Table of Contents ============================================================================ 1. THEMIS Conjunctions Days/Times Now Available - Invitation for Joint Observations 2. PET Focus Group Session at the GEM Mini-workshop ============================================================================ *************************** ** THE GEM MESSENGER ** *************************** Volume 17, Number 28 November 15, 2007 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. THEMIS Conjunctions Days/Times Now Available - Invitation for Joint Observations ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Vassilis Angelopoulos Dear Space Physics and Aeronomy Community, This message is addressed to any space ground instrumentation teams which may be interested in collaborative work with the THEMIS constellation. Its intent is to permit advance-planning of ancillary instrumentation campaigns for upcoming tail season events, by explaining the premium data collection periods for THEMIS. The THEMIS mission is described further at: http://themis.ssl.berkeley.edu The five THEMIS probes are as of November 5th approximately in their final orbits, obtaining good quality correlative measurements from 12-30Re in the magnetotail. The lines of apsides are now near dawn and moving towards the nightside. Optimal tail conjunctions will be achieved from early January 2008 to late March 2008. The probes consist of: P1 (on a 4day orbit with apogee ~30Re), P2 (on a 2day orbit with apogee ~20Re) and P3,4,5 (on ~daily orbits at ~12Re apogee). Slow survey data containing particle moments and spin fits of fields are collected over the entire orbit. However, fast survey data collection optimizes instrument cadence during more limited periods of time (~12hrs / orbit). The fast survey data are collected during THEMIS conjunction times. Daily conjunctions (between the inner probes and the THEMIS ground based observatories) occur at 00:30-12:30UT. Major conjunctions (between P1, P2 and the inner probes) occur on days February 2, 2008 ± n*4, where n=integer. Minor conjunctions (between P2 and the inner probes) occur on days February 2, 2008 ± m*2, where m=integer. The dates of major (4day) and minor (2day) conjunctions are listed under: "Stage 3: Tail Science Phase" at: http://themis.ssl.berkeley.edu/orbits.shtml The THEMIS team welcomes contributions of ancillary datasets and collaborations with other teams, and looks forward to the exciting period of scientific discoveries which lie ahead. Vassilis Angelopoulos and the THEMIS team. For more information, please contact: vassilis@ucla.edu or david.sibeck@gsfc.nasa.gov ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. PET Focus Group Session at the GEM Mini-workshop ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Antonius Otto , Jay R. Johnson , Simon Wing We would like to invite contributions to the PET focus group at the upcoming mini-GEM in San Francisco on the Sunday before AGU on Dec 9, 2007 04:00-05:45 pm in the Marriott Convention Center hotel. PET focus group is interested in (1) solar wind entry and (2) tail transport. A more detailed description of the PET focus group's objectives can be found at http://www.spaceplasma.unh.edu/~jraeder/GEM/index.php?n=Main.FGProposals. In order to avoid duplicating the efforts at AGU, the sessions will be held in a workshop-style, in which participants will discuss in a "round- table fashion" what topics or subtopics should be relevant/interesting to the PET focus group and the summer GEM workshop 2008. AGU style talks are strongly discouraged. Jay, Antonius, and Simon +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |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 | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+