Table of Contents ====================================================================== 1. Call for Participation at 2011 CEDAR-GEM Joint Workshop: GEM Focus Group Sessions on "Plasma Entry and Transport into and within the Magnetotail (PET)" 2. Call for Participation at 2011 CEDAR-GEM Joint Workshop: GEM Focus Group Sessions on "Modes of Magnetospheric Response" 3. Call for Participation at 2011 CEDAR-GEM Joint Workshop: GEM Focus Group Sessions on "Diffuse Auroral Precipitation" 4. Call for Participation at 2011 CEDAR-GEM Joint Workshop: Joint CEDAR-GEM Sessions on "Nightside Multi-scale Magnetosphere-Ionosphere-Thermosphere (MIT) Electrodynamic Coupling during Geomagnetic Disturbances" ====================================================================== Note: All session announcements for the upcoming Joint CEDAR-GEM Workshop published in GEM Messenger can be found at: http://www-ssc.igpp.ucla.edu/gemwiki/index.php/2011_CEDAR-GEM_Joint_Workshop *************************** ** THE GEM MESSENGER ** *************************** Volume 21, Number 11 June 8, 2011 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Call for Participation at 2011 CEDAR-GEM Joint Workshop: GEM Focus Group Sessions on "Plasma Entry and Transport into and within the Magnetotail (PET)" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Antonius Otto , Jay R. Johnson , and Simon Wing We would like to invite contributions to our final PET focus group sessions at the upcoming GEM workshop in Santa Fe on June 26 – July 1, 2011. It is expected that there will be two sessions, both of which have been scheduled on Monday Jun 27 (See http://www.cpe.vt.edu/gem/index.html for the definitive schedule). (1) Summary (01:30 – 03:30); (2) Planning/Future vision (04:00 – 06:00) We welcome contributions to both sessions. We are particularly interested to hear what the magnetotail/plasma sheet researchers are interested in a future FG. Interested speaker should prepare 2-3 slides, in order to ensure enough time for discussion. If you have not already done so, please send the title(s) and session(s) of your contribution(s) to us at your earliest convenience at the email addresses listed below. Simon Wing (simon.wing at jhuapl.edu) Antonius Otto (ao at how.gi.alaska.edu) Jay Johnson (jrj at pppl.gov) This announcement is also available online at: http://www-ssc.igpp.ucla.edu/gemwiki/index.php/2011_CEDAR-GEM_Joint_Workshop#FG:_Plasma_Entry_and_Transport_into_and_within_the_Magnetotail_.28PET.29_Sessions ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Call for Participation at 2011 CEDAR-GEM Joint Workshop: GEM Focus Group Sessions on "Modes of Magnetospheric Response" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Larry Kepko and Bob McPherron To encourage mingling with the CEDAR community, the Modes of Magnetospheric Response focus group will hold only one session Monday afternoon at the upcoming joint GEM/CEDAR Workshop (June 27-July 1) in Santa Fe, NM. This focus group has as its aim the improvement of knowledge of the physical mechanisms that provide different dynamical modes of response of the magnetotail to the solar wind. These include substorms, steady magnetospheric convection, sawtooth injection events, pseudo breakups, and poleward boundary intensifications. Possible discussion topics include: event and/or statistical studies of SMC or sawtooth events; Coupling of solar wind energy into the magnetosphere; polar cap saturation; etc. A complete description of the FG and its goals can be found at http://bit.ly/beGmTF Interested speakers should contact Larry Kepko or Bob McPherron. This announcement is also available online at: http://www-ssc.igpp.ucla.edu/gemwiki/index.php/2011_CEDAR-GEM_Joint_Workshop#FG:_Modes_of_Magnetospheric_Response_Sessions ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Call for Participation at 2011 CEDAR-GEM Joint Workshop: GEM Focus Group Sessions on "Diffuse Auroral Precipitation" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Richard Thorne The Diffuse Auroral Precipitation focus group will hold three breakout sessions at GEM this June in Santa Fe. This is a solicitation for participation in the sessions. Brief informal talks are encouraged covering the following three topics. Please send titles of prospective talks to the relevant session chairs with a copy to . 1. Observations and Origin of Pulsating Aurora June 29: 10:00-12:00 AM Session Chairs: Sarah Jones (sjones.04 at gmail.com); Wen Li (moonlit at atmos.ucla.edu) 2. Scattering Mechanisms for Diffuse Auroral Precipitation June 29: 1:30-3:30 PM Session Chairs: Binbin Ni (bbni at atmos.ucla.edu); Xin Tao (xtao at atmos.ucla.edu) 3. Wrap-up Session: What have we learned? June 30: 10:00-12:00 AM Session Chair: Richard Thorne (rmt at atmos.ucla.edu) This announcement is also available online at: http://www-ssc.igpp.ucla.edu/gemwiki/index.php/2011_CEDAR-GEM_Joint_Workshop#FG:_Diffuse_Auroral_Precipitation_Sessions ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Call for Participation at 2011 CEDAR-GEM Joint Workshop: Joint CEDAR-GEM Sessions on "Nightside Multi-scale Magnetosphere-Ionosphere-Thermosphere (MIT) Electrodynamic Coupling during Geomagnetic Disturbances" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Michael Nicolls, Shasha Zou, Larry Lyons We invite contributions to this joint session that will be held on Wednesday, June 29th, 10-12 am and 1:30-3:30 pm (2 2-hour sessions). We would like to encourage a workshop-style presentation with 10-15 min including discussion time. Please contact Michael Nicolls (michael.nicolls at sri.com), Shasha Zou (shashaz at umich.edu) or Larry Lyons (larry at atmos.ucla.edu) to schedule your contribution. Description of objectives of this session: The MIT system behaves as a complex system characterized by coupling and feedbacks, preconditioning, and memory. This system is of great interest to both the GEM and CEDAR communities and includes a variety of important topics that are common to both initiatives. Understanding the MIT during periods of geomagnetic disturbances as an integrated system as well as from perspectives of each discipline is necessary to move the area forward. Field-aligned currents (FACs) are the essential mediator between the magnetosphere and the ionosphere. FACs modify the ionospheric conductivities by increasing or depleting the ionospheric density through associated particle precipitation and evacuation processes, respectively. The modified conductivity in turn regulates the magnetospheric drivers by changing the exerting forces and electric field distributions, including generating important structured electric fields, such as Sub-Auroral Polarization Streams / Sub- Auroral Ion Drifts (SAPS/SAID). The structured ionospheric density also provides important information about the location/polarity of the FACs and the energy distribution of the precipitating particles in the case of upward FACs. Geomagnetic disturbances targeted in this joint session include, but are not limited to, substorms, PBIs, streamers and SMCs. These geomagnetic disturbances are associated with enhanced FACs and highly structured auroral forms. The characteristics of FACs, including their 2-D horizontal distribution and their development and evolution through the course of these disturbances, have never been directly observed at sufficient temporal resolution to resolve the intricacies of their dynamics. The newly available Active Magnetosphere and Planetary Electrodynamics Response Experiment (AMPERE) magnetometers will enable us to conduct for the first time 2-D imaging of the FACs distribution. Combined with the perpendicular currents calculated from existing models, they will be able to provide the global-scale 3-D current distribution in the ionosphere. In addition, the continental- scale THEMIS ground-based ASIs and the multi-spectral cameras will enable us to associate auroral forms with direct FAC measurements. Moreover, ground-based radars, including both coherent and incoherent scatter radars, can provide detailed information about the global convection flow and thus electric field patterns, as well as the altitude profile of electron density. Furthermore, with the increasing availability of ground-based GPS receivers, global-scale total electron content can be obtained and the effect of FACs in modifying the ionospheric electron density distribution can be readily evaluated. In the magnetosphere, the NASA THEMIS satellites enable investigation of the linkage between the physical processes in the magnetosphere and structures observed in the ionosphere and thermosphere. The effect of those geomagnetic disturbances on the thermospheric wind can also be monitored by the ground-based Fabry-Perot spectrometers. These instruments as a whole provide us with an unprecedented opportunity for imaging the MIT system in 4-D and for investigating the electrodynamic coupling of the MIT system during geomagnetic disturbances. This joint session proposal is a call for a multi-instrument observational campaign, requiring close collaborations between both GEM and CEDAR communities. It is timely because of the availability of simultaneous observations from multiple instruments, including those mentioned above and many other instruments and models. In addition, the joint GEM/CEDAR workshop this year will provide us with an excellent opportunity to kick off this interdisciplinary research initiative and a forum for presenting results, discussing solutions and exchanging ideas. This announcement is also available online at: http://www-ssc.igpp.ucla.edu/gemwiki/index.php/2011_CEDAR-GEM_Joint_Workshop#Joint:_Nightside_Multi-scale_Magnetosphere-Ionosphere-Thermosphere_.28MIT.29_Electrodynamic_Coupling_during_Geomagnetic_Disturbances_Sessions +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 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. | | | | GEM Messenger is also posted online via newsfeed at | | http://heliophysics.blogspot.com and | | http://www.facebook.com/heliophysics | | | | Back issues are available at ftp://igpp.ucla.edu/scratch/gem/ | | | | URL of GEM Home Page: http://aten.igpp.ucla.edu/gemwiki | | Workshop Information: http://www.cpe.vt.edu/gem/index.html | +-------------------------------------------------------------------+