Geotalk is a regular feature highlighting early career researchers and their work. Following the EGU General Assembly, we spoke to Alexis Rouillard, an Arne Richter Outstanding Young Scientist awardee and a brilliant space scientist.

First, could you introduce yourself and let us know a bit about your current work at the French National Centre for Scientific Research?

Hi, I am Alexis Rouillard and I currently work as a permanent researcher at the CNRS, where I investigate heliospheric physics. My research focuses on the physics underlying several phenomena occurring in the vicinity of the Sun, the interplanetary medium and the near-Earth environment. I graduated in 2002 with a Master’s degree in Physics with Mathematics from the University of Southampton and obtained a PhD in Physics and Astronomy in 2007 from the same school. After a three-year postdoc at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the UK and at the University of Southampton, I took the position of Research Associate Professor at George Mason University, Virginia, USA, working at both the Naval Research Laboratory and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. A little over a year ago, I joined the Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie (CNRS) in Toulouse. This training has exposed me to a wide range of instrumentation and ways of doing research in space physics. I was very fortunate to work with many researchers with very different approaches to solving science questions.

During the EGU General Assembly, you received an Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Young Scientists for your innovative studies in the planetary and space sciences. Could you summarise the research you have done in this area?

My thesis was focused on the origin and effect of some solar wind structures called corotating interaction regions. They form between the Sun and 1AU when fast solar wind is brought into radial alignment with the slow solar wind due to solar rotation. The fast solar wind catches up with the slow solar wind and creates an area of high density (a compression region) that can develop into shock waves.  These structures are a temporary barrier to galactic cosmic rays propagating from the interstellar medium into the inner heliosphere, this was the topic of my PhD thesis.

I had just completed my PhD thesis when the Solar-Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) was launched by NASA (in 2006) with Heliospheric Imagers (HIs) on-board. These HIs provided the first high-resolution images of the solar wind electrons near 1 AU. The white light collected by the heliospheric imagers is photospheric light that is scattered by solar wind electrons. We could demonstrate for the first time that electrons compressed inside corotating interaction regions are systematically imaged by the STEREO HIs when they approach 1 AU (Rouillard et al. GRL, 2008) as well as a number of other phenomena described below.

The Solar-Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) – an artist’s impression. Source: NASA/JHU APL.

How do you image the impact of a solar disturbance on a planet and what can images like these tell us about near-Earth solar wind conditions?

Although STEREO was launched during an exceptionally quiet period of solar activity, major solar storms were occasionally launched from the Sun into interplanetary space, transporting large clouds of electrons. Since the STEREO HIs were imaging solar wind conditions near the Earth during the start of the mission, we could image several solar storms impacting our planet for the first time. The Earth is so small in these images that all we see is the storm passing over the location of the Earth, not the local deformation that occurs as the storm interacts with the Earth’s magnetic field. During the first three years of the STEREO mission, the orbital position of the spacecraft was perfect to determine the arrival time of a storm at Earth. This new instrumentation has become so useful that future space missions, particularly those dedicated to predicting near-Earth space weather, will have these imagers on-board.

You’ve had to master a huge array of techniques to complete work on solar energetic particles – what advice would you give other young scientists who need to balance their workload with taking time to learn new skills?

My advice is move out of your comfort zone and DARE! Don’t be afraid to plunge into new datasets.  Ask the simplest questions first, I’m always surprised to see how little is generally known in many areas.

During the exercise of research, I often find that many of my initial ideas or guesses, even though constructed on logical sequences of arguments turn out to be wrong after close inspection and a thorough test against a wide range of datasets. Nature is always ready to surprise us! Therefore, I tend to avoid areas of science where theories are too far ahead of observational or experimental capabilities – they tend to be stagnating areas of science.

When you start working with datasets that you are not yet familiar with, approach the most productive and creative scientists in your area of research. They never stopped being children and are usually genuinely interested in giving some advice to young scientists thereby often saving you a lot of time.

The Solar-Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) – an artist’s impression. Source: NASA.

Finally, what are your plans for the future?

