*************************** ** THE GEM MESSENGER ** *************************** Volume 18, Number 11 April 25, 2008 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- New GEM Focus Group "Substorm Expansion Onset: The First 10 Minutes" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Vassilis Angelopoulos , Shin Ohtani and Kazuo Shiokawa (conveners) We are pleased to announce the start of a new focus group, "Expansion Onset: The First 10 Minutes", at the upcoming GEM workshop in Zermatt Utah. This focus group is concerned with magnetospheric and ionospheric processes around the time of substorm onset, and expects to address key physics questions regarding those processes, using ground imagery, magnetometry and in situ observations from the THEMIS, Geotail, FAST, Cluster and other satellite missions, as well as theory and modeling of processes before/during the expansion phase onset. The tentative plan is available at: http://www.spaceplasma.unh.edu/~jraeder/GEM/uploads/Main/GEM-FGProposal-2007-exp-onset-v2.pdf This year we will focus on the following three topical areas: 1) Timing: What is the time sequence of phenomena observed in space and on the ground, and what are the implications for substorm onset processes? 2) Pre-breakup/onset aurora: What is the electrodynamics of magnetosphere- ionosphere coupling before and at the time of substorm auroral breakup? What is the source of growth phase currents? 3) Mapping: How does the presence and evolution of pre-onset and expansion phase onset current systems in the tail and along the field lines affect the link between auroral and plasma sheet locations and processes? In order to communicate our ideas better we will need tangible examples. Several nice events identified from the last THEMIS tail season can serve that purpose quite well. If there are suggestions for any events from the community please relay them to the conveners. A consolidated list of events will be announced in the near future. There will be 3 GEM meeting break-out sessions regarding this focus group, on Wed. June 25, at 10:30-12:15, 1:30- 3:00 and 3:30-5pm. The discussion will start with a speaker presenting the questions at hand and is expected to be followed by event expositions but also theory/modeling related discussions. Anyone interested in participating in the discussion is encouraged to email Vassilis Angelopoulos (vassilis@ucla.edu), Kazuo Shiokawa (shiokawa@stelab.nagoya-u.ac.jp), and Shin Ohtani(Ohtani@jhuapl.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://aten.igpp.ucla.edu/gemwiki | |Workshop Information: http://gem.rice.edu/~gem | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+