembly, endorsed by the

IAGA News 2016 – Page 2

University of Cape Town and the South AfricanDepartment of Science and Technology, will takeplace from 27 August to 1 September 2017 atthe Cape Town International Convention Centre(CTICC).

Local Organising Committee The Local Or-ganising Committee (LOC) comprises of a mixof young early career scientists as well as estab-lished researchers in all three earth disciplines. Inaddition, many of the LOC members are currentlycommittee members of the IUGG -South AfricaNational Committee.

The Local Organising Committee (LOC) ischaired by Isabelle Ansorge (University of Cape

Town).

Key dates

1 Sept 2016: Registration Opens17 Feb 2017: Deadline for Submission and GrantApplication7 April 2017: Notification of Acceptance21 April 2017: Notification of Programme Allo-cation5 May 2017: Early Bird Registration Deadline

More information

Detailed information on programme, abstractsubmission, registration, accommodation, venueare provided:

http://www.iapso-iamas-iaga2017.com/

3 Swarm mission – probing the geoagnetic field

Three years into operations since its launch in22 November 2013, the Swarm constellation isproviding excellent measurements of the Earth’smagnetic field and associated plasma environ-ment. The user community is achieving unprece-dented scientific results and exploring new appli-cations.

All three-satellite platforms are performing verywell, essentially free of any anomalies, andthe space segment constellation orbit geometryevolves in line with expectation. With regardsto the payloads, the main technical and scien-tific challenges are the limited availability of high-quality accelerometer data from Alpha and Bravo,the search for optimised (near-continuous) oper-ations scenarios for the Thermal Ion Imagers andthe search for the optimal understanding of theoptical bench performance for magnetometry andattitude observations. Expert groups constantlywork and meet to discuss the resolution of theseissues, provinding essential support for the ver-ification and validation of all data products, aswell as the enhancement of processing algorithms.Specific investigations also involve dedicated at-titude manoeuvres and hardware setting modifi-cations.

In the data quality and content area, the SwarmData, Innovation and Science Cluster (DISC)

has initiated the consolidation of ideas for prod-ucts evolution and new product procurements.The first call for ideas for new products andservices has received an overwhelming response.All DISC activities are closely coordinated withdownstream mission exploitation efforts, suchas those performed under the Support To Sci-ence Element umbrella. As such, potential keyresearch future activities have been identifiedin the field of upper atmosphere (ionosphere-thermosphere-magnetosphere coupling), climaterelated processes (magnetosphere-atmospherecoupling), deep-Earth dynamics processes.

The Swarm constellation could further strengthenits scientific impact through the integration ofthe Canadian Enhanced Polar Outflow Probe (e-POP) payload as a fourth measurement point. e-POP is a scientific payload for CASSIOPE (CAS-cade, Smallsat and IOnospheric Polar Explorer),a multi-purpose small satellite mission from theCanadian Space Agency. e-POP is a scientificpayload consisting of eight high-resolution instru-ments probing the characteristics of near-Earthspace. Given the significant overlap in missionscope and instrument capabilities with Swarm,the e-POP data would be extremely valuable forthe Swarm community supporting scientists intheir investigation of the Earth’s ionosphere, ther-mosphere and magnetosphere. The addition of

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e-POP as ESA Third Party Mission is not formu-lated as a basic data archiving and re-distributionservice, but it is actually conceived with an inte-grated approach and mutual engagement to en-hance the mission objectives. The two missionswould work together starting from the coordi-nated operational planning up to the joint ef-fort of innovating the scientific exploitation ofthe data to increase the number of related ap-plications and their societal relevance.

With an astonishing number of publications cov-ering a broad spectrum of scientific subjectsfrom Earth’s core evolution to small-scale high-energy and dynamic ionosphere events, the three-satellite constellation promises to further unveilnew discoveries during its future years of mission

exploitation. The upcoming programmatic deci-sion will focus on the Swarm mission extensionand on the specific management of the constella-tion orbit evolution to optimise the scientific re-turn of the mission.

The important 2017 Swarm-related meetingsare the Fourth Swarm Science Meeting or-ganised at the Park Lodge Hotel in Banff,Alberta, Canada from 20-24 March 2017(http://swarm2017.org/) and the 7th Data Qual-ity Workshop will be organised in Delft on 9-12October 2017 hosted by the Delft University ofTechnology.

Giuseppe Ottavianelli, Rune Floberghagen (ESA)Mioara Mandea (CNES)

4 Reports on Meetings: IAGA-Sponsored or of IAGA interest

4.1 Report on the 7th VLF/ELF RemoteSensing of Ionospheres and Magneto-spheres Workshop 2016

Hermanus, South Africa, 19-24 September 2016

The 7th workshop of the URSI/IAGA Joint Work-ing Group on ELF/VLF Remote Sensing of Iono-spheres and Magnetospheres (VERSIM) tookplace in Hermanus, South Africa, over the period19-24 September 2016. Due to its scientific syn-ergy and large overlap in membership, the VER-SIM workshop held a coordinated meeting to-gether with the Radiation Belt workshop, and wasrenamed VERSIM-RB to reflect this joint theme.The workshop was organized by the South AfricanNational Space Agency (SANSA) under the di-rection of Prof. Michael Kosch and Ms. KarenWurbach. More details can be found on theworkshop website: https://events.sansa.org.za/versim-information. The scientific sponsor-ship and financial support for this workshop wasprovided by the Union Radio-Scientifique Interna-tionale (URSI), the International Association forGeomagnetism and Aeronomy (IAGA), and theScientific Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Physic’s(SCOSTEP’s) Variability of the Sun and it’s Ter-restrial Impacts (VarSITI) program.

The scientific program committee for the work-shop consisted of Prof. Jacob Bortnik (IAGA co-chair of VERSIM, University of California at LosAngeles, USA), Dr. Mark Clilverd (URSI co-chairof VERSIM, British Antarctic Survey, UK), Prof.Michael Kosch (meeting organizer, SANSA chiefscientist, South Africa), Prof. Craig Rodger (Uni-versity of Dunedin, New Zealand), and Dr. GeoffReeves (Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA).

The workshop attracted 55 participants from 16different countries, which is considered to be ex-

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cellent attendance numbers especially given thefairly distant conference location in South Africa(e.g., compare to the 6th VERSIM workshop heldin Dunedin, New Zealand in 2014 which had 35participants from 14 different countries).

Due to the financial support received by VERSIM,we were able to provide financial support for themeeting for 11 individuals. This was prioritizedon supporting participants who were either stu-dents/young scientists, or came from developingcountries. In order to maximize the impact, spon-sorship from different sources was pooled, and therecipients received support covering all expensesexcept for international flights to Cape Town.

There were a total of 69 abstracts received, 59of which could be accommodated as oral presen-tations, and 10 of which presented as posters.More information on presenters and abstracts canbe found on the abstract webpage: https://events.sansa.org.za/abstracts. The abstractswere organized into 6 days, the first 4 daysof which were devoted to core VERSIM topicsand the last 2 days transitioned into more of aradiation-belt focus. The VERSIM scientific pro-gram can be found here: https://events.sansa.org.za/versim-programme.

