*************************** ** THE GEM MESSENGER ** *************************** Volume 4, Number 4 February 10, 1994 ------------------------------------------------------- Report on the Dec. 5, 1993 GEM Mini-Workshops -- Part I ------------------------------------------------------- GEM WORKING GROUP 1: RECONNECTION ELECTRIC FIELD AND MAGNETOPAUSE BOUNDARY NORMAL MAGNETIC FIELD L. Lyons and O. de la Beaujardiere (Co-chairs) Attention focused on results from GEM campaign periods. Considerable progress has been made with convection and boundary data from the Jan. 27-29, 1992 campaign, as discussed by Lu, Papitashvili, Lyons, and Baker. In addition, results on plasma convection associated with IMF By fluctuations on Aug. 2-3, 1991 were discussed by Clauer. Data from an Eiscat/DMSP conjunction on March 29, 1992 were discussed by Denig, and low-latitude boundary layer disturbances near 1400 MLT on this day were considered by de la Beaujardiere. AMIE and TIGCM results for March 29 have also been obtained by Lu. The important problem of identifying the magnetic separatrix on the dayside from ground-based radar data was addressed by Baker and de la Beaujardiere. Campaigns planned for 1994 are: Jan. 11, 09 UT to Jan. 14, 20 UT July 5, 09 UT to July 6, 20 UT Dec. 6, 09 UT, to Dec. 7, 20 UT ============================================================================ GEM WORKING GROUP 2: PARTICLE ENTRY, BOUNDARY STRUCTURE, AND TRANSPORT Lou Lee and Pat Newell (Co-chairs) During this mini-workshop, several of the controversial topics from the 1993 Snowmass Workshop were reconsidered. The workshop also provided a progress report on topics which have been suggested for study during the Snowmass meeting. Topics addressed during the workshop are 1) Whether FTE's are driven or form spontaneously. (J. Jacob, G. Le) 2) Categories and properties of poleward moving auroral forms. (G. Fasel) 3) Whether FTE's provide sufficient flux transport to explain the polar cap potential. (P.T. Newell and D. Sibeck) 4) Slow mode shocks at the magnetopause (D. Walthour) and the influence of shear flow on the reconnection layer (Y. Lin). 5) Simulations of a magnetic re-reconnection process (A. Otto) 6) Observations (P. Song) and simulations (M. Yan) of slow mode waves in the magnetosheath 7) Simulations of small scale turbulence at the magnetopause (J. Drake) 8) Closure of anisotropic MHD for the magnetosheath (P. Gary) 9) GEM Magnetopause Catalogue (P. Song) All of the contributions and the discussion illustrated considerable progress on many of the topics from the last Snowmass workshop. Several of the suggested studies from the Snowmass workshop have already produced interesting new results (4, 5, 6, 7). The discussion in the contributions 1 and 2 illustrated that the formation and the importance of FTE's are still open questions. The mini workshop also illustrated the need for cross scale coupling of the various processes. Important questions which were raised during the workshop address - the formation of FTE's (1) and role of FTE's for the global flux transport(3). - the relation between the small scale turbulence and larger scale FTE's. - the relation between quasi-stationary structures (4) and time dependent processes (5). - how are small and local scale processes (4, 5, 6, 7) related to ionospheric observations (2) and how could they possibly be incorporated into a global magnetosphere/ionosphere model? ============================================================================ GEM WORKING GROUP 3: CURRENT SYSTEMS AND MAPPINGS C. T. Russell and R. L. Lysak (Co-chairs) The Working Group met from 3:30 to 5:45 pm Sunday December 5 in the Holiday Inn Golden Gateway Hotel to follow up on issues raised at the 1993 Snowmass meeting. The principal topic of concern was the phenomenon known as the Traveling Convection Vortex which appears to be a strong filament of field aligned current that moves roughly from noon toward dusk at high latitudes and appears to weaken rapidly post terminator. These groups reported on new aspects of their work: Zesta and Hughes, Sitar and Clauer, and Lanzerotti. The most important development in this area is that the coverage at very high latitudes is now quite good from the Danish magnetometers on the eastern shore of Greenland, across the Greenland icecap with the MAGIC array, along the west shore of Greenland (completing the Danish array) and across northern Canada (the MACSS array) to Resolute Bay. While many interesting results are being obtained by the individual groups studying these records, the time is now ripe for a coordinated effort studying events as they move across the entire network. There will be a change in leadership of the Working Group beginning with the June Snowmass meeting. The present leadership is stepping aside and Nancy Crooker and Eigil Friis-Christensen will be taking the helm. We wish the new chairs good luck in this endeavor and thank all of you for your support of the working Group. +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |To add name to the mailing list, send a message to: guan at igpp.ucla.edu | |For message to whole GEM mailing list, send to: gem at igpp.ucla.edu | |For message to a specific working group, send to: | | gem_field at igpp.ucla.edu (WG1); gem_boundary at igpp.ucla.edu (WG2); | | gem_current at igpp.ucla.edu (WG3); gem_data at igpp.ucla.edu (WG4) | | gem_ggcm at igpp.ucla.edu (WG5) | | gem_chair at igpp.ucla.edu (WG chairs, T. Eastman and W. Lotko) | |GEM Bulletin Board: telnet terra.igpp.ucla.edu; user name: gem or GEM | | contents: GEM Messengers, magnetic indices, IMF data | |Please update your e-mail address. | |CAUTION: Do not send messages to gem at igpp.ucla.edu unless you want | | your message to go to everyone in the GEM mailing list! | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+