From:     G. Siscoe (SISCOE@buasta.bu.edu)
To:       GEM Community
Subject:  WG 5 Workshop: Preliminary Agenda

Announcement
Winter Workshop of the GEM GGCM Assembly Working Group
(Working Group 5)
January 12 and 13, 1995
Space Environment Laboratory
Boulder, CO

This is an open invitation to the GEM community and other interested 
persons to attend the 1995 Winter Workshop of the GEM GGCM Assembly 
Working Group (Working Group 5).  The workshop will be held on Thursday 
and Friday, January 12 and 13, at the Space Environment Laboratory in 
Boulder, Colorado.  Howard Singer has circulated a message detailing the 
local Boulder arrangements.

The workshop will focus on developing algorithms that can be 
transitioned for operational use in specifying and forecasting the 
geospace environment.  WG 5 business relating to the development of 
algorithms to address purely scientific issues will be the focus of next 
summer's Snowmass workshop.  

This two-day workshop will be divided into four half-day sessions having 
different objectives.  Thursday morning will be devoted to reports from 
the subworking group chairs and their collaborators on the state of 
progress on the projects in each area: core module, substorm/tail 
module, and boundary layer module.  The on-going projects include the 
following: incorporating energetic particles into the core module; 
integrating the RCM with other elements of the core module, such as the 
Toffoletto-Hill model; various marriages between MHD tail models and the 
RCM; and boundary models that predict boundary positions and sudden 
impulse amplitudes.  

Thursday afternoon will be dedicated to learning from SEL personnel and 
others in the forecasting profession what their real needs and problems 
are.  Also John Kappenman, from Minnesota Power will describe EPRI's 
Sunburst project, which is relevant to GEM's applied-side objectives; he 
will discuss the requirements for predicting ground-induced currents 
(GICs)--a major forecast problem.  Friday morning will be dedicated to a 
discussion of how, within its jurisdiction, the GEM program can bring 
into being specification and forecasting tools that can be transitioned 
to operational status, tools that will make a real difference in the 
accuracy, specificity, and types of predictions that real forecaster in 
real operational environments can make.  Friday afternoon will be 
dedicated to defining an implementation plan with specific projects to 
be spoken for by specific persons or groups along with a schedule of 
milestones leading to implementation.

Among the topics known at this time, Dick Wolf and others will discuss 
the use of the Magnetospheric Specification and Forecast Model (MSFM) 
for predicting particle fluxes at geosynchronous orbit and the need to 
extend its capabilities so that it can specify the radiation belts and 
forecast GICs.  Dimitris Vassiliadis will show how to use statistical 
techniques to predict substorm onsets, for example, as an adjunct to the 
MSFM.  Larry Zanetti will describe how Freja imagery can be used to 
forecast GICs.  Howard Singer will describe the code he is implementing 
at SEL for predicting boundary positions.  These are some of the topics 
that participants are invited to contribute to.  Others include--but are 
not restricted to--GIC prediction algorithms other than the MSFM, 
energetic particle prediction algorithms (e.g., for MeV electrons at 
geosynchronous orbit), extending the range of boundary position and 
SSC/SI prediction algorithms, developing a data base for magnetospheric 
storm algorithm development, etc.

Anyone having a particular topic he or she would like to discuss at the 
workshop--one of those listed or another--please send that information 
to siscoe@buasta.bu.edu.  The next announcement regarding the workshop 
will reflect the responses.