------------------------------------------------------------------ Minutes from the GEM Steering Committee Meeting June 22, 2002, Telluride, Colorado ------------------------------------------------------------------ From: Frank Toffoletto Present: Mary Hudson, Dartmouth College (chair), Anthony Chan, Rice University, Brian Fraser, University of Newcastle, Chris Russell, UCLA, Deloras Knipp, USAF (CEDAR), Ennio Sanchez, SRI, Frank Toffoletto, Rice University, Gang Lu, NCAR, Hedi Kawano, ISAS, Howard Singer, NOAA, Janet Luhmann, UC Berkeley, (SHINE) Jeff Hughes, Boston University, Jimmy Raeder, UCLA, Joachim Birn, LANL, John Lyon, Dartmouth College, Kile Baker, NSF, Larry Lyons, UCLA, Maria Spasojevic, Stanford University, (student representative), Mark Moldwin, UCLA Plans for future GEM campaigns Some discussion of future GEM campaign suggestions was initiated, with the conclusion that broader GEM community discussion is in order at the December mini-workshop, narrowing suggestions down to two which will be pursued at the following June meeting, in campaign planning mode, i.e. with tutorial speakers and working group breakout sessions. Those with suggestions should plan to make a presentation at the December 5 GEM mini-workshop the afternoon before the Fall AGU meeting in San Francisco. Plans for future GEM workshops Frank Toffoletto outlined plans for future GEM workshops. Current plans are to have the 2003 and 2004 workshops in Snowmass, Co. The 2003 meeting will be held the week of June 22, 2003 and plans call for having the 2004 meeting that same week in June. The 2002 Fall workshop will be held before the AGU meeting on the afternoon of December 5, 2002 followed by the steering committee meeting that following evening. There was some discussion of alternative locations for future GEM workshops such as Crested Butte, Breckenridge, Lake Tahoe, and Banff. Agency reports Kile Baker (NSF) reported that there should be about 750k of money for new FY03 awards. There have been 4 applications for GEM postdocs positions, awards will be announced a couple of weeks after the end of August. To address the problem of the lack of tenure-track positions in space physics, there NSF is considering a plan to fund teaching positions in Space physics. It would be a 5 year award plus if the person gets tenure there will be a further 5 years of support at ~$250k/year. NSF hopes to have an announcement for this new type of award out in time for FY2004 funding. Howard Singer (NOAA SEC) reported that Space Weather Week is planned for May 19-22, 2003. The 2002 meeting was the largest ever and the Research to Operations portion, co-organized with NSF, NASA, and AFRL was another major success. He also mentioned that there is one NOAA NRC opportunity each year at SEC and that this year Janet Green is the recipient of the award. Starting in September, she will be working with Terry Onsager on MeV electrons. International liaison reports Brian Fraser (University of Newcastle) reported on the situation for space physics research activities in Australia and New Zealand. The 58-kg Fedsat microsat is slated for a November 2002, launch by Japan. There are also plans for build a radar facility in New Zealand, discussions are underway with the funding agencies for a possible 2004 installation. This radar will compliment the current radar facility in Tasmania that has been operating for 2 years. The effort is led by Peter Dyson La Trobe University and the Ionospheric prediction service. He reported on the status of Australian Antarctic research stations with plasma trough, auroral zone and cusp stations, in Casey, Davis and Macquarie island. He mentioned the upcoming meetings in Australia including the Western Pacific meeting in Wellington, New Zealand, (July 9-12) the International Conference on plasma physics in Sydney (July 15-19) and 2 conferences in Adelaide, Australia (The world space environment forum, July 22-25 and workshop on computing July 29 - August 2). This latter series of conferences is led by Abraham Chian who has plans to set up a consortium called the world institute of space environment research (WISER) based at the University of Adelaide . Hedi Kawano (Japan, ISAS) reported that ISAS would be merged with NASDA. Campaign reports Jeff Hughes (MI-coupling). Plans for the 2003 workshop are at this point similar to 2002. However, ways to involve the CEDAR community more heavily in the campaign and workshop are being explored. Brian Anderson wishes to be replaced as a working group chair (due to over commitments). The intention is to replace him with someone more connected with the CEDAR community. The campaign is discussed various forms of a Campaign Challenge. This will be decided at the December mini-workshop. Anthony Chan (Inner Magnetosphere/Storms). The IMS campaign had a very active program at this years workshop and it has plans to continue 2-4 more years, in order to take advantage of the momentum gained recently in GEM and GEM-related IMS projects and to enhance GEM IMS activities during the upcoming declining phase of the solar cycle. The campaign plans to revisit the list of GEM storms in December 2002, where there could be a possible connection with SHINE and CEDAR. Larry Lyons (Tail/substorms). This campaign is winding down but there are plans for 4-5 sessions in 2003 including sessions on multi-satellite studies, steady magnetospheric convection and triggering. Next year is the last year of the campaign. Jimmy Raeder (GGCM). This campaign plans to continue coordinating with the other ongoing campaigns as well as acting as a forum for modelers. There was some discussion of the possibility of organizing a Chapman conference on Modeling. CEDAR/SHINE coordination Janet Luhmann (who was representing SHINE in place of Dave Webb). The new SHINE chair is John Linker of SAIC. This year SHINE will meeting 8/18 - 8/22 in Banff, Canada. SHINE would like to interact with GEM and CEDAR to what level is mutually beneficial. Deloras Knipp (CEDAR). Most of the MI coupling activities at CEDAR seem to be related to high latitude variability, plasmasphere and ion outflows. There is a new focus area associated with TIMED mission and data. Next year's CEDAR meeting will be held in Longmont, Colorado during the 3rd week in June. She mentioned the possibility of a future GEM/CEDAR meeting or even the possibility of a separate MI-coupling meeting. There was a suggested that one way to further facilitate CEDAR/GEM/SHINE interaction is to bring tutorial speakers from the other campaigns. An example of this was Bob Strangeway who gave an MI-coupling tutorial at this years CEDAR meeting. Communications Chris Russell urges all speakers to place copies of their tutorials on the web and that all WG chairs turn in their reports as soon as possible. Student reports Maria Spasojevic (GEM student rep.). This year GEM sponsored 40 students to the workshop, the student tutorials were very successful. Student interest breakdown was: 50: Inner Magnetosphere/Storms; 20% Magnetosphere/Ionosphere Coupling, 20% GGCM and 10% Tail/Substorms. Yongli Wang, UCLA, will be the new student representative for 2003.