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			 **   THE GEM MESSENGER   **
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						     Volume 14, Number 7
						     March 4, 2004

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Announcement and Call for Participation:
GEM Inner Magnetosphere/Storms Assessment Challenge
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From: Mike Liemohn <liemohn@umich.edu>
 
This is an announcement of and a call for participation in the GEM IMS
Assessment Challenge. The purpose of this challenge is two-fold: (1) 
assess the accuracy of the present state of inner magnetospheric models,
and (2) to develop a consensus understanding of the physics of the inner 
magnetosphere.
 
The challenge will commence in stages.  At this summer's workshop
(http://gem.rice.edu/~gem), initial results of the challenge for working
group 1 (Plasmasphere and Ring Current) will be presented. Several 
sessions will be devoted to the presentation and discussion of these 
results. Discussions will also focus on selecting specific quantitative 
data-model comparisons to be used as group-wide metrics.  Additional 
discussions will be held to define the second phase of the challenge, 
for working group 2 (Radiation Belts).
 
Two magnetic storms have been selected for the first phase of the 
challenge:

   April 22, 2001
   October 21-23, 2001

Details of the IMS Assessment Challenge, including ground rules and how
to obtain the data sets for model output comparisons, have been posted 
on the web:
    http://csem.engin.umich.edu/GEM_IMS/
 
The challenge is open to both modelers and data analysts.  While only a 
few data sets have been selected for use in the formal data-model 
comparisons, science results for the selected storms from any relevant 
data or model are encouraged and appreciated.  Such results are directly
applicable to addressing the second goal of the challenge (mentioned 
above), as well as providing additional constraints for assessing success
with the first goal.

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