The VERSIM workshop continues to be the sci-entific highlight of the VERSIM group, and waswell supported with many outstanding presenta-tion and broad international participation. Thescientific content was thematically divided into:

1. An introductory and historical talk (whichwas recorded and placed online for future integra-tion into the VERSIM webpage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27Xf8k7 jZQ).

There were many outstanding presentations givenat the meeting that are too numerous to listin this brief report, but a few common themesemerged regarding the improved detection andcharacterizations of whistler waves for remotesensing the plasmasphere, detection of VLF trans-mitter waves for measuring and characterizing thelower ionospheric density profile, the importanceof whistler-mode and EMIC waves in control-ling the dynamics of the radiation belts, the sig-nificantly expanded and improved multi-platformobservational network that is now available tothe VERSIM community, including the Van AllenProbes, THEMIS, CLUSTER, MMS (spacecraft)as well as ground based lightning detection net-works, WWLLN and GLD360.

During the VERSIM business meeting, there weretwo presentations given as bids to host the nextVERSIM workshop in 2018. These were: 1. An-drei Demekhov, Russian location in either Apatityor Murmansk 2. Geoff Reeves, US location in ei-ther Arizona or New Mexico. There will be anonline poll created over the next few weeks andthe VERSIM community as a whole will vote onthe next venue.

J. BortnikOn behalf of the Scientific Committee

4.2 23rd EM Induction Workshop

Chiang Mai, Thailand, 14-20 August, 2016

The 23rd Electromagnetic Induction Workshop(EMIW) was for the first time held in Chiang Mai,Thailand, from 14 - 20 August 2016. The venuewas located at the Empress Convention Center

of the Empress Hotel. Chiang Mai is the largestcity in northern Thailand. It was the capital ofthe Lanna Kingdom back in 1296. It is there-fore known for the rich and unique northern Thai

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scenery, Lanna culture and Thai food. No doubt,it is one of the top destinations within Thailandfor tourists from all over the world. Transporta-tion to Chiang Mai is therefore easy, as there aremany direct flights from both Bangkok and otherAsian cities.

The workshop is held every two years in differ-ent countries under the auspices of the IUGG andIAGA Division VI - Electromagnetic Induction inthe Earth and Planetary Bodies. Having the 23rd

workshop means that we have so far enjoyed 46years of knowledge sharing, exchanging and de-bating ideas, inspiring the young, admiring theold, and farewell to the legends. For the Chi-ang Mai workshop, we still keep the workshopatmosphere the same as in the previous 22 oc-casions. Besides maintaining the high standardof the workshop, we blend the atmosphere withThai smiles, Thai hospitality, Lanna culture, anddelicious Thai food. We also brought all partic-ipants outside to explore the unique natural en-vironment, Lanna culture and food during a one-day excursion.

For the 23rd workshop, we had 288 participantsfrom 39 countries joining the workshop. Amongthese were 176 delegates, 90 students, 7 retiredscientists and 15 accompanying persons. In addi-tion to 288 participants, 27 Thai colleagues fromour own staff increased the total number of atten-dants to 315. There were a total of 351 abstractssubmitted in which 49 abstracts were selected bythe Workshop Program Committee for oral pre-sentations. All posters were on display for the en-tire week of workshop allowing the delegates tonot only have a chance to see the posters duringthe poster sessions, but also at their own conve-nient time. The abstracts and extended abstractsincluding the review manuscripts were made avail-able to the participants of the workshop via theweb site of the conference (www.emiw2016.org).In addition, session descriptions and reviewer bib-liographies, program schedules including excur-sion details can be obtained from the ProgramBook available via our official website.

Similar to previous workshops, we had providedsignificant financial support for a number of par-ticipants who contributed to the workshop buthad insufficient funds to cover their travel andparticipation costs. Unfortunately, not all appli-cants could be supported as resources were lim-

ited; decisions were made by the Financial Sup-port Committee of IAGA Division VI. Priority wasgiven to

(i) applicants authoring a presentation (eitheroral or poster),

(ii) students and postdocs/junior scientistssince they typically have less access to othersources of funding, and

(iii) in particular to applicants, who have notreceived funding for one of the previous(three) workshops.

Weerachai SiripunvarapornChair of the Local Organizing Committee

4.3 MT3DINV3: Third Workshop on 3-DMagnetotelluric Inversion

Bari, Italy, 16-18 May 2016

Just as the prior two workshops, this third onehas given the opportunity to bring together MT3D inversion code writers and code users and as-sess how well the codes perform as well as howthey are well/poorly understood from the users.All the attendees earned a place at the workshopby performing one or both of the following tasks:forward modeling a test model (DTM3), or in-verting the secret model (DSM3). The workshophas been web-cast in order to give the oppor-tunity to all the scientists (who did not completethe task or who were not able to attend the work-shop) to follow the event. During the three daysof workshop (16-18 May 2016) the focus was se-quentially on the following topics:

1. 3D forward modeling

2. 3D inversion

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3. Open questions about 3D forward and in-version approaches and their reliability.

The first two days have permitted to compareresults coming from codes based on different ap-proaches: integral equations, finite differences, fi-nite elements methods. The comparison of theresults has shown the criticisms of the responseswhen complex topography and bathymetry are tobe accounted for together with complex resistivitydistribution in depth. During the third day, it tokeplace an open and intense discussion among theattendants aimed to delineate which are the bestline for and useful development in the research of3D electromagnetic forward and inversion mod-eling.

The workshop was preceded on 15th of May bya training day on ModEM, a 3D magnetotelluricinversion code made by Gary Egbert, Anna Kel-bert and Naser Meqbel.

The number of participants: 29 come from: Aus-tralia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Iran, Ire-land, Italy, Japan, Poland, Russia, Spain, Switzer-land, United Kingdom, United States of America.

More information on https://www.dias.ie/mt3dinv3/Home.html, and a streaming webrecorded during the workshop is now avail-able at https://www.youtube.com/user/unialdomoro/videos

Agata SiniscalchiChair of the Local Organizing Committee

4.4 6th IAGA/ICMA/SCOSTEP Work-shop on Vertical Coupling in theAtmosphere-Ionosphere System

Taipei, Taiwan. July 25 - 29, 2016

The 6th IAGA/ICMA/SCOSTEP Workshop onVertical Coupling in the Atmosphere-IonosphereSystem was held on the campus of AcademiaSinica in Taipei, Taiwan from July 25 - 29, 2016.This is the second time this Workshop has beenheld in Asia, with the objective of encouraging theinvolvement of researchers and students in thisregion. Participation at the Workshop includedcolleagues from 16 institutions across 9 countriesspanning Asia, Europe, North and South Amer-ica. During five days of the workshop over 40

contributions were presented, among them 9 so-licited. Abstracts and the Workshop programare available online at http://www.ss.ncu.edu.tw/∼vcais6/program.html.

