By Jan-Willem der Herder (Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON), Utrecht, The Netherlands)

On January 23rd and 24th, a group of scientists from Europe and Japan met at the Instituto de Física Cantabria (IFCA) in Santander (Spain) to discuss the needs to accurately model astrophysical plasmas. The main aim of this meeting was to assess uncertainties in the current data which are used to model these plasmas and to identify what is required for future missions, not only for Athena but also for XRISM, Arcus and Lynx, if they are selected for flight in the US.

Due to the shutdown of the US government some of our US colleagues were not allowed to travel or attend. Clearly, we missed their expertise.