Table of Contents ====================================================================== 1. GEM Mini-Workshop, San Francisco, December 2, 2012 2. Call for Proposals for New GEM Focus Groups 3. SHINE Liaison Report 4. CEDAR Liaison Report ====================================================================== *************************** ** THE GEM MESSENGER ** *************************** Volume 22, Number 29 October 4, 2012 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. GEM Mini-Workshop, San Francisco, December 2, 2012 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Robert Clauer The Geospace Environment Modeling (GEM) Mini-Workshop will be held on the Sunday (December 2) prior to the AGU Meeting in San Francisco. The workshop will be held from 12:00 noon to 6pm at the Westin San Francisco Market Street, 50 Third Street, San Francisco, CA. More information on the GEM Workshops can be found at the GEM Wiki http://www-ssc.igpp.ucla.edu/gemwiki/index.php/Main_Page Focus Group leaders should send requests for session time as soon as possible to RClauer@vt.edu. The mini-workshop schedule will be posted at the GEM Wiki as it develops. Following the workshop, there will be a GEM Steering Committee working dinner. Members of the Steering committee will be contacted regarding food preferences. For further information or questions, please contact Bob Clauer (rclauer@vt.edu). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Call for Proposals for New GEM Focus Groups ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: The GEM Steering Committee The GEM Steering Committee (SC) is now accepting proposals for new Focus Groups (FGs). This call is open until November 23. The first step in preparing a proposal is to consult one (or more) of the Research Area Coordinators, whose names are listed at http://www-ssc.igpp.ucla.edu/gemwiki/index.php/Organization_and_People They will advise on possible overlap with other existing or proposed Focus Groups, opportunities for (highly desirable) cross-disciplinary studies, and help identify potential co-chairs. When preparing the proposal, please follow the guidelines in the GEM by-laws: http://aten.igpp.ucla.edu/gemwiki/index.php/GEM_Bylaws Please keep the proposals to 4 pages, yet include the following: -- A description of the topic -- A statement on timeliness of the FG idea -- A description of how the FG would relate to existing FGs -- A specific goal that includes a deliverable (see below) -- The names of the proposed co-chairs -- The Research Area with which it will be associated -- The term, not more than 5 years (so, ending on or before summer 2017) -- Expected activities, for example topics of sessions or challenges Deliverables can be GGCM modules, empirical relations that lead to modules, solutions to specific science problems, challenges, data sets for validation and metrics, or paper collections. Two groups ended this past summer, leaving 10 active FGs. Here is the breakdown, according to research area: - IMS: 2 ending in 2013/2014 - Tail: 3 ending in 2013/2016 - Dayside: 2 ending in 2014/2016 - MIC: 1 ending in 2015 - Metrics and Validation: 1 ending in 2015 - Joint MIC/GGCM: 1 ending in 2015 More details of the existing FGs are available on the GEM website: http://aten.igpp.ucla.edu/gemwiki/index.php/GEM_Focus_Groups ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. SHINE Liaison Report ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Joe Borovsky NSF SHINE program is dedicated to promoting enhanced understanding of, and predictive capabilities for, solar disturbances that propagate to the Earth. Full information about SHINE can be found at the website shinecon.org. The annual SHINE Workshop was held this year in Maui June 25-29, the week after GEM. The SHINE Workshop Coordinator is Ilia Roussev and the Conference Administrator is Umbe Cantu. Active sessions at the SHINE Workshop that might be of interest to members of the GEM community are: - Advances in Understanding the Solar Wind through Spectroscopic Observations. - Interaction of CMEs with Coronal and Heliospheric Structures. - Fast reconnection in large, high-Lundquist number coronal plasmas mediated by plasmoids: Implications for reconnecting current sheets and supra-arcade downflows. - The need for high accuracy, high time resolution plasma and electromagnetic field measurements in the solar wind. - Causes of the wide longitudinal signatures of Solar Energetic Particle (SEP) events.? - Origin of CIR-associated suprathermal and energetic particles at 1 AU. - Assessing the Contribution of Heliospheric Imaging, IPS and other remote sensing observations in Improving Space Weather Prediction. - Sympathetic and Homologous Eruptions in the Solar Corona. - What do prominence and cavity activation tell us about the magnetic structure and triggering of the CME? - Data driven MHD modeling of CME events. - Community wide validation study of models of the corona and inner heliosphere. More information about these sessions and their organizers can be found on the SHINE website. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. CEDAR Liaison Report ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Joshua Semeter The 2012 CEDAR workshop was held at the El Dorado Hotel in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The new strategic plan, entitled "CEDAR: The New Dimension," was formally released at the 2011 joint CEDAR-GEM workshop. The agenda of the 2012 workshop was organized around specific themes represented in the document, with the intention of providing perspective and guidance as we begin the "implementation" of this vision. CEDAR research has always embraced a close coordination between science and technology, and the value of this synergy is reinforced by the "system science" approach advocated in our new strategic plan. The Advanced Modular Incoherent Scatter (AMISR) radar program continues to expand in global coverage. In addition to the first AMISR installation at Poker Flat (PFISR), SRI has now completed construction of two collocated radars at Resolute Bay, offering broad latitudinal coverage of the unexplored polar-cap ionosphere. RISR- North (or RISR-N) was developed under the auspices of the NSF, while RISR-Canada (or RISR-C) has been developed through joint project with the Canadian Foundation for Innovation. New AMISR systems are still planned for La Plata, Argentina (magnetically conjugate to Arecibo) and Antarctica, with discussions moving forward to place an AMISR system in Ethiopia. In recognition of this new generation of ISR activity, a CEDAR Distinguished Lecture was given by ISR pioneer Don Farley entitled "Incoherent Scatter Radar: Early History and Further Thoughts." CEDAR has been moving steadily into space. Small satellite programs are now embraced by NSF, AFOSR, and NASA as a strategic approach to training young space technologists, as well as a new vehicle for creative coordination of scientific and technological innovation. A number of other larger-scale missions currently under development are focused on science topics of direct interest to CEDAR. A tutorial by Larry Paxton, called "Creating a Future for Aeronomy," provided some perspective for the community as we continue our trend toward space- based observation. The CEDAR strategic plan also highlights the value of understanding how our own outer atmosphere compares and contrasts to those of other solar system bodies. A tutorial by Andrew Nagy reviewed work on "Comparative Planetary Aeronomy," another emerging discipline within the CEDAR community. Understanding the coupling between the ITM (ionosphere-thermosphere- mesosphere) system and lower atmospheric regions was emphasized in the recently released Decadal Survey on Solar and Space Physics as well as the CEDAR strategic plan. Our 2012 CEDAR Prize Lecture was given by Larissa Goncharenko, who described her work on a critical aspect of this coupling: "Stratospheric Warmings and Their Effects in the Ionosphere." The proper interpretation of the rapidly expanding global network of geospace measurements will require sophisticated models and a solid understanding of their uncertainties. The topics were addressed by a tutorial by Jan Sojka on "Inferring Limitations of Numerical Models." The 2013 CEDAR workshop will be at the University of Colorado at Boulder, June 22-28, 2013. The location of the 2014 workshop has not yet been determined. +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 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 | +-------------------------------------------------------------------+