This traditional meeting brought together re-search experts from the lower, middle and upperneutral atmosphere and ionosphere communitiesin order to present their work and assess/debateongoing issues relating to the theoretical, mod-elling and observational aspects of all kind of pro-cesses which transfer energy and momentum fromthe lower atmosphere to the upper atmosphereand ionosphere and vice versa.

The past two years have seen considerableprogress in observing and quantifying variabil-ity throughout the atmosphere-ionosphere systemdriven by dynamical and chemical coupling, aswell as identifying their respective driving mech-anisms. To facilitate the community dialoguecrucial to understanding how these phenomenacontribute to the overall variation of the Earth’satmospheric system, the 6th Workshop on Verti-cal Coupling in the Atmosphere-Ionosphere Sys-tem was held. This meeting provided an excel-lent opportunity for the research communities tointeract in a supplementary manner in review-ing and debating the progress done to date inthe field of the upper atmosphere-ionosphere andcome up with suggestions and ideas for further re-search on the vertical coupling of the atmosphere-ionosphere system. Interaction between scientistsfrom atmospheric, space and solar physics hasbeen found to be very fruitful in terms of ini-tiating further discussions of research and openquestions.

Topics of interest included ionosphere and the-mospheric variability induced by the propaga-tion, breaking, and modulation of atmospherictides and planetary waves, middle atmospheric ef-

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fects of planetary waves, as well as their interan-nual variability, ionospheric variations due to solareclipses, dust storms, and earthquakes, chemicaland dynamical changes observed in airglow, aswell as upper atmospheric changes caused by in-creasing carbon dioxide concentrations and tro-pospheric climatological effects such as ENSO.Participants agreed on the need for a detailed re-view of recent findings, particularly on variabilitydriven by propagating planetary waves, and alsoinitiated planning for a special edition of the Jour-nal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics,to be submitted in December 2016.

The Organizing Committee would like to ac-knowledge financial support from the Interna-tional Association of Geomagnetism and Aeron-omy (IAGA), SCOSTEP VarSITI and the TaiwanMinistry of Science and Technology (MOST).The grants were used to cover travel expencesof four young scientists and waiving fees 4 partic-ipants. Among four supported young scientists,there are two invited speakers.

Dr. Petra Koucka KnızovaChair of the Scientific Committee

andLoren Chang

Chair of the Local Organizing Committee

4.5 15th Castle Meetings Workshop

Dinant, Belgium, 21 - 27 August 2016

The biennial Castle meetings are an appreciatedscientific event in the international scientific com-munity of palaeo- rock and environmental mag-netists. Existing already for 28 years, they areproviding a fair budget platform fostering scien-tific exchange between researchers from differentgenerations.

The 15th edition of the Castle meeting was heldin the Castel de Pont-a-Lesse (Dinant, Belgium)

from the 21st to the 27th of August 2016. In to-tal, 85 participants from 24 countries from fourcontinents participated actively and gave 94 con-ference presentations (64 oral, 30 posters), with aremarkable number of 34 Master / PhD studentcontributions. The scientific programme was par-titioned into plenary sessions consisting of 8 to 10oral presentations, two poster flash presentationsessions, and sufficient time for poster viewing. Aconference highlight were the four invited talks.

Trond H. Torsvik (University of Oslo, Nor-way) reviewed the Phanerozoic palaeomagnetismand Jean-Pierre Valet (Institut de Physique duGlobe de Paris, France) sedimentary geomagneticrecords. The look beyond is a key characteristicof an open-minded scientific community, notablyin times when transdisciplinary research gains in-creasingly in importance. In order to cater forthese developments, Silvio Dutz (Technische Uni-versitat Ilmenau, Germany) presented physical as-pects of magnetic nanoparticles and their use formagnetic fluid hyperthermia - an experimentalanticancer treatment. Furthermore, it was a par-ticular honour to follow the presentation of AndreBerger (Universite Catholique de Louvain, Bel-gium), underlining the importance of past climaterecords and climate sensitivity with respect to ge-ographic and seasonal insulation changes for theestablishment of future climate projections. Be-side the scientific programme, two half-day ex-cursions were organised: to Bruges and to theBrasserie du Bocq in Purnode. A choral concertin the Collegiate church of Dinant and a dinnerboat trip on the last day completed the meeting.

The Castle meetings are aiming to involve moreand more students, thus facilitating their inte-gration into the international scientific commu-nity, and to encourage them in their scientificresearch. In order to underline this, a commit-tee of five experienced scientists evaluated allstudent presentations - a rather difficult taskgiven the generally high quality. As a result,five awards for outstanding student presentationswere given to: Stanislava Akimova, (Moscow,Russia), Katarzyna Dudzisz (Warsaw, Poland),Frances Heinrich (Munster Germany), PadraigO Conbhuı (Edinburgh, UK), Sebastien Wouters(Brussels, Belgium). Katarzyna Dudzisz from theInstitute of Geophysics of the Polish Academy ofSciences was nominated for the IAGA Young Stu-

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dent Award for her presentation entitled “Paleoand rock-magnetism of the Lower Triassic rocksfrom the Hornsund -Sørkapp area, Spitsbergen.”

Another innovation that started in 2014, is thepre-meeting short course for students. This year’sshort-course focused besides magnetic suscepti-bility also on hysteresis and was organised in theRMI’s Geophysical Centre in Dourbes. The sup-port of AGICO s.r.o. (Brno, Czechia) and LOT-QuantumDesign GmbH (Darmstadt, Germany) ishighly appreciated here. During 21/2 days, 20 in-ternational students followed lessons about ba-sic physical principles, theoretical aspects, mea-surement schemes, data processing, applicationsand micromagnetic modelling, prepared by Mar-tin Chadima (AGICO, Czechia), Mark Dekkers(Utrecht University, The Netherlands), RamonEgli (ZAMG, Austria), Karl Fabian (GeologicalSurvey of Norway), Frantisek Hrouda (AGICO,Czechia), Eduard Petrovsky (CAS, Czechia),Simo Spassov (RMI, Belgium) and Libor Ve-jmelek (AGICO, Czechia). The students wereprovided with the possibility to become familiarwith sophisticated measurement instrumentationfor magnetic property characterisation.

The 15th edition of the Castle meetings has beensuccessful in being a pole attracting, motivatingand supporting young generation scientists, fos-tering scientific exchange and bringing togetheran open-minded scientific community. The suc-cess of this meeting relied upon the numerousmotivated hands that helped before, during andafter the meeting, namely my colleagues MurielBorremans, Francois Brouyaux, Cindy Goeseels(RMI in Brussels), Marie Verbeek (Archaeologi-cal Service of the Walloon region, SPW Namur),my team from the Laboratory for Environmen-tal Magnetism: Souad Ech-chakrouni, Jozef Hus,Frederic Mathot, Ludovic Teruel and Francois-Michel Wattecamps, the personnel of the Geo-physical Centre in Dourbes: Marie-Claire Bodart,Stefan Bracke, Magda Francotte, Francois Hum-bled, Marylene Preumont, as well as the head ofthe department Jean Rasson.

