MIST

Magnetosphere, Ionosphere and Solar-Terrestrial

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2026 MIST Council Election Results

It is our pleasure to announce the results of the latest MIST Council Election.

  • Samuel Wharton (University of Leicester) is elected for a 3 year term as a MIST Councillor
  • Jewel Abbey Relampagos (Lancaster University) is elected for a 1 year term as the MIST Student Representative

In addition, due to concerns from the community regarding the ongoing UKRI/STFC funding situation, MIST Council have also decided to charter Mark Lester (University of Leicester) as an additional councillor to inform and steer the council in matters related to this specific brief, as set out in Article 4.5 of the MIST Charter.

We would like to congratulate everyone on their new roles. The full composition of Council can be found on the MIST website (https://www.mist.ac.uk/community/mist-council). We would like to thank all the candidates for putting themselves forward and everyone who took part in the voting. We received votes from 132 people which represents a turnout of 21.5% of people registered to receive the MIST emailing list.

Finally, MIST Council would like to extend their thanks and gratitude to our outgoing members: Fiona Ball and Georgios Nicolaou. We would also like to say a special thank you to Andy Smith who was co-opted to be on MIST council while Rosie Johnson was on maternity leave, thank you for all of your hard work.

Open Letter Ready For Signatories

Protect MIST Science! Sign the MIST Community Open Letter on the STFC funding cuts!

https://sites.google.com/view/uk-mist-community-open-letter

 

Statement from MIST Council regarding the STFC Funding Situation

Statement from MIST Council regarding the STFC Funding Situation

MIST Council is deeply concerned by the ongoing STFC funding uncertainty and its impact on our community and beyond.

The current combination of prospective delayed and reduced funding, together with already volatile financial situations at universities across the UK, is placing significant strain on research groups. In some cases, institutions may be unable to support researchers through gaps between projects, increasing precarity across the community and adding significant pressure on early-career researchers.

We are concerned that continued uncertainty risks accelerating a brain drain from the UK, as skilled researchers reconsider their future in a system offering limited stability. The loss of expertise at any career stage would have lasting consequences for UK space science.

 

What is going on?

For those that are unaware of the situation, it is complex and evolving. We suggest the following sources to get up to speed on the current developments.

https://www.sciencecampaign.org.uk/analysis-and-publications/detail/what-is-happening-with-ukri-funding-and-the-stfc-cuts/

https://ras.ac.uk/news-and-press/news/proposed-budget-cuts-catastrophe-uk-astronomy

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2514481-physicists-warn-of-catastrophic-impact-from-uk-science-cuts/

 

What are we doing about it?

Behind the scenes, MIST Council is actively engaging with relevant parties to understand the scale of the challenge and to identify constructive ways forward.

  • We are seeking seasoned members of the community to join MIST Council on a task force to help develop options and represent the needs of our community. If you would like to be involved, please reach out to us via the MIST Council email (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) by the end of this week (13th February 2026).
  • In addition to the task force, we want to provide an open forum for discussion and collective input among all members of the wider MIST community. We are exploring options and will be in touch as soon as possible with further details.
  • We believe in working together in the face of the current challenges and we are collaborating with UKSP and others to strive for a fair and positive outcome for all. We are reaching out to members of the SSAP (Solar System Advisory Panel) to explore the hosting of a community town hall meeting, like the one already being organised by the AAP (Astronomy Advisory Panel), to provide an open forum for discussion and collective input.

 

What can you do to help?

There are several open letters representing people in various career stages that have been made available to sign. We encourage you to read the relevant letter(s) and to sign them if you support them:

The Royal Astronomical Society are also urging Fellows to lobby their MPs against the cuts, and have included a template letter that can be used to do so:
https://ras.ac.uk/news-and-press/news/ras-fellows-urged-lobby-against-unprecedented-cuts

 

MIST Council will continue to advocate for transparency, stability, and funding structures that recognise both the long-term nature of our science and the people who deliver it.
We thank you for your continued support in this period of uncertainty.

