------------------------------------------------------------- REPORT OF THE GEM STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING HELD DEC 8, 1993 ------------------------------------------------------------- by W. Lotko, SC chair PRESENT: W. Lotko, H. Spence, M. Hesse, L. Lyons, O. de la Beaujardiere, C. Russell, T. Eastman, D. Knipp, J. Hughes, D. Wolf, S. Curtis, M. Teague, B. Fraser, V. Papitashvili NEW STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBERS Harlan Spence and Michael Hesse have agreed to serve on the GEM steering committee effective Fall 1993. They replace Bill Burke and Jan Sojka whose service has been very much appreciated. (1) OUTLOOK AT NSF Tim Eastman summarized the outlook at NSF. Global Change (GC) money for GEM has remained flat at $300k since the program began in 1991. The $300k GC money was also augmented at that time with redirected base and section funds totaling $800k; these additional funds have also remained essentially flat, putting the total funds in the GEM program at about $1.1M. Proposals submitted to GEM in October 93 total 20; 45 other proposals have been submitted to the base program. The available funds suggest something like a 25% funding rate for all proposals including GEM proposals. Tim indicated that Odile de la Beaujardiere (his replacement at NSF as of Jan 5, 1994) will be responsible for the GEM review and selection process for FY94. It is expected that some Tail/Substorm awards will be selected from the GEM proposals that were submitted in Oct 93. Odile said that she will make the GEM program one of her highest priorities when she arrives at NSF. She solicits "showcase" viewgraphs from anyone in the community for use in highlighting our research at NSF. She would like to call attention to both the basic research apsect of space physics, as well as its relevance to commercial and military applications. (2) AGU SPECIAL SESSION ON SPACE WEATHER Chris Russell and Bill Lotko agreed to convene a special session on "Space Weather: Impacts and Predictions" at the Spring 94 AGU meeting. Ed Szuszczewicz has also agreed to help convene the sesssion. Announcements for the special session, to be held jointly with SA/SM/SH sections, will apear in forthcoming EOS issues. (3) UPPER ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH COLLABORATORY (UARC) Odile indicated that the Sondrestrom upper atmospheric research facility is the test bed for the UARC project, and the Mar 93 GEM campaign has been used as a test case. Collaborators from U. Michigan, U. Maryland, SRI International, Danish Meteorolgical Institute, and, Lockheed Palo Alto were involved. Contact Odile, Bob Clauer (U. Michigan), John Kelly (SRI), or Yadu Zambre (SRI) for more information. (4) GEM CAMPAIGN STRUCTURE A general discussion of the GEM campaign structure brought out the following points. - The current awards pattern suggests, that by late 1995, GEM program awards will be split roughly 50/50 between the Boundary Layer Campaign and the Tail/Substorm Campaign. One scenario for the period beyond 1995 is that BL campaign awards will continue to ramp down while T/S campaign awards continue to ramp up. Some people suggested that it might be better to continue supporting both a dayside and nightside campaigns throughout the duration of the program. - Regardless of funding patterns, it was noted that this year the GEM program will effectively be proceeding with 3 campaigns in FY 1994: the BL campaign, the T/S campaign, and a GGCM synthesis campaign. Some members of the SC expressed the view that this mode of operation may actually be desirable for the long term. This point will continue to be discussed at the next steering committee meeting. (5) PLANS FOR SNOWMASS 94 WORKSHOP The broad outline for the workshop to be held Mon - Fri, Jun 27 - Jul 1 and the people responsible for organization include: Mon/Tue: Boundary Layer Campaign (Lyons, Russell, Rosenberg) Wed: GGCM Synthesis (Siscoe, Fedder) Thu/Fri: Tail/Substorm Campaign (Hesse, Hughes, Lotko) By scheduling GGCM activities on Wed, it is hoped that the schedule for WG meetings throughout the week will involve at most two WGs meeting in parallel. There was agreement in principle on the above schedule, but depending on details, there may be some spill over of the BL and T/S workshops on Wed. REMINDER: There was a strong preference by participants after last summer's workshop to schedule at least one afternoon off for recreation. Ted Rosenberg will arrange the workshop logistics (meeting rooms, breaks, banquet, A/V, room blocks, etc). He needs to hear ASAP from the people responsible for the above scheduled days as to what their needs will be. (6) CO-CHAIR ROTATION FOR BOUNDARY LAYER CAMPAIGN WORKING GROUPS Rotation of some of the working group co-chairs will occur for the Snowmass 94 workshop. Pat Newell and Bob Lysak asked to be replaced, and, with her new responsibilities at NSF, Odile de la Beaujardiere will have very little time to devote to GEM WG activities. The past service of Pat, Bob and Odile has been very helpful and very much appreciated. - Boundary normal B, reconnection E: L. Lyons, N. Maynard - Boundary structure, entry, transport: L. Lee, C. Russell - Current systems and mapping: N. Crooker, E. Friis-Christensen (7) TAIL/SUBSTORM CAMPAIGN WORKING GROUPS AND CO-CHAIRS Three tentative working group themes and co-chairs for the T/S workshop were identified: - Timing of substorm signatures: N. Maynard, L. Lyons - Substorm phenomenology, observations, models: H. Spence, T. Onsager - Quantitative tail models: M . Hesse, W. Lotko Experience from the BL campaign working groups suggests that the actual WG themes and activities will evolve with the interests of their leaders and participants, quite independently of what the steering committee may envision. This sort of evolution is desirable. Coordination for intensive data gathering intervals, data synthesis and data/model comparisons for nightside phenomena is expected to fall mostly within the purview of the 1st WG on timing of substorm signatures; in effect, this working group extends the activities of the 1st BL WG to the nightside. Given that data gathering intervals often span a 24 hour period or more, involving both dayside and nightside phenomena, it was decided, in the interest of continuity, to ask the same co-chairs (Maynard and Lyons) to undertake this type of coordination for both campaigns. The steering committee solicits input from program participants on how effectively they think this plan works in practice. We would especially like to hear from individuals who have an interest in getting involved in coordination activities. (8) STEP/GEM LIAISON Mike Teague summarized STEP activities relevant to GEM including: - GEM campaigns will be advertised in the STEP newsletter - Information about the IACG Tail Campaign will be available in the STEP newsletter. - International Auroral Study will take place during 94/95 Winter season. - USSCO will produce a limited data catalogue for BL WG 1; this initial catalogue is effectively a pilot study to determine the optimum contents and structure of the catalogue and its utility to the GEM community. The pilot catalogue will cover 1 or 2 campaign intervals and will document what occurred and what data are available. If the catalogue is found to be useful, then there will be future requests from USSCO to GEM investigators for data to extend the catalogue to other intervals. - STEP Project 6.4 on ground-based magnetometers is acquiring data from 110 stations. The database covering 1990-91 is about to come online at NOAA/NGDC. A CDROM with data from 30 stations will be available Jan 94; the auroral coverage is good, but the polar and equatorial coverage is not so good. - Science articles are solicited for the STEP newsletter. (9) ISTP/GEM LIAISON Steve Curtis described ISTP/GGS activities relevant to GEM: - Two ISTP ``event'' periods have been selected for coordinated study: Oct 27, 1992 and Mar 8-9, 1993. All interested scientists are invited to participate in this pilot ISTP study. For more information about available data and intervals, refer to the Fall 94 meeting abstract by M. Peredo (EOS Trans. Am. Geophys. Union, 74, 531, 1994) or contact M. Peredo. - Two global MHD models are undergoing validation to determine their potential accuracy in interpreting various ISTP data. (10) DECOMMISSIONING OF IMP 8 With the launch of the WIND spacecraft in 1994, NASA evidently plans to decommission the IMP 8 satellite. The adavantage of IMP 8 is that it provides solar wind data approximately 2 minutes upstream, whereas WIND will be about 1 hour upstream. Many feel that the continued operation of IMP 8 is essential for timing studies and model validation. The SC chair was tasked with making a request to George Withbroe that NASA not turn IMP 8 off. This request was made during the `town meeting' with G. Withbroe at AGU; the request was acknowledged. (11) 95 WORKSHOP AND IUGG The next IUGG meeting will be held in Boulder, Co July 3 -14, 1995. These are the two weeks immediately following the week when the GEM workshops would normally be held (in Snowmass?). Do we want to hold the GEM workshops during the usual week in 1995? (12) CHANGE IN SC CHAIR Bill Lotko reminded the SC that his 3-year term as SC chair will expire after the Snowmass 94 Workshop. (I will serve as an ex officio member of the committee for one year after that to assist the next chairman.) Suggestions or nominations for the next SC chair should be forwarded to Odile de la Bj. (13) NEXT SC MEETING The next steering committee meeting will be held Sat AM, Jul 2, 1994 at the Silvertree Hotel in Snowmass, Colorado.