The prosperity of the 15th Castle Meeting owesalso a lot to the generous support of the Bel-gian Science Policy (BELSPO), the InternationalAssociation of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy(IAGA), and the following partners: AGICO s.r.o.(Brno, Czechia), Magnetic Measurements Ltd.

(Aughton, UK) and LOT-QuantumDesign GmbH(Darmstadt, Germany). We wish to express ourdeepest gratitude to all of them. IAGA financialcontribution was provided to participants fromChina, Greece, Mexico, Russia and Ukraine.

The next, 16th edition of the Castle Meetings willbe held in Poland in 2018. Out of two bids -Croatia and Poland - presented at the meeting,the proposition from Poland got the higher num-ber of votes. We are looking forward to the nextfruitful and successful meeting in two years.

Simo SpassovChair of the Local Organizing Committee

4.6 XVIIth IAGA Workshop on Geomag-netic Observatory Instruments, DataAcquisition and Processing

Dourbes, Belgium, 4-10 September, 2016

The XVIIth IAGA Workshop on GeomagneticObservatory Instruments, Data Acquisition andProcessing was held in Dourbes, Belgium fromSeptember 4 to 10, 2016 in the Geomag-netic Observatory DOU pertaining to the In-stitut Royal Meteorologique de Belgique (http://www.meteo.be/iaga2016).

The workshop comprised two main activi-ties: observatory instruments intercompari-son/calibration and conference talks. The tworan in parallel during the five days. We countedno less than 87 participants from 37 countries ofwhich 21 were out of Europe. We had partic-ipants from 8 countries in the Southern Hemi-sphere. A total of 50 instruments were broughtin for intercomparison. New in this workshopwas a streamlined approach with concurrent mea-surement and instruments sessions giving moretime for talks and measurements while limitingthe workshop duration to 1 week. We had a to-tal of 72 presentations including 1 Invited Talk.

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Additionally to the talks, there was a data pro-cessing training session, an EPOS splinter sessionand an INTERMAGNET round table. The topicsof the conference were: Observatory Instrumentsand Techniques (19), Observatory Data Acquisi-tion and Processing (13), Upgraded/New Obser-vatories (17), Magnetic Repeat Stations (4) andOther Applications for Observatories (16).

The Local Organizing committee was able to sup-port scientists and observers for participating; intotal, 23 fee waivers, 19 airplane fares and 19 ho-tel rooms were offered to carefully selected par-ticipants.

The results of the instrumentation session andpeer-reviewed papers corresponding to the talkswill be published in an ”inter-journal” issue inboth ”Geoscientifical Instrument, method anddata System” (GI) and in ”Annales Geophysicae”(ANGEO) which are both EGU/Copernicus jour-nals.

Jean RassonChair of the Organizing Committee

4.7 IAGA-IV Symposium ”Influence ofshort and long term solar variability onclimate”

Hurghada, Egypt, 20 -24 March, 2016

The Symposium held for the 4th time, with about70 attendances from nine contries: Cameroon,Egypt, UK, France, Germany, Mali, Morocco,Russia, Saudi Arabia.

Via the Symposium website: http://iaga.cu.edu.eg, we received 49 abstracts. The Scien-tific Organizing Committee selected 9 papers asreview or invited speakers’ one. In addition 15papers were accepted as oral contributions andposter contributions included 25 papers.

The scientific program of the Symposium hasbeen divided into 6 scientific sessions distributedin 4 days as follows:

❼ Solar and Space missions for SpaceWeather and solar variability observations,

❼ Solar activity/variability effects on thelower, middle and upper atmosphere,

❼ Modeling climate consequences of solar ac-tivity influence and suggested mechanisms,

❼ Modeling and predicting large flares, superflares, CMEs and other extreme events,

❼ Solar energetic particles and Solar wind in-fluence on the Earth’s inner magnetosphereand atmosphere and

❼ Societal impact of solar variability, Educa-tion.

The articles issued from these presentations andposters, upon review, will be published in a specialissue of the Cairo University Journal of AdvancedResearch, an Elsevier publication. Articles are ex-pected in within three months after the Sympo-sium, July 30, 2016 deadline.

Ahmed A. HadyCo-Chair of the Organizing Committee

4.8 International Conference ”Data Inten-sive System Analysis for GeohazardStudies”

Sochi, Russia, 18-21 July, 2016

The international conference “Data Intensive Sys-tem Analysis for Geohazard Studies”, that washeld on 18-21 July 2016 in Rosa Khutor village,Adler district of the city of Sochi, has been com-pleted.

IAGA News 2016 – Page 10

The Conference brought together research sci-entists, observers, computer experts, practition-ers and technical end-users concerned with mon-itoring of the Earth’s environment, detection ofhazards, data analysis and modeling, vulnerabil-ity and risk assessment. More than 140 scientistsand specialists from 14 countries (Russia, USA,UK, Finland, Switzerland, France, Germany, Aus-tria, Netherlands, Italy, South Africa, Iran, India,Uzbekistan) have participated in the Conference.The key goal was to unite the leaders and decisionmakers of the International organizations that arespecialized in projects related to Systems Analy-sis, Data Mining and Data Management. Amongthe participants of the conference was DirectorGeneral of the International Institute for AppliedSystems Analysis Prof. Pavel Kabat, SecretaryGeneral of the International Association of Ge-omagnetism and Aeronomy of the InternationalUnion of Geodesy and Geophysics Prof. MioaraMandea, President of the International Coun-cil for Science: Committee on Data for Scienceand Technology (CODATA) Prof. Geoffrey Boul-ton, Director of Department of Homeland Secu-rity Center of Excellence CCICADA: Command,Control and Interoperability Center for AdvancedData Analysis Prof. Fred S. Roberts and others.

The Conference in Sochi was devoted to imple-mentation of Systems Analysis embracing a so-phisticated data analysis and holistic Earth sci-ence approach in order to get comprehensive in-formation on the phenomena of different degreesof hazard and on the multi-scale extremes. Thetopics, discussed during the Conference, includedto observations, detection of and modeling geo-

physical extremes; development, implementationand maintenance of methods and instrumentsfor monitoring; evolution of natural systems to-wards extreme conditions; assessment of global-and local-scale hazardous phenomena; challengesin data processing and analysis using patternrecognition, statistical and other methods rele-vant to large data processing; applications of geo-databases and GIS.

The panel discussion ”Great Debate” titled“What scientific and technological data and theirSystems Analysis will be in the 21st century?”took place on 20 July 2016. During the meet-ing prominent leaders of the international scien-tific organizations and distinguished scientists dis-cussed the most significant trends of the 21st cen-tury in Systems Analysis development, Data Sci-ence, geoobservations and other important dis-ciplines. Another two scientific events engaginginternational experts took place on the last dayof the Conference: Russian Data Citation Work-shop and the workshop, titled “Interdisciplinaryscientific collaboration towards sustainable Arc-tic”. They provided the overview of modern trendand the discussion regarding future challenges inthe appropriate areas.

