We are pleased to announce the release of ASPECT 0.2. ASPECT is the Advanced Solver for Problems in Earth ConvecTion. It uses modern numerical methods such as adaptive mesh refinement, multigrid, and a modular software design to provide a fast, flexible and extensible mantle convection solver. ASPECT is available from:

• http://aspect.dealii.org

This release adds a significant number of new features, including:

• support for active and passive "compositional" fields (courtesy ofJuliane Dannberg)
• more flexibility to output only some variables, drastically reducing the amount of data written
• support for user-defined mesh refinement criteria
• support for GPlates-generated velocity boundary conditions (courtesy of Rene Gassmoeller)
• support for passive tracer particles
• provision of an "introspection" module as part of the source code to make it easier and less error-prone to write extension code

In addition, the manual has been significantly expanded, with many new cookbooks, and we have fixed a number of bugs. A list of changes is available here:

• http://aspect.dealii.org/doc/doxygen/changes_between_0_81_and_0_82.html

Wolfgang Bangerth, Timo Heister, and many other contributors.