After studying at the Ecole de Physique et Chimie, from which she graduated in 1956, Monique Pick joined Jean-Louis Steinberg’s team at the Meudon Observatory to work in the group developing solar radio observations at Nançay. Her thesis, supervised by Jean-Louis Steinberg, focused on the study of type IV solar radio emissions and their relationship with other solar and geophysical phenomena. These type IV emissions are associated with magnetised clouds (coronal mass ejections) propagating at high speed between the Sun and the Earth, and may be associated with energetic particles of solar origin and geomagnetic storms. The key result of her thesis concerns the link between type IV radio emissions and the presence of high-energy particles in space. This research led Monique Pick to develop ’multi-messenger’ studies, using ground-based particle diagnostics from the late 1950s onwards (detection of energetic protons by neutron monitors and observations of polar ionospheric absorptions), followed in the 1960s by the first satellite data on energetic protons. It was also at this time that she obtained the then intriguing result that the flares associated with particles in space were mainly located west of the central meridian of the Sun - a result that is easily understood with Parker’s later theory of the solar wind.
Right from the start of her career, Monique Pick developed original methods for studying the Sun and the interplanetary medium by combining her radio observations with all the data available : optical observations and particle diagnostics on the ground, then with the development of space, all kinds of particle and wave measurement data from the radio kilometre range to gamma rays. It was a forerunner in this approach, which is now seen as the best way forward. Through her thesis work and those that followed, Monique Pick also contributed to the development of the physics of sun-earth relations, which years later gave rise to space meteorology, a discipline that is widely developed today.
From 1971 onwards, following the fire of a first solar radio interferometer operating at metric wavelengths, Monique Pick led the construction of a new 2-dimensional radioheliograph for many years. This instrument, built in several stages by a group of researchers and technicians at Meudon and Nançay, was recently renovated. It remains the only radio telescope in the world dedicated to imaging the Sun’s corona and activity in decimetric/metric radio waves, and is still widely used today to complement the most recent space probes studying the Sun and the Interplanetary Medium (ESA/NASA’s Solar Orbiter and NASA’s Parker Solar Probe).
After a stay at the University of Chicago in 1966, and meetings with physicists at the University of Minnesota who were developing the first solar X-ray instruments, Monique Pick very quickly developed collaborations with American space physicists, in particular the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of Berkeley, then the Goddard Space Flight Center for the Solar Maximum Mission launched in 1980. From that point onwards, the development of the Nançay Radioheliograph has continued to the present day in conjunction with solar and heliospheric missions, in addition to X-ray instruments, particle detection instruments and coronagraphs (ESA/NASA ULYSSE probe in 1990, ESA/NASA SOHO satellite in 1995, NASA STEREO probes in 2006, PARKER Solar Probe probes in 2018 and ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter satellite in 2020). Collaboration between ground-based and space-based instruments was actually quite rare in the 1980s, and Monique Pick played a pioneering and driving role in this field, which is now widespread in astrophysics.
After leading the Radiohéliographe group until 1984, Monique Pick then took over as director of the Nançay Radio Astronomy Station, where she served two four-year terms and where she was a driving force in defending the renovation of the large Nançay radio telescope (FORT project) in particular. During her terms of office, Monique Pick firmly established the Nançay station in the Centre region, with its inclusion in a state-region plan contract, and established solid links with the University of Orléans and the LPC2E laboratory. This proactive approach has made it possible to recruit staff and fund instruments, thereby ensuring the sustainability of research programmes.
After her term as Director of Nançay and a few years as Chargée de Mission Astronomie at the French Ministry of Research, Monique Pick returned to her activities as a researcher in solar physics and continued to work passionately as an emeritus researcher (her last article dates from 2020) on solar radio emissions, energetic particles and associated coronal mass ejections. She was the driving force behind a website for visualising and sharing solar data in the ground and space radio domains (commonly known as Radio Monitoring). At the start of her emeritus period, she also made a major contribution to the first European space weather studies.
After being one of the founding members of CESRA (Community of Solar Radio Astronomers) in 1970, Monique Pick has contributed to the development of solar radio astronomy in Europe and subsequently in India and China. She helped build several instruments and train several generations of radio astronomers.
We will remember Monique as a brilliant researcher who carried out her work with passion, a woman of exceptional energy, welcoming to the many foreign researchers who visited the Observatory, and often concerned about the situation of young researchers.