The main events of the Conference were intenselycovered by Russian scientific media and newsagencies. Electronic publications about the Con-ference are available at the sites of “ScientificRussia”, Russian Science Foundation (RSF), Rus-sian Academy of Sciences, Federal Agency for Sci-entific Organizations, Russian Geographical Soci-ety, “Moskovskij Komsomolets”, “Vesti Sochi”,Russia-Kuban TV-channel, “Argumenty i Fakty“and others. Separately, it should be noted thatcorrespondents from the Russian News AgencyTASS were present at the conference and pre-pared two publications, based on the interviewswith the Conference participants. 28 publicationsabout the Conference were prepared in total. Thepast Conference resulted in the establishment ofnew international contacts and collaboration pri-orities including the projects devoted to the Arcticregion.

Alexey GvishianiChair of the Organizing Committee

5 In Memorium

Raymond Hide CBE FRS (1929 - 2016)

We are sad to recordthe passing of oneof the giants of ourfield. Raymond Hidepassed away on the5th September 2016at age 87. Raymond,known to his friendsas Spike, was a geo-physicist of the high-est calibre, beginninghis scientific career in the 1950s working with SirPatrick Blackett and Keith Runcorn at the Uni-versity of Manchester. As an undergraduate heworked on the coal mine experiments designedto confirm or refute the notion that the mag-netic field was intrinsically linked to the Earth’srotation. At Cambridge he designed and studiedthe rotating annulus experiment that caught theimagination of geophysicists and meteorologistsalike. This experiment studied the influence ofconvection in the presence of rotation and demon-strated the likelihood of wave motion in the core.

Amongst the numerous contributions made byRaymond over the course of his career, we canhighlight his theoretical work on MHD waves inthe core, his interest in core-mantle interactionsand studies of the length-of-day on both shortand long timescales, as well as planetary atmo-spheres and nonlinear dynamics. Sometimes Ray-mond’s creative ideas courted controversy, andhe was often willing to contribute to spirited ar-guments. Amongst the posts held by Raymondwere Research Associate in Astrophysics, Univer-sity of Chicago; Senior Research Fellow, AtomicEnergy Research Establishment, Harwell; Lec-turer in Physics, King’s College, University ofDurham; Professor of Geophysics and Physics,MIT; Founder and Director of Geophysical FluidDynamics Laboratory at the Met Office, Brack-nell, and Professor of Physics, University of Ox-ford.

Raymond was made a Fellow of the AmericanGeophysical Union (AGU) in 1967. He wasawarded AGU’s highest honour, the Bowie medal,for unselfish cooperation in research, in 1997.

Raymond was the recipient of many other acco-lades, for example being a member of the Pontif-ical Academy until his death. He held the uniquedistinction of being the only person to have heldboth the presidencies of the Royal Meteorologi-cal Society and the Royal Astronomical Society.From the former he was awarded the Symons GoldMedal in 2002 and from the latter the Gold Medalin 1989. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Soci-ety in 1971, and was awarded the Hughes Medalof the Royal Society in 1998.

He worked tirelessly for the promotion of geo-physics and meteorology until his retirement atthe turn of the millennium. He was especiallysupportive of the careers of young scientists. Hisfriends will miss his infectious enthusiasm for un-derstanding the dynamics of planets and the deepEarth.

Andrew JacksonInstitut fur Geophysik, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Helmut Rosenbauer (1936 - 2016)

Dr. Helmut Rosen-bauer, former direc-tor of the Max PlanckInstitute for Aeron-omy (today MaxPlanck Institute forSolar System Re-search) died on May5th, 2016 at the ageof 79 after a long ill-ness. He was a Sci-

entific Member of the Max Planck Society from1977 until 2004 and played a key role in shapingand setting up several space missions investi-gating the Earth’s magnetosphere, solar wind,planets, and comets. One of his most impor-tant achievements was his participation in thedesign of the comet lander Philae which toucheddown on the surface of comet 67P /Churyumov-Gerasimenko two years ago as part of ESA’sRosetta mission.

Helmut Rosenbauer was born in 1936 inNurnberg, Germany. He began his scientific ca-reer at the Technical University of Munich, fromwhere he received a Doctorate of Engineering

IAGA News 2016 – Page 12

for his research in plasma physics. As a sci-entist at the Max Planck Institute for Extrater-restrial Physics in Garching, Germany he thencontributed to important space missions such asHEOSA-2, Helios 1 and 2 by developing instru-ments to study solar wind, low energy particles,and electrons in the Earth’s magnetosphere.

In 1977 the Max Planck Society appointed himScientific Member and director at the Max PlanckInstitute for Aeronomy (MPAe) in Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany. He founded the institute’sdepartment for Experimental Planetary Researchwhich he led for 27 years. In this time, he moldedthe MPAe into a significant and internationallyrecognized partner of international space mis-sions. Under his lead the institute provided ma-jor contributions to the space missions Ulysses,Giotto, Phobos, and Mars 96 among others.His last big success was ESA’s mission Rosettato comet 67P /Churyumov-Gerasimenko (eventhough it reached its destination many years af-ter his retirement) and he can well be regardedas one of the “fathers” of Rosetta’s comet landerPhilae, which landed on the comet in 2014 andbecame the first spaceship to ever touch-downon a comet. He contributed significantly to theoverall design of the lander, was responsible forthe entire landing gear and release mechanism,and devised one of Philae’s main scientific instru-ments. Without his commitment and technicalingenuity Philae would never have flown.

Helmut Rosebauer was not only an outstandingscientist, but remained an innovative engineerthroughout his career, who, for example, did nothesitate to take the soldering iron himself. Thesuccess of the projects led by Helmut Rosenbaueris largely thanks to his perseverance, his inex-haustible wealth of ideas and his tireless commit-ment. He boldly tackled the “impossible”. Hiscolleagues held him in high regard and affection-ately called him “chief”. They not only appreci-ated his ingenious ideas, but also his thoughtfuland visionary leadership.

With Helmut Rosenbauer we have lost an excel-lent and imaginative researcher, a judicious insti-tute director, an encouraging boss, and a goodfriend.

Sami K. SolankiMax-Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Germany

Maha Ashour-Abdalla (1944 - 2016)

Maha Ashour-Abdalla, a professorof physics with exper-tise in space plasmaphysics and a passionfor teaching, diedMay 1. She was 72.

Maha Ashour-Abdalla was born andraised in Alexandria,Egypt. Maha ex-celled in mathemat-ics and finished high school very young: She wasin college at age 15. After completing her B.Sc.at Alexandria University in 1964, she pursuedgraduate studies at Imperial College in Londonwhere she was awarded her Ph.D. in 1971. Shethen became a research scientist at the CentreNational d’ Etudes des Telecommunications inFrance, before moving to Los Angeles where shewas a geophysics researcher in the UCLA Insti-tute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics from1976-1985. Maha was appointed as a Professorin the UCLA Department of Physics and Astron-omy in 1985. She was elected a Fellow of boththe American Physical Society (1986) and theAmerican Geophysical Union (1993).

