*************************** ** THE GEM MESSENGER ** *************************** Volume 15, Number 25 June 2, 2005 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Call for Participation: Joint GEM IM/S WG1 & WG3 and CEDAR Session at the Joint GEM/CEDAR 2005 Workshop -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Stanislav Sazykin Tuesday June 28, 10:00 am--12:00 pm Joint GEM/CEDAR workshop: Electrodynamic M-I coupling at sub-auroral latitudes Electric fields at subauroral latitudes play an important role in determining global ionospheric plasma density distribution, modify hot ion (ring current) particle behavior, and influence structures in optical emissions of the diffuse aurora and subauroral airglow. The morphology of the electric fields is determined by a complicated combination of the electrodynamic and particle precipitation processes, and the subauroral ionosphere-inner magnetosphere is a strongly coupled system. As a result, during geomagnetic disturbances the usual convection electric field can be amplified in the evening/nighttime subauroral ionosphere leading to strong, poleward, highly dynamic, and possibly structured electric fields confined to narrow regions just equatorward of the diffuse aurora that are termed SubAuroral Polarization Stream (SAPS) events. The term SAPS includes (but is not limited to) SubAuroral Ion Drift (SAID) and Polarization Jet events. A workshop will be held on Tuesday, June 28, at the joint CEDAR/GEM 2005 meeting, to address outstanding science questions related to the electrodynamic M-I coupling at subauroral latitudes. Some of the unanswered questions or topics are: 1. What are the drivers (solar wind, ring current, ionospheric instability) of SAPS electric fields? 2. Formation of density gradients and plasma instabilities and waves in the SAPS region. 3. What are ionospheric conductivities in the SAPS region and how are they affected by SAPS electric fields? 4. Relation of SAPS electric fields to the storm-time dynamics of the plasmasphere and formation of plasmaspheric plumes/tails. 5. Proton precipitation at subauroral regions and its possible connection to cold plasmaspheric material and SAPS electric field. We solicit short and focused contributions, not to exceed 3-4 viewgraphs, that use observations, theory, and modeling to address one or more of the questions above, or any other related topic. There will be time for open discussion. If you would like to contribute, please e-mail your name to the organizers: Stan Sazykin (sazykin@rice.edu) and Phil Erickson (pje@haystack.mit.edu). +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |To subscribe GEM Messengers, send an e-mail to | | with the following command in the body of your e-mail message: | | subscribe gem | |To remove yourself from the mailing list, the command is: | | unsubscribe gem | | | |To broadcast a message to the GEM community, please contact Peter Chi at | | | |Please use plain text as the format of your submission. | | | |URL of GEM Home Page: http://www-ssc.igpp.ucla.edu/gem/Welcome.html | |Workshop Information: http://gem.rice.edu/~gem | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+