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I’m writing to you having just come back from a brief vacation. It was a pleasure to relax and spend time with my family, and I feel refreshed and ready to jump back into all of the exciting things happening in Helio. I hope you're able to find the opportunity to take some time off as well.
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In exciting mission news, congratulations to the PUNCH team, who passed their KDP C on July 23! I encourage you to watch Project Scientist Nicki Viall’s recent webinar with the NASA Night Sky Network if you are interested in learning more about the mission (the webinar starts at 5:40). Congratulations also to the MaGIXS sounding rocket team, who had a successful launch on July 30!
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In other mission news, Thursday, August 12, was the third anniversary of the Parker Solar Probe launch. I am happy to share that Parker completed perihelion 9 at 15.9 Rs on August 9, and we received the first beacon tone following the perihelion earlier today. Additionally, Solar Orbiter completed its second Venus flyby on August 9 and we have new images from the SoloHI instrument.
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Our R&A team has been busy with a recent flurry of selection announcements for the Supporting Research, Space Weather Research to Operations, Flight Opportunities Studies, Interdisciplinary Science for Eclipse, and Parker Solar Probe Guest Investigator (PSP-GI) solicitations. With the selection of PSP-GI, we now have an incredible 43 Principal Investigators or Co-Investigators for the mission. Well done, all!
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I also want to share that Esayas Shume has joined our Headquarters team as a Program Scientist from the University of La Verne in California. Welcome, Esayas! Our interns are also busy at work, including Ali Gold, our Helio communications intern whose project ends this summer. Ali is a graduate student at MIT and is studying science writing. During her time in Helio, she wrote about the heliosphere and space weather, produced a video, and created content for social media. She will be returning to NASA in the fall as an intern with the Earth Science Division. Thank you, Ali!
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A few months ago, we organized several Early Career Roundtable sessions where our goal was to hear directly from the community. We wanted to hear their thoughts on a variety of topics including challenges they were encountering as a result of COVID-19. The conversations were crucial and enlightening and we received many thoughts and suggestions, some of which were more immediately actionable than others. Our team has also shared our findings with the other science divisions in SMD as well as SMD leadership. We will continue to think through how to address a number of the issues raised by our community and look forward to another series of roundtables in the near future (more information to follow). Thank you again for your active participation—hearing from this community is invaluable.
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As always, please check out some of the excellent new features on our website including highlights on new research on a nearby star that resembles our young Sun, a new technique that uses artificial intelligence to calibrate NASA images of the Sun, and EPIC’s recent images of the Moon’s shadow during the June 10 solar eclipse. I similarly encourage you to consider listening to a new NASA podcast episode about plasma.
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As a reminder, I want to draw your attention to a new Agency-led effort called Mission Equity, a comprehensive effort to assess expansion and modification of Agency programs, procurements, grants, and policies, and examine what potential barriers and challenges exist for communities that are historically underrepresented and underserved. The Agency is seeking public comment through an RFI through August 31, 2021. An update was posted to the Federal Register on June 28, 2021.
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Finally, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the incredible example Thomas Ashcraft sets as citizen scientist contributing to our field. Thomas studies radio and optical emissions from the Sun, Jupiter, and the Earth, including cutting edge observations of atmospheric sprites. He has contributed to the Radio Jove project for nearly 20 years. Thank you for your efforts and contributions! I hope many are inspired by Thomas’s example to get involved. Learn how at science.nasa.gov/citizenscience.
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It’s a great time to be a Heliophysicist.
#HelioRocks
Nicky
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P.S. If you know of others interested in receiving this email, please direct them here. Thanks!
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