In the early 1980’s Maha founded the UCLASpace Plasma Simulation Group (SPSG), whichpioneered using plasma simulations for magneto-spheric physics in close coordination with space-craft data. Maha’s boundless enthusiasm forspace science research resulted in her establish-ing collaborations with scientists from around theworld. In 1982 she initiated the InternationalSchool/Symposium for Space Simulations (ISSS-1) along with colleagues from Japan and France.She helped organize the most recent ISSS-12 heldin Prague in 2015.

Teaching at UCLA was one of Maha’s passionsand her undergraduate courses were very popular.Maha’s excellence in teaching over the years re-sulted in her receiving the Outstanding TeachingAward 11 times from the Department of Physicsand Astronomy. The ultimate appreciation ofher teaching abilities was shown in January 2000when she was named one of the Top 20 UCLAProfessors of the 20th Century by UCLA Today.

IAGA News 2016 – Page 13

During her tenure at UCLA, Maha supervisedeleven Ph.D. graduates as well as many postdoc-toral researchers.

Maha’s love for teaching and use of computersintersected with her development of educationalprograms for students (K-12 and college) that uti-lized innovative digital technologies. In 1999 shefounded and became the director of the UCLACenter for Digital Innovation (CDI) and oversawthe development of numerous educational soft-ware products for science, math and computerliteracy. An early groundbreaking effort of CDIwas the launching of the Transpacific InteractiveDistance Education (TIDE) program, which al-lowed students at UCLA and at Kyoto Universityin Japan to participate in face-to-face collabora-tive lectures.

Over the years, Maha was principal and co-investigator on numerous grants from NASA andNSF. Most recently, she was the UCLA principalinvestigator of an Interdisciplinary Scientist grantfor NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS)mission, a four spacecraft mission launched in2015 to study magnetic reconnection, one of themost critical problems in space physics. Duringher extensive career she received many awards ofrecognition and served on numerous national andinternational advisory panels.

Maha Ashour-Abdalla was a tireless worker andprolific researcher. Until the very end she was ac-tively working on research and teaching. Mahawas charismatic, engaging, extremely loyal, andthose who met her quickly came to appreciate theforce of her personality. Maha was truly a one ofa kind individual who left an indelible impressionon everyone she met. She will be greatly missed.She is survived by her husband Dr. MohamedAbdalla and her daughter Kenz Abdalla.

A scholarship in Maha’s name, the MahaAshour-Abdalla Scholarship in Space Physicshas been set up to encourage and supportwomen who are starting graduate studies andwish to focus on research in the area of spacephysics. Details are available at https://giving.agu.org/campaign/maha-ashour-abdalla-scholarship-space-physics-fund/

Mostafa El AlaouiInstitute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics,

University of California, Los Angeles, USA

Theodore Wesley Speiser (1934 - 2016)

Ted Speiser passedpeacefully on April 8,2016 after complica-tions stemming froma stroke. He was 81.

Ted was ProfessorEmeritus at CU Boul-der in Astrophysi-cal and PlanetarySciences and con-sulted at the NationalOceanic and Atmo-spheric Administra-

tion’s Space Environment Laboratory in Boulder.As a Colorado native, Ted’s long and productivecareer began with the study of physics at Col-orado State University, progressed to a master’sat California Institute of Technology (1959), andthen a PhD at Penn State University where hewas a student of James W. Dungey of ImperialCollege, London, who was a consultant at PennState’s Ionosphere Research Laboratory. Fromthis relationship Ted learned of the importanceof magnetic reconnection as an important factorin magnetospheric dynamics and used and de-veloped the theory to help understand particletransport through the magnetosphere.

Ted then went to NASA Goddard Space FlightCenter as a post-doctoral researcher and usedhis considerable theoretical expertise in analyzingsatellite observations of magnetospheric particles.He subsequently spent a year with Dungey at Im-perial College, London, before returning to andsettling in Colorado as a professor in the then-Department of Astrogeophysics. Ted also servedas a 2nd Lt. in the US Army, and was also aFulbright Scholar and Humboldt award recipientin Germany, where he later spent a sabbaticalworking with Karl Schindler at Ruhr-UniversitatBochum, Germany.

Ted’s research interests revolved around the mo-tions of charged particles in plasmas undergoingmagnetic reconnection, the process whereby mag-netic fields from diverse sources connect with anddisconnect from each other, transferring, storing,and releasing energy and plasmas, explosively attimes, for example in solar flares and auroral sub-storms. CU graduate students fortunate enough

IAGA News 2016 – Page 14

to come under Ted’s influence enjoyed his fullsemester course on that topic, one of the firstsuch courses taught at any American university.

Ted is perhaps best known for describing whatare universally known as the ”Speiser orbits” ofcharged particles in reconnecting magnetic fieldcurrent sheets. After over 50 years, these re-main a key element of heliophysics and our knowl-edge about reconnection, which was identified byDungey as the most fundamental process control-ling interactions between the Sun and magnetizedplanets.

In the 1960’s when Ted first investigated recon-nection, it was still a controversial concept thatat times generated emotional arguments amongadvocates and skeptics. The lack of collisionaldissipation in space plasmas became a stickingpoint, which was addressed by Ted in a paper en-titled ”Conductivity without collisions or noise”.True to his particle motion studies, he pointedout that electric fields may exist in space withoutbenefit of classically resistive media, a point thatwas also relevant to the acceleration of particlesin aurora. Ted was clearly an advocate of the im-portance of reconnection, a position which wasfinally vindicated by a series of observations cul-minating with those from the International SunEarth Explorer in the late 1970’s.

As part of his consulting work at NOAA and SEL,Ted was also active in numerous related areas ofspace plasma physics, from the formation of au-roras on the dayside of Earth, to the structureand motions of the magnetotail, and its currentsheets, to the explosive phenomena of auroralsubstorms, to the energetic particles whose pres-sure inflates the inner magnetosphere of Earth.Ted’s unique approach of building particle dis-tribution functions and mapping them into andthrough the magnetosphere, all the while com-paring them to observations, lead to importantinsights to particle transport into and through-out this complex regime. Some of us, includingThomas Detman, Jo Ann Joselyn, and ZdenkaSmith at NOAA/SEL remember Ted as a men-tor and supportive friend, prone to deep physi-cal and philosophical discussions over coffee anddoughnuts, in a more relaxed environment.

Ted would have been thrilled by observationsfrom the recently launched NASA Magneto-spheric Multiscale Mission (MMS), which is ded-

icated to investigating reconnection. MMS re-cently has resolved for the first time the existenceof ”crescent” shaped distributions of meanderingelectrons, the result of electron ”Speiser orbits”.He delighted in the pursuit of new scientific dis-coveries, from solar physics to experimental treat-ments for his Parkinson’s illness. Ted also hadan insatiable love for travel, hiking, cross-countryskiing, tennis, photography, music, football, andpractical jokes.