I will carry on my research in heliospheric physics to prepare for the future major space missions: ESA’s Solar Orbiter and NASA’s Solar Probe+. Solar Probe +, ‘a NASA mission to touch the Sun’, will go the closest a probe has ever been to the Sun, right where the solar wind is accelerated (9 solar radii). This is very exciting; we will collect the data that is critical to understanding how the solar wind and energetic particles are accelerated to high energies.

ESA’s Solar Orbiter will return to the very inner heliosphere (0.3AU) and will image the solar surface and the solar corona from outside the ecliptic plane. This will provide critical information to answer a wide range of fundamental questions: where are solar magnetic fields generated? How are these magnetic fields expelled? How is energy deposited in the coronal plasma? We are also pushing for a new space mission located, like the STEREO mission, outside the Sun-Earth line to image transients propagating from the Sun to the Earth. Unlike STEREO the mission will remain at a fixed distance from the Earth and will be used by space-weather centres to accurately predict the onset and perhaps the magnitude of geomagnetic storms.

If you’d like to suggest a scientist for an interview, please contact Sara Mynott.

Congratulations to Philipp Stadler, Yiming Wang and Eva van Gorsel, winners of this year’s Imaggeo photo competition!

Winning image: Frost by Philipp Stadler

Second place: Icebear Rising by Yiming Wang

Third place: Regrowth after fires by Eva van Gorsel.

Imageo photos are distributed by EGU under a Creative Commons licence and are available in Imaggeo, the EGU’s online open access geosciences image repository. All geoscientists (and others) can submit their images to this repository and since it is open access, these photos can be used by scientists for their presentations or publications as well as by the press. 

The selection committee received close to 200 photos for this year’s EGU Photo Competition, covering fields across the geosciences. The stunning finalist photos are below and they are being exhibited in Hall X (basement, Blue Level) of the Austria Center Vienna, where you will also find voting terminals.

Do you have a favourite? Vote for it! The results will be announced on Friday 12 April during the lunch break.

Gypsum Dunes by Robert Wills

Mendenhall Glacier by Daniele Penna

Mirror, mirror by Anna Nadolna

Greenland Ice Sheet by Andrew Sole

Smooth Ice by Kay Helfricht

Colourful hydrovolcanism by Stephanie Flude

Regrowth after fires by Eva van Gorsel

Icebear Rising by Yiming Wang

Frost by Philipp Stadler

Climate change is in our hands by Stephanie Flude

Black Sand Vortex by Yiming Wang

 These images are distributed by EGU under a Creative Commons licence and are available in Imaggeo, the EGU’s online open access geosciences image repository. All geoscientists (and others) can submit their images to this repository and since it is open access, these photos can be used by scientists for their presentations or publications as well as by the press. 

A limited amount of the overall budget of the EGU General Assembly is reserved to assist young scientists who wish to present at the meeting. From 2005 to 2012, the total amount awarded grew from about €50k to €80k; for the 2013 General Assembly, the EGU has allocated €90k for support awards.

The financial support may include waiving of the registration fee and a refund of the Abstract Processing Charge related to the abstract for which support was requested. Additionally, the grant may include a support for travel expenditures. The EGU currently runs three different financial support schemes; you can find more details about these awards on the Support & Distinction section on the EGU2013 website.

Scientists who wish to apply for financial support should submit an abstract, on which they are first authors, by 30 November 2012. Late applications, or applications where the young scientist is not the main author, will not be considered.

To submit the abstract of your oral or poster presentation, please enter the Session Programme page on the EGU2013 website, select the part of the programme you would like to submit an abstract to, and study the respective session list. Each session shows the link to Abstract Submission that you should use. More information on how to submit an abstract is available from the EGU2013 website.

To apply for financial support, make sure you click the appropriate box(es) when submitting your abstract. Bare in mind that, even if you are applying for support, you will still need to pay the Abstract Processing Charge. A screenshot of the first screen of the abstract submission process is shown below; the support application section is just above the Abstract Title box.

The selection process follows a three-step process:

• The first and most important step, after the submission deadline of 30 November 2012, corresponds to the evaluation (ranking and comments) made by the session convener and/or co-conveners.
• The second step corresponds to the decision made by the EGU support selection committee which is based, on a first instance, on the quality of the abstract, which is reflected on a convener’s higher ranking and favourable comments.
• In the third and final step, the Treasurer/Finance Committee takes into account the overall annual budget allocation, the number of abstracts submitted by each session, and the number of registered participants by country (estimated based on previous-year numbers).

