----------------------------------------------------------------- REPORT ON 1994 SNOWMASS WORKSHOP - GEM STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING ----------------------------------------------------------------- Steering Committee Chair: Bill Lotko Date: August 8, 1994 Subject: Report on the 2 July 1994 GEM Steering Committee Meeting Present: O. de la Beaujardiere, J. Fedder, B. Fraser, E. Friis-Christensen, M. Hesse, J. Hughes, D. Knipp, W. Lotko, L. Lyons, T. Rosenberg, C. Russell, J. Samson, G. Siscoe, H. Spence, D. Wolf (1) 1995 Workshops: * The GEM Workshops will be held again next summer in Snowmass during the week of June 26-30, 1995. This is the week immediately preceding the IUGG Assembly, to be held in Boulder, Colorado, July 3-14. The CEDAR workshop will also be held in Boulder next year during the week of June 26-30 in parallel with the GEM Workshops, and a Solar Wind 8 meeting will be held at Dana Point, CA the same week. * The feasibility of arranging some sort of joint meeting on Space Weather Issues in conjunction with the CEDAR workshop in Boulder on Saturday, July 1, 1995 will be explored by Jeff Hughes, Delores Knipp, and Odile de la Beaujardiere. One potential scheduling problem has been noted - for a number of reasons, the main GEM SC meeting is usually held the Saturday following the Workshops, which would conflict with a July 1 joint meeting. * The format for the `95 workshops will be similar to the one this year: Mon-Tue for the Boundary Layer Campaign; Thu-Fri for the Tail/Substorm Campaign; Wed for the GGCM project, programmatics, and coordination with solar and ionospheric/thermospheric science, esp. on space weather related issues. Some interest was expressed in scheduling a tutorial on Wed on Ionospheric/Thermospheric Storm Phenomenology. * You can look forward to receiving your workshop information packet from Harlan Spence in the future. He will assume responsibility for the GEM Workshops logistics for the next three years (95-97 workshops including Fall AGU miniworkshops). He assumes responsibility for the summer workshops from Ted Rosenberg and for the miniworkshops from Guan Le. Theirs will be a hard act to follow. Thanks Ted and Guan! And thanks Harlan for taking on this important task! * George Siscoe will convene a special ad hoc workshop on the GGCM project on Jan 12-13, 1995 in Boulder at NOAA's Space Environment Laboratory. Anyone interested in participating should contact George for more information (siscoe@buasta.bu.edu). (2) FY95 budget outlook, proposals, program review: * The deadline for FY95 GEM proposals is Oct 15, 1994. Proposals dealing with boundary layer and/or tail/substorm campaign science are encouraged. Please contact Odile de la Beaujardiere for more information (703/306-1518 or odelabe@nsf.gov). * Plans for a Space Weather Research Initiative (SWRI) are progressing well. In June, 1994, a short document was distributed to high level representatives from NSF, NASA, NOAA, and DoD. A more detailed document is being prepared. Several agencies have planned to reprogram their FY96 budget allocations for space weather needs. * Joel Fedder agreed to work with Odile in exploring a possible Department of Energy connection for the SWRI. (3) Steering committee rotation: * Five names were submitted to the Program Director as prospective steering committee members to replace the following members who are rotating out: Odile de la Beaujardiere (who now serves ex officio on the steering committee as the Program Director) and Joe Kan (who rotates off the committee this year). Thanks to Joe for past service to the GEM program and to Odile for past and continuing service! After conferring with Rich Behnke and subsequently contacting two of the nominees, Odile confirms that Howard Singer and Roger Smith have agreed to serve as the new steering committee members. * Odile also announced at the Workshop that Jeff Hughes has agreed to serve as the new GEM Steering Committee Chairman effective August 1, 1994. Following George Siscoe's lead as the first GEM SC chair, the present chair (W. Lotko) will remain on the steering committee in an ex officio capacity for one additional year through July, 1995. (4) Phillips Laboratory: * The GEM steering committee instructs the chair (W. Lotko) to prepare a letter on behalf of the GEM Community expressing support for Phillips Lab and concern about the recent decision at DoD to eliminate all support for the Lab in FY96. The letter, along with the list of signatures that were collected at the workshop registration table, will be sent to appropriate parties at DoD. (5) GEM-related AGU special sessions: * Spring `95 AGU: George Siscoe is planning to convene a Special Session at the Spring 1995 AGU meeting that will demonstrate space weather forecasting capabilities. Like the space weather session this past spring, the session is expected to span all relevant space physics disciplines. * Fall `95 AGU: Delores Knipp is coordinating a geomagnetic storm study group (across GEM, CEDAR, and solar communities) for the Mar 20-21, 1990 geomagnetic storm. Upstream IMP 8 data is available for the period, and AMIE patterns have been generated from relatively extensive ground-based and satellite data sets. Delores is trying to identify all interested participants and relevant magnetospheric satellite data and solar data for the event. Her current plan is to convene a special session on the event at the Fall 95 AGU meeting that would encompass solar, magnetospheric, ionospheric, and aeronomical phenomenology and modeling. Please contact Delores for information (knipp@ncar.ucar.edu). (6) GEM Liaison: * John Samson discussed the draconian cutbacks in space science research that will be taking place in Canada over the next year. He noted that GEM science is very important for the Canopus array and Superdarn, and vice-versa. The GEM steering committee expressed interest in supporting the cause of our Canadian colleagues in whatever ways seem appropriate and productive. John will let us know what can be done. * Eigil Friis-Christensen discussed activities surrounding the Danish Oersted satellite, expected to be launched in Dec 95 or Jan 96. The satellite will fly an energetic particle instrument and magnetometers in a 400x840 km orbit slicing 16 LT in Jan 96 to 8 LT in Mar 97. 77 letters of intent were received from 54 institutions in 17 countries in response to DMI's Nov 93 Oersted Research Announcement. In principal, DMI will accept all proposals with scientific merit from PIs who are adequately (and independently!) funded to carry out the proposed research. PIs will get access to Oersted data. The Greenland magnetometer array may continue operation through 1998 to provide ground-based support for the mission. Oersted-Cluster cooperative studies are being planned. The Svalbard radar will be in place as well as an imaging riometer at Longyearben. The Danish-Norwegian-Japanese Cusp project is extended one year; installations in East Greenland involve a scanning photometer, all-sky camera, and imaging riometer. Planned additions to the Svalbard remote magnetometer chain, which had German and Norwegian funding but no US funding, is are in danger of being canceled. * Brian Fraser notes that the priority in Australia is Science for Space vs. Science in Space. Australia will continue to support GEM access to Antarctica. * Yuri Galperin sends a message noting that the first TAIL Zond of the Interball Project should be launched by the end of 1994; the AURORAL Probe will be launched several months later. Some specific campaigns are planned for the project through the ISTP. However, once the launch dates and satellite conjunctions become firm, Interball Project scientists hope to appeal to the international magnetospheric community for collaboration in campaigns. He thinks the GEM workshops would provide a good vehicle for identifying suitable campaign periods. (7) Future GEM steering committee meetings: * Information regarding future steering committee meetings will be posted by Jeff Hughes.