Born November 23, 1934 in Del Norte, CO, Tedattended high school in Fort Collins where he metand married Patricia McCrummen. Together theyraised three daughters. Ted greatly enjoyed histwo grand-daughters. Ted was a gifted, gener-ous, supportive and finally courageous colleagueand will be missed dearly by all those who haveknown and worked with him.

Thomas E MooreNASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, USA,

David S. Evans, Donald Fairfield, Terry G. Forbes,Donald J. Williams

Vladimir ”Volodya” Nikolaevich Shuman(1942 - 2016)

Vladimir ”Volodya”Nikolaevich Shumanwas born on February18, 1942 in a smallvillage, Zadereevka,of Northern Ukrainein a family of teach-ers. During 1960-1964 he studied geo-physics in Kiev StateUniversity and in1965-1967 worked

out a debt for his study in Belorussian geophys-ical expedition. In 1967 he entered the Instituteof Geophysics of Ukrainian National Academy ofSciences, primarily as a PhD student, then sci-entist, senior scientist, then up to death as thehead of the Department of mathematical geo-physics. His PhD thesis (1972) and works offollowing two decades were devoted to solutionof direct and inverse problems of electromagneticsounding and its application to study of electricalconductivity anomalies in the Earth’s crust. Thiswas followed by the development of kinematic ap-proach for quasi-stationary EM fields of natural

IAGA News 2016 – Page 15

and man-made sources, bimodal structure of theEM response functions and principles of optimalselection of electromagnetic sounding systems,and generation of toroidal magnetic field in theEarth’s atmosphere. He used precise impedanceboundary conditions and generalized relations forimpedances and the most important work in thisfield - introduction of mathematically rigorous lo-cal scalar impedances instead of commonly usedtruncated tensor of impedance which do not havea precise mathematical basis.

Volodya had acquired a deep knowledge in physicsand mathematics and applied them to obtain so-lution of geophysical problems and in the last twodecades, in explanation of phenomena and ex-periments in nature, which were not explainablein the framework of traditional physics. Evenin the last year of his life, Volodya publishedtwo articles: ”Spontaneous emission activity oflithosphere and seismoelectromagnetic phenom-ena” [Geophys. J., 2016, V.38, N2, 79-87]and ”Fractional dynamics and emissive activity ofgeosystems” [Geophys. J., 2016, V.38, N3, 72-83], which concentrated on a diffusion-relaxationcomponent of lithospheric seismoelectromagneticnoise interpreted in terms of nonlinear dynamicsof non-equilibrium geomedium, This was a resultof interaction and concordance between mecha-nisms of its self-organization that determine thetrends of evolutionary processes development andeffects of dynamic relaxation, which reflect therole of fluctuations and dissipative factors.

Volodya was very decent and modest scientist andcolleague. Having deep insight in any problemhe generously gifted ideas to colleagues withouthis co-authorship. Volodya did not repeat pub-lication of his new results in many articles. Hethoroughly studied a problem, sent the results toa Journal and proceeded to the development of anew idea. Some of his ideas and results are toonew to be accepted and used at the present time.They will have to wait for an appropriate time fortheir acceptance.

Prof. Dr. V. Shuman published approximately200 articles, 1 manual and monograph authoredby V.N. Shuman, and M.G. Savin: ”Mathemat-ical Models in Geoelectrics” published by Kiev:Naukova Dumka, in 2011. He was the leading ed-itor of Geophysical Journal and member of edito-rial board of the journals Geodynamics and Geoin-

formatics, and member of four scientific boards.In 2001 he got Academia Award, and in 2014,State Award for Scientific Achievements. For 20years, Volodya taught Mathematical physics andTheory of geoelectromagnetic fields in Kiev StateUniversity and educated new generations of geo-physicists.

Volodya was a man devoted to his family: wifeLyuba, sons Oleg and Dima and grandchildren.He had many friends. They loved him for hiskindness, for his sense of humor, his lively con-versations and profound insight in theoretical geo-physical problems. He was working until the endand died on November 5, 2016 when he was 74years old. Volodya left deep imprints in our sci-entific landscape. We greatly admire his life andwill always cherish our memory of him.

Igor I. RokityanskyInstitute of Geophysics of Ukrainian Academy of Sciences,

Kiev, Ukraine

Christian Sucksdorff (1928 - 2016)

Professor Christian(”Chris”) Sucksdorff,the former headof the GeophysicsDepartment of theFinnish Meteorolog-ical Institute (FMI),died on 23rd of Octo-ber 2016 at the ageof 88 years.

He was born in So-dankyla, Lapland,where his father

Eyvind Sucksdorff (1899-1955) was the direc-tor of the Sodankyla Geophysical Observatory(1927-1945). In the late 1940s, Eyvind Sucks-dorff restarted regional geomagnetic mapping ofFinland as a project of the FMI. He educatedhis son as an assistant for geomagnetic measure-ments and so started his more than 40 years longcareer at the FMI. Chris studied physics at theHelsinki University and took his M.Sc. degree in1956, Ph.D. dissertation in 1968. Eyvind Sucks-dorff died suddenly in 1955, and Chris Sucksdorfftook over all geomagnetic works after his father,at the FMI, including development of the Nur-mijarvi Geophysical Observatory.

IAGA News 2016 – Page 16

During the International Geophysical Year (IGY)1957-1958 activities in all branches of geophysicsin Finland expanded substantially. Chris’s contri-bution to the IGY was that a network of modernauroral all-sky cameras was set up in North Fin-land. This achievement was the start of the spaceweather monitoring at the FMI continuing up topresent days.

During the leadership of Chris Sucksdorff thenumber of personnel at the Geomagnetism unitincreased in about 30 years from a couple of sci-entists to several tens of them. When Chris re-tired in 1991 he left behind a Geophysics Depart-ment where scientific research and projects werefocused on several fields from geomagnetism tospace physics.

Sucksdorff was an active member of the IAGAsince early 1960s. He was the leader of sev-eral Working Groups. He was the co-author ofthe IAGA manual ”Guide for Magnetic measure-ments and Observatory Practice” published in1996. IAGA nominated Chris Sucksdorff as anHonorary Member in 1993. He was member ofseveral Finnish scientific academies and societies.

We say goodbye to our colleague Chris Sucks-dorff. He will always have a special place in ourminds.

Heikki NevanlinnaFinnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki, Finland

Roland Schlich (1932 - 2016)

Roland Schlich wasborn in Metz in1932. After grad-uating from the In-stitute of Physics ofthe Globe of Stras-bourg and graduatingfrom a postgraduateengineer in 1956, hespent a short time inthe petroleum indus-try. A Centre Na-

tional de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) an-nouncement seeking volunteers to carry out workin Antarctica was the starting point of his scien-tific career. On the occasion of the InternationalGeophysical Year (1957-1958), he was in charge

of the program of magnetic observations at theCharcot station located inside the Antarctic con-tinent. He wintered at the Charcot Station withmeteorologist Jacques Dubois and glaciologistClaude Lorius in a small aluminium hut buriedunder the ice, in the vicinity of the south mag-netic pole. This exceptional experience was toldin a book (365 days under the ice of the Antarc-tic, Glenat, 2008) and a film (Buried in the heartof Antarctica, DVD MK2, 2008).