In 2012, of the 1113 applications received, representing 1086 applicants, 218 were awarded financial support. Next year’s financial-support awardees will be notified in late January.

The three 2012 General Assembly photo competition winners are:

1st Prize (214 votes): Melt Stream, Greenland by Ian Joughin, distributed by EGU under a Creative Commons licence.

2nd Prize (142 votes): Burst by Melissa Bukovsky, distributed by EGU under a Creative Commons licence.

3rd Prize (135 votes): Icy Landscape by Lucien von Gunten, distributed by EGU under a Creative Commons licence.

The selection committee received close to 300 photos for this year’s EGU Photo Competition, in most areas covered by Union’s activities. The stunning finalist photos are below. Do you have a favourite? Vote for it! The photos are exhibited in Hall X (basement, Blue Level) of the Austria Center Vienna, where you will also find voting terminals. The results will be announced on Friday 27 April during the lunch break.

Water or new iridescent fluid? by Alessandro Arato, distributed by EGU under a Creative Commons licence.

Burst, by Melissa Bukovsky, distributed by EGU under a Creative Commons licence.

Nacreous clouds in Husavik, by Sigurjon Jonsson, distributed by EGU under a Creative Commons licence.

Icy landscape by Lucien von Gunten, distributed by EGU under a Creative Commons licence.

Russell Fjord (detail) by Jean-Daniel Champagnac, distributed by EGU under a Creative Commons licence.

The beauty of ice by Romain Schläppy, distributed by EGU under a Creative Commons licence.

Nevada landscape near Las Vegas by Norbert Krupp, distributed by EGU under a Creative Commons licence.

Melt stream, Greenland by Ian Joughin, distributed by EGU under a Creative Commons licence.

Flat in the mountains by Olivier Galland, distributed by EGU under a Creative Commons licence.

A limited amount of the overall budget of the EGU General Assembly 2012 is reserved to assist young scientists to attend the assembly. The financial support may include waiving of the registration fee and a refund of the Abstract Processing Charge (APC) related to the abstract for which support was requested. Additionally, the grant may include a support for travel expenditures.

The European Geosciences Union’s definition of Young Scientist is available online and is below: by 1 January of the year when the award is presented the scientist should be:

• be in age 35* or younger.
• be an undergraduate or postgraduate (Masters/PhD) student or have received her/his highest degree qualification (e.g., BSc, MSc, PhD) within the last seven years*.

* Where appropriate, up to one year of parental leave time may be added per child.

Please note, that the Abstract Processing Charge (APC) is also applied in case of support applications.

Each support award is granted to the contact author for a particular abstract. Should this abstract be withdrawn before the meeting or should this abstract not be presented at the meeting although the author who has been awarded is present at the meeting, the award has to be returned, i.e. the author in question will be asked to register and, if necessary, to pay back the money received. Awards cannot be transferred!

There are currently three different financial support schemes run by the European Geosciences Union.

1. Young Scientist’s Travel Award for Europeans (YSTA): This award includes a free registration together with a refund of the Abstract Processing Charge (APC) related to the abstract for which support was requested. Depending on the decision of the Support Committee an additional financial support for the travel expenditures with a maximum of €300 could be granted as well. Only the granted amount mentioned in the financial support email will be paid out to the supported contact author personally during the EGU General Assembly 2012.
2. Adrian Gill Travel Award (AGTA): For a young scientist from Britain to take part in a session of the Atmospheric Sciences or Ocean Sciences programme. This award includes a free registration together with a refund of the Abstract Processing Charge (APC) related to the abstract for which support was requested. Depending on the decision of the Support Committee an additional financial support for the travel expenditures with a maximum of €300 could be granted as well. Only the granted amount mentioned in the financial support email will be paid out to the supported contact author personally during the EGU General Assembly 2012.
3. Keith Runcorn Travel Award for Non-Europeans (KRTA): This award includes a free registration together with a refund of the Abstract Processing Charge (APC) related to the abstract for which support was requested. Depending on the decision of the Support Committee an additional financial support for the travel expenditures with a maximum of €500 could be granted as well. Only the granted amount mentioned in the financial support email will be paid out to the supported contact author personally during the EGU General Assembly 2012.

Scientists, who wish to apply for financial support must be the principal author of their contribution, and they must submit an abstract by 15 December 2011. The EGU support selection committee will decide about the support of individual contribution until 28 January 2012. All applicants will be informed afterwards.

For the submission of your abstract/application for financial support, please follow the normal procedure and tick the appropriate boxes during submission. A screenshot of the first screen of the abstract submission process is shown below, the support application section is in the red box.

This information is also available on the EGU GA 2012 webpages.

The deadline for nominations for EGU Awards at division and union level is the 15 June 2011. Details of the process can be found on the EGU website with a checklist for nominations.

Award Winners at the 2011 Award Ceremony

Water Angel

A “water angel” seems to appear in the upper part of the Trift Glacier Lake in the Swiss Alps. This image was a finalist in the EGU GA 2011 Photo Competition.

Image by Romain Schläppy, distributed by EGU under a Creative Commons licence.

Imaggeo is the online open access geosciences image repository of the European Geosciences Union. Every geoscientist who is an amateur photographer (but also other people) can submit their images to this repository. Being open access, it can be used by scientists for their presentations or publications as well as by the press. If you submit your images to imaggeo, you retain full rights of use, since they are licenced and distributed by EGU under a Creative Commons licence.

One of the finalists in the European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2011 Photo Competition was an image from Russell Garwood. This image was not a traditional photograph but a 3D reconstruction of a 312 million year old arachnid Eophrynus prestvicii, from a CT scan of the fossil. The image itself will be the feature for the Imaggeo Mondays post on 16th May. However, due to the different nature of the image Russell has put together a brief description of the image and how it was created.

Russell Garwood is a invertebrate palaeontologist who is currently based at the Natural History Museum in London. He has a personal research webpage. He presented work on Tomographic reconstruction in palaeontology at the EGU General Assembly 2011.

Many Carboniferous fossils, such as this specimen of Eophrynus prestvicii, are found as three-dimensional voids within siderite (iron carbonate) concretions. This means that traditional palaeontological techniques – for example, splitting the rock open and inspecting the surface revealed – result in incomplete data recovery. Such limitations can be overcome with the aid of x-ray micro-tomography (XMT), a high-resolution form of CT scanning. This remarkably complete specimen of Eophrynus prestvicii was first described in 1871, and was used three years ago to test the applicability of XMT to siderite-hosted fossils, resulting in this image. The XMT provided a slice-based (tomographic) dataset. Custom software (called SPIERS) was used to threshold and clean each slice, and then define regions of interest. This allowed the limbs to be rendered separately and coloured. The image you see was then created by outputting a finished ‘virtual fossil’ as a mesh, and using the open source ray-tracer Blender to model it under user-defined lighting conditions. The reconstruction reveals an arachnid with heavy armour – presumably a defensive adaptation – and also showed, for the first time, the mouthparts (or chelicerae) of the species. Representatives of the order to which this species belongs, the Trigonotarbida, were amongst the earliest terrestrial predators. While this Carboniferous (~311 million year old) specimen postdates these early examples of the order by many millions of years, it too was a predator, probably running down its prey with its long limbs. The same techniques has now been applied to a wide range of the arthropods living in these Carboniferous coal forests. The image first appeared in the publication Garwood et al. (2009). A more comprehensive introduction to these techniques can be found in the publication Garwood et al. (2010).

Garwood, R.J., Dunlop, J.A. & Sutton, M.D. 2009. High-fidelity X-ray micro-tomography reconstruction of siderite-hosted Carboniferous arachnids. Biology Letters, 5(6):841-844. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2009.0464 link, , requires subscription for full article]
Garwood, R.J., Rahman, I.A. & Sutton, M.D. 2010. From clergymen to computers – the advent of virtual palaeontology. Geology Today, 26(3):96-100.
doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2451.2010.00753.x link, requires subscription for full article