 

Please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you have further suggestions.
MIST Council

Announcement of New MIST Council 2025

We are very pleased to announce the following members of the community have been elected to MIST Council:

  • Gemma Bower (University of Leicester), MIST Councillor
  • Tom Elsden (University of St Andrews), MIST Councillor
  • Cameron Patterson (Lancaster University), MIST Councillor
  • Fiona Ball (University of Southampton), Student Representative

They will begin their terms in July 2025.

We thank outgoing MIST Council members: Maria Walach, Chiara Lazzeri and Emma Woodfield. Andy Smith will remain on council a little longer as a co-opted member to cover Rosie Johnson's maternity leave.

The current composition of Council can be found on our website (https://www.mist.ac.uk/community/mist-council).

Announcement of New MIST Councillors.

We are very pleased to announce the following members of the community have been elected unopposed to MIST Council:

  • Rosie Johnson (Aberystwyth University), MIST Councillor
  • Matthew Brown (University of Birmingham), MIST Councillor
  • Chiara Lazzeri (MSSL, UCL), Student Representative

Rosie, Matthew, and Chiara will begin their terms in July. This will coincide with Jasmine Kaur Sandhu, Beatriz Sanchez-Cano, and Sophie Maguire outgoing as Councillors.

The current composition of Council can be found on our website, and this will be amended in July to reflect this announcement (https://www.mist.ac.uk/community/mist-council).

Chandra Observations of Jupiter's X-ray Auroral Emission During Juno Apojove 2017

By Dale Weigt (University of Southampton)

Jupiter has dynamic auroral X-ray emissions, first observed over 40 years ago. A key characteristic of Jupiter’s aurora are “hot spots” of soft X-rays at the poles, which we observe from the Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO) with high spatial resolution. These non-conjugate northern (Gladstone et al. 2002 + others) and southern auroral hot spots (Dunn et al. 2017 + others) are found in several observation campaigns to flare quasi-periodically. However, the driver of the X-rays (and hence their link to solar wind and magnetospheric conditions) is currently unknown.

In the Weigt at. (2020) case study, we analyse CXO data from 18th June 2017 during a 10-hour observation where Juno was near its apojove position. An XMM-Newton observation overlapped the latter half of this observation (Wibisono et al. 2020). From the particle data, we find that Juno crossed the magnetopause several times preceding the Chandra observation. Using the closest crossing and amagnetopause model, we inferred a compressed magnetosphere during this interval. Using a numerical threshold to define spatial regions of concentrated photons, we find that the hot spot in the north appeared twice during the observation with a more extended morphology. Using Rayleigh testing, we find significant quasi-periodic oscillations (QPO) during both instances the hot spot was in view at ~ 37 min and 26 min respectively. The 26-min QPO was also observed by XMM-Newton and was found to remain for a further two Jupiter rotations. Using the Vogt et al. (2011, 2015) flux equivalence model, we map the origin of the QPOs and X-ray driver to be on the dayside-dusk magnetopause boundary, considering the caveats of the model. The timescales of the periods found suggest that the driver may be linked to magnetospheric processes producing ultra-low frequency waves (ULF).

X-ray aurora at Jupiter's northern pole are mapped to their magnetospheric origins.

Figure 1: (c) polar plot of Jupiter’s north pole showing the observed mapped and unmapped photons (black dots and orange triangles respectively)at the beginning of the observation interval. (d) The photons are mapped to their magnetospheric origins using the Vogt et al. (2011, 2015) model, where error bars show the estimated mapping errors. The red dashed line indicates the magnetopause boundary inferred from the Juno data during the Chandra observation. The location of Juno during this time is denoted by the yellow star. 

These results demonstrate the capabilities of CXO data in understanding the “hot spots” in Jupiter’s aurora, and can provide important contextual information to Juno observations. This study is also the first to find two significant QPOs in the northern hot spot over timescales less than a Jupiter rotation.

For more details, see the paper:

Weigt, D. M., Jackman, C. M., Dunn W. R., Gladstone G.R., Vogt M. F., Wibisono A. D., et al (2020). Chandra Observation of Jupiter’s X-rays Auroral Emission During Juno Apojove 2017 Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, 125, e2019JE006262. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JE006262