In 1968, Roland Schlich moved into the fields ofmarine geology and geophysics and launched along-term research programme in the SouthernIndian Ocean. He received a Doctor of Sciencefrom the Universite Pierre et Marie Curie (ParisVI) in 1974. He was the head of the CNRS MarineGeophysical Laboratory (1972-1980) and servedas deputy director for the Institut de Physiquedu Globe de Paris (1976-1979). He moved to theUniversity of Strasbourg and served as director forthe Ecole et Observatoire de Physique du Globede Strasbourg (1980-1996).

Between 1960 and 1998, Roland Schlich pub-lished nearly 200 scientific articles and numerousreports. He presented nearly 120 contributions,many of them as invited speakers, in nationaland international congresses. In addition, he con-ducted or co-directed 21 doctoral theses.

Roland Schlich was Treasurer (1982-1996) andExecutive Secretary (1996-2002) of the EuropeanUnion of Geosciences (EUG). He then becametreasurer of the European Geosciences UnionEGU (2002-2014). He has been an active mem-ber of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Re-search SCAR (Chairman of the Finance Commit-tee 1990-1998, then Vice-President 1998-2004),French National Committee for Geodesy and Geo-physics, CNFGG (Treasurer since 1988), Frenchfor Arctic and Antarctic Research CNFRA (Chair-man).

He was awarded several distinctions: Chevalierof the Order of the Black Star (1958), Chevalier(1968) and Officer (1994) of the National Or-der of Merit (1985), Tchihatchef Prize awardedby the French Academy of Sciences Paris (1975),Prix Barrabe awarded by the Geological Societyof France (1976), Leon Lutaud Prize of the ParisAcademy of Sciences (1996), Prince of AsturiasAward (2002).

Roland’s legacy is huge, and he will be missed by

IAGA News 2016 – Page 17

many.

More details are available at http://www.egu.eu/people/roland-schlich/

Mioara Mandea(IAGA Secretary-General)

Asa Grigor’evna D’yakonova (1936 - 2016)

On the 7th of Oc-tober 2016, Asa G.Dyakonova passedaway in her 81st

year after a long ill-ness. She was a well-known geophysicist,doctor of geological-mineralogical sci-ences, and a leadingspecialist in electro-magnetic methods.Asa G. was born on 7th of July 1936 in the villageElovka of Sverdlovsk region. After graduatingfrom the Sverdlovsk Mining Institute in 1959 shewas admitted to the Institute of Geophysics ofthe Ural Filial of the Academy of sciences USSR.

In 1971 she defended her thesis ”Application ofmagneto telluric and magnetovariational methodsfor studying the structure of the crust and up-per mantle of the Middle Urals,” and in 1989 shedefended her doctoral thesis ”Geoelectrical struc-ture of the Earth’s crust and upper mantle in theUrals region.” All her scientific activities had beenfocused on solving the fundamental problem of re-lationships of tectonic structure of the lithospherefolded belts with the peculiarities of the distribu-tion of the electrical conductivity of the matterat various depths. The results of A. Dyakonovaare used in constructing the geodynamic modelthat allows explanation of the processes of Ural’sforming as a large linear system of planetary char-acter. She had written more than 150 papers and4 monographs.

Asa G. was a purposeful patient scientist, enthu-siastic and caring leader, with deep honesty andwas a very kind generous woman. All who knewAsa, loved and respected her and will long re-member her bright image.

Colleagues of the Institute of Geophysics, Ural Branch of theRussian Academy of Sciences

6 General information about IAGA

6.1 IAGA books series published bySpringer

One of the most important achievements of IAGAduring the last two years was to publish, withSpringer, a series of five books, representing re-

sults obtained by the IAGA five Divisions overrecent years. As well as providing useful refer-ence texts, the income to IAGA from Springer forthis venture was used to support scientists to at-tend the last SA in Sopron, Hungary. The previ-ous Secretary-General devoted considerable timeand effort to seeing this project through to com-pletion, and the current Secretary-General wouldlike to thank warmly everyone who showed sup-port during the preparation of these manuscripts,and is grateful for the time taken by colleaguesand friends to provide valuable information anddata, comments and encouragement, as authors,editors or referees.

IAGA has published four practical guides to obser-vation. These may be ordered from the Secretary-

IAGA News 2016 – Page 18

General and they are also available at the IAGAweb site.

IAGA Guide for Magnetic Measurements and Obser-vatory Practice

by J. Jankowski and C.Sucksdorff, 1996, 232pages, ISBN: 0-9650686-2-5; Price: USD 50.

This Guide provides com-prehensive informationabout how to organize andrun a magnetic observa-tory and make magneticmeasurements. The maintopics are:

❼ A brief description of the magnetic field ofthe Earth

❼ Selection of observatory sites and layout

❼ Magnetometers

❼ Absolute magnetic measurements

❼ Recording of magnetic variations

❼ Data processing

❼ Testing and calibrating instruments

IAGA Guide for Magnetic Repeat Station Survey

by L.R. Newitt, C.E.Barton, and J. Bitterly,1997, 120 pages, ISBN: 0-9650686-1-7; Price: USD25.

This Guide provides acomprehensive descriptionof the theoretical basis,operational details, and in-strumentation for makingmagnetic repeat station

survey measurements.

This manual and instruction book was written bya group of active researchers, both professionaland amateur. There are chapters giving practicaladvice for taking visual observations, photograph-ing the clouds with film or with video equip-ment. A summary of observations from spaceis included, as well as comments on the connec-tion between noctilucent clouds, seen from theground, and the polar mesospheric clouds that sofar have been measured only from orbit. Noc-tilucent clouds are seen in the summer months,shining in the poleward sky at night-time. Mea-surements show that the clouds are higher thanany others. Lying at a height of 80-85 kilometres,the clouds mark a boundary between meteorol-ogy and space physics. This book is beautifullyillustrated with photographs, and will help every-one recognize and appreciate these “sailors in thesummer night”.

This guide is out of print but it is available atthe web site using the link ONC. (Prices do notinclude shipping and handling.)

6.2 IAGA website

Information on IAGA can be found at:http://www.iaga-aiga.org

6.3 IAGA contact

The Secretary-General is the main point of con-tact for all matters concerning IAGA:

Mioara Mandea

CNESDirectorate for Innovation, Applications and Sci-ence2, Place Maurice Quentin75039 Paris Cedex 01France

email: iaga sg@gfz-potsdam.de

ImprintExecutive Editor: M.Mandea (CNES)Layout by LATEX & A. Jordan (GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences)