2021 Kees de Jager Prize
For the Best Article in the journal Solar Physics of 2020
Dordrecht, 10 September 2021
The Kees de Jager Prize, established in 2021 in honor of Cornelis "Kees" de Jager, is awarded annually by Springer Nature to the best article in the journal Solar Physics. The winner is selected by the Editors and the Advisory Board from all publications of the previous year.
The inaugural award has been announced at the 16th European Solar Physics Meeting (ESPM-16).
The 2021 Kees de Jager Prize is awarded to Anthony R. Yeates (Durham University, UK) for the article “How Good Is the Bipolar Approximation of Active Regions for Surface Flux Transport?“ Sol Phys 295, 119 (2020).
Science results: The article investigates how representing active regions with bipolar magnetic regions (BMRs) affects the end-of-cycle polar field predicted by the surface flux transport model, one of the key questions of modelling solar cycles. It finds that bipolar approximation leads to a 24% overestimate of the net axial dipole moment, which can explain why previous flux transport models had to reduce BMR tilt angles to obtain realistic polar fields.
Form: The article is an outstanding example of open science: open access, open data, and open code.
This award is honoring the founding editor of the journals Solar Physics and Space Science Reviews as well as the book series Astrophysics and Space Science Library – Cornelis "Kees" de Jager, who passed away just weeks after celebrating his 100th birthday in May 2021, and acknowledging the work of our authors by highlighting outstanding research articles. It carries a certificate and a cash award of €1000 sponsored by Springer Nature.