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			 **   THE GEM MESSENGER   **
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						     Volume 2, Number 2
						     February 26, 1992

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First Annual Summer GEM Workshop: Snowmass June 28-July 3, 1992
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    Please plan to attend the June/July Snowmass meeting. The purpose 
of the meeting is both to exchange results on the first campaign and
strengthen collaborative efforts and also to plan the next campaign
on substorms. Thus this is a very critical meeting for both present
and future efforts. The meeting will consist of plenary sessions of 
the whole and parallel workshops of the various working groups. Please 
contact Bill Lotko at billl at plasmoid.dartmouth.edu or the working 
group coordinators for further details.
    If you have not responded the last issue of the GEM MESSENGER,
please tell us whether you are able to attend the meeting by sending
a message to Guan Le at guan at igpp.ucla.edu or (310)206-8042 (FAX). 
Thank you for your speedy response.

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Magnetopause Workshop II, UCSD, Feb.12-14, 1992
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    A workshop on the structure of the magnetopause was held at the 
University of California, San Diego February 12-14, hosted by N. Omidi,
D. Krauss-Varban and K. Quest. This was a follow up to the very 
successful workshop held in Los Alamos in October, 1990. A third workshop
is now being planned for the fall of 1993. Lou Lee has offered to host the
workshop at the University of Alaska. The San Diego workshop was attended
by close to 40 scientists. Topics of discussion included formation of the 
boundary layer, the structure of the magnetopause, the depletion layer, 
flux transfer events, simulations and waves and instabilities.
    Much progress was apparent on the observational side in establishing 
the structure of the magnetopause. It is now clear that boundary layers 
can form both inside and outside of the Chapman-Ferraro current layer. 
When the IMF is northward a depletion layer forms outside the Chapman-
Ferraro current layer and another boundary layer forms just inside which
appears to be a mixture of plasmas from both the magnetosphere and the
magnetosheath. While there is much speculation about the source of the 
boundary layers on the earthward side of the Chapman-Ferraro current 
layer, the evidence seems to be mounting that this boundary layer is 
simply a reconnection effect, at low latitudes for southward IMF and at 
high latitudes for northward IMF.
    Much discussion also took place over a semantic issue: what should 
the word magnetopause encompass? The minority felt that the word 
magnetopause should be restricted to the narrow Chapman-Ferraro current
layer. However a growing majority felt that the entire transition from 
the magnetosheath to the magnetosphere including the depletion layer
and  the traditional inner boundary layer comprised the magnetopause.
    The workshop was an active one with much discussion and interesting
results presented. The participants learned much that was new and got
many ideas for new projects. The organizers deserve much thanks for a
most productive workshop.

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