Table of Contents ====================================================================== 1. 2013 Mini-GEM Session: GGCM Metrics and Validation Focus Group December 8, Westin San Francisco Market Street 2. 2013 Mini-GEM Session: Outflow Measuring, Modeling, and Merging Focus Group December 8, Westin San Francisco Market Street 3. CISM Space Weather Summer School July 21–August 1, 2014, NCAR, Boulder, CO Application Deadline: March 1, 2014 4. SuperMAG News: New Website, More Capabilities and Expanded Data Holdings ====================================================================== *************************** ** THE GEM MESSENGER ** *************************** Volume 23, Number 34 November 19, 2013 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. 2013 Mini-GEM Session: GGCM Metrics and Validation Focus Group December 8, Westin San Francisco Market Street ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Tim Guild , Lutz Rastaetter , and Howard Singer The GGCM M&V Focus Group session will be held at the GEM Mini-workshop in San Francisco on December 8, immediately before the Fall AGU Meeting. Time: 12:00 noon - 1:50 PM, Sunday, December 8, 2013 Location: Commonwealth Room (Third Floor) Westin San Francisco Market Street 50 Third Street, San Francisco, California The agenda includes: 1) Status of the Geospace Model Validation: Five geospace models that calculate activity levels (dB/dt and regional K) based on magnetic perturbations (dB) at selected magnetometer sites were evaluated at the Community Coordinated Modeling Center. - Summary of the second part of the study, addressing the models' ability to specify K index values for a subset of the stations (Glocer) - Geospace Model Selection at NOAA SWPC (Singer) 2) Validation studies Any and all model-data comparisons are welcome, particularly with regard to discrepancies which lead to model improvements. We welcome in particular: - Data-model comparisons on a long-term (climatological) scale. - Use of magnetopause crossings to validate dayside model results. - Adoption of ensemble modeling techniques in the geospace environment. - Comparison of radiation belt and ring current models with Van Allen Probes observations. 3) Open discussion of the future of Metrics and Validation - How can the M&V focus group best support GEM goals given its unique, broadly applicable role? More centralized sessions or more collaboration with other focus groups? We encourage contributions from modeling, observations, and informative validation techniques which can inform us of shortcomings in our knowledge of the geospace environment, contributing to the GEM goals. In the spirit of GEM, we welcome brief, spontaneous presentations, but to help with planning, if you would like to speak on one of the topics listed, or anything else related to M&V, please send a note to Tim Guild with your name and a title for your contribution. Or feel free to contact any of the conveners. Tim Guild Lutz Rastaetter Howard Singer This forum is sponsored by the GEM mini-workshop. The session schedule and venue maps of the GEM mini-workshop can be found at: http://spc.igpp.ucla.edu/gem/pdf/2013_mini_gem_agenda_final.pdf ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. 2013 Mini-GEM Session: Outflow Measuring, Modeling, and Merging Focus Group December 8, Westin San Francisco Market Street ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Dan Welling The Outflow Measuring, Modeling, and Merging Focus group will hold a session at the upcoming Mini-GEM workshop on Sunday, December 8th, from noon to 1:50pm, in the Franciscan Room of the Westin San Francisco. While we encourage contributions from all with relevant results, the focus of this session will be to discuss progress on our group research activity. Talks will review our idealized storm event and our real-world period of interest, Sept. 27-October 4, 2002. We invite participants to show their progress simulating outflow conditions and magnetospheric conditions for both events as well as collecting observations about the magnetosphere and ionosphere during the period of interest. We encourage all who can contribute to contact Rick Chappell (rick.chappell@vanderbilt.edu) and Dan Welling (dwelling@umich.edu) as soon as possible with a title for their presentation. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. CISM Space Weather Summer School July 21–August 1, 2014, NCAR, Boulder, CO Application Deadline: March 1, 2014 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Mike Wiltberger The CISM Space Weather Summer School is intended to give students a comprehensive immersion in the subject of space weather: what it is, what it does, and what can be done about it. Space weather is many things: beautiful when seen through the eyes of a sun-viewing telescope, fascinating when studied for its alien worlds of magnetic structures and phenomena, awesome when witnessed as a solar eruption or auroral storm, and devastating to the users of services it disrupts. Space weather links the Sun, the Earth, and the space in between in a branching chain of consequences. Weather systems on the Sun can spawn interplanetary storms of colossal size and energy that envelop the whole planet in electrical hurricanes. Such storms attack high-tech, complex, and expensive technological systems that provide much of the infrastructure that allows modern society to function. Applications are welcome from upper level undergraduates and beginning graduate students interested in pursuing a career in solar and space physics, as well as professionals interested in broadening their understanding of the space environment. The school will provide support for travel and housing expenses for all US student participants. Course Overview • SW 101: – Solar activity, solar wind, magnetosphere, and ionosphere • SW 102: – Effects on astronauts and spacecraft, radiation hazards, communication disruptions • SW 103: – Assumptions and drivers of models, results and limitations • SW 104: – Hands on activities exploring model results and data to understand the space environment For additional information on this program and instructions on how to apply www2.hao.ucar.edu/Events/2014-CISM-Summer-School/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. SuperMAG News: New Website, More Capabilities and Expanded Data Holdings ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jesper W Gjerloev SuperMAG (http://supermag.uib.no and http://supermag.jhuapl.edu) is a worldwide collaboration of ground based magnetometers generously supported by the National Science Foundation. It currently includes data from more than 350 stations generously provided by a long list of organizations and national agencies. We wish to draw your attention to three areas: 1) New SuperMAG website. The release of the new SuperMAG website marks the end of a year long redesign process. The improvements include easier downloads, faster plot and movie generation and easier navigation. The new site was made possible by Brage Foerland (SuperMAG lead programmer), Robin Barnes (head of software development), Tove Dehn (design), and Mathew Potter (support). 2) Updated data holdings. A large update of the data holdings. Mag data from recent years 2010-2013; Solar Wind data We are grateful to all collaborators, Dr. Weygand and the ACE/MFI, ACE/SWEPAM teams. 3) SuperMAG reaches a milestone – 500 registered users. SuperMAG reached this milestone in October 2013. Other notable usage numbers: - ~1600 unique visitors per month; - ~1500 data products are downloaded per month; - >35,000 data products has been downloaded; - The average user spends ~12 min visiting ~14 pages. 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