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			 **   THE GEM MESSENGER   **
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						     Volume 16, Number 7
						     April 13, 2006

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MI Coupling Campaign Mass Outflow Working Group
GEM 2006 Summer Meeting (June 25-30, 2006) Snowmass, CO
  1. Workshop on "Magnetospheric/Ionospheric Coupling: Heavy Ion Effects 
     on Tail Dynamics and Magnetic Reconnection" 
  2. Workshop on "Energization of thermal O+ below 3000 km during 
     geomagnetically quiet times"
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From: From Robert Winglee <winglee at ess.washington.edu> and 
      Bill Peterson <bill.peterson at lasp.colorado.edu> 

1. Workshop on "Magnetospheric/Ionospheric Coupling: Heavy Ion Effects 
     on Tail Dynamics and Magnetic Reconnection" 

During active periods the tail is known to thin substantially to scale 
lengths as small as a few hundred km. At the same time ionospheric 
outflows are known to be substantially increased, and on occasions heavy 
ionospheric ions can even be the dominant ion component in the tail. 
Because of their much larger gyro-radius, these heavy ions have the 
potential for substantially modifying the dynamics of these thin currents 
sheets and influence reconnection rates and the creation of energetic 
particle populations.

The workshop will focus on the observations and modeling of heavy ion 
effects on the tail dynamics. Lynn Kistler will provide a lead off 
discussion on observations aspects and Michael Shay will give a lead off 
discussion on model aspects. The workshop solicits additional 
contributions addressing but not limited to:

1. How much O+ is needed to modify the tail dynamics from that of a 
   simple H+ (Is it just a few percent or is substantial injection 
   needed?)
2. Does the tail response dependent on newly ejected O+ or will it see    immediate effects from pre-existing O+ that has convected into the 
   tail from earlier ionospheric outflows?
3. What are (if any) the physical differences in the tail dynamics from 
   a proton dominated tail to a heavy ion enriched tail (e.g. 
   reconnection rate, size of reconnection region)?

Joint with Global Interaction (GI) Campaign Working Group on Plasma 
Acceleration and Transport in the Magnetotail (PATM).

Please contact Robert Winglee (winglee@ess.washington.edu) or 
Bill Peterson (Bill.Peterson@lasp.colorado.edu) if you want to 
participate in this workshop.

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2. Workshop on  "Energization of thermal O+ below 3000 km during 
   geomagnetically quiet times"

In this workshop we want to focus on the processes responsible for the energization of O+ during geomagnetically quiet intervals in the altitude 
region below ~ 3000 km.

Heavy thermal ions such as O+ and NO+ are created in the ionosphere and 
are strongly gravitationally bound. It is well know that, during 
geomagnetically active times, O+ and NO+ with energies of up to 100's of 
keV are observed throughout the magnetosphere. It is also well established
that, during geomagnetically quiet times, measureable fluxes of O+ are 
observed deep in the magnetotail with energies on the order of a few 
hundred eV. The observed maximum upwelling velocities of ~ 1 km/s in the 
top side ionosphere provide only a small fraction of the ~10 eV energy 
required to explain the large fluxes of O+ observed at quiet times in the 
magnetotail. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the extra energy required 
to explain the quiet time escape of O+ is added in the altitude region 
below the auroral acceleration cavity (~3000 km). Processes thought to be involved include wave-particle interactions, ambi-polar electric fields, 
and hydrodynamic expansion in response to a plasma pressure gradient 
along the magnetic field line.

Paul Kintner will be presenting a tutorial lecture on "Magnetosphere-
Ionosphere Coupling Below 1500 km: Conversion of Upwelling Ions to 
Escaping Ions" For this workshop, we solicit short presentations (less 
than 5 view graphs) ideally supplemented by a poster presentation on:

- Wave-particle interactions at all local times, not just the cusp.
- Hydrodynamic expansion of O+ on auroral field lines as well as within 
  the polar cap.
- Observational constraints on the velocity and density of upflowing O+

Please contact Robert Winglee (winglee@ess.washington.edu) or 
Bill Peterson (Bill.Peterson@lasp.colorado.edu) if you want to 
participate in this workshop.

Instructions on how to submit posters will appear soon on the workshop 
web page (http://gem.rice.edu/~gem/gem2006/index.html)


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