Campaigns and Working Group Reports

Campaigns and Working Group Activities

The objectives of the GEM program are to be accomplished through a series of focused campaigns. The goals of these campaigns are met through the active collaboration of the participants. The GEM Coordinators guide these collaborative activities through workshops, newsletters, communications, and data exchange. The coordinators have these responsibilities across all campaigns rather than for any particular one.

Beginning in 1991 and continuing through about fiscal year 1996 the first campaign focused on the magnetospheric cusp and boundary layer. Currently, there are four ongoing campaigns: Magnetotail/Substorm Campaign (began in 1994), Inner Magnetosphere and Storms Campaign (began in 1996), GGCM Campaign, and Magnetosphere- Ionosphere Campaign. Each campaign consists of several Working Groups working on specific problems related to the campaign. Each working group is led by two co-chairs, who concentrate on the scientific and collaborative issues of the individual campaign.

Each year, GEM holds an annual Summer Workshop in Snowmass, Colorado, in the last week of June. The working group members also meet in half-day mini-workshops in San Francisco in the Sunday prior to Fall AGU meeting. Reports of the GEM Workshops are distributed to the GEM community afterwards.

GEM Coordinators

  *Larry Lyons (Observing Campaigns/Data Exchange)
  *Chris Russell (Communications/GEM Data Base)
  *Harlan Spence (Meetings/Logistics) 

1. Boundary Layer Campaign (1991-1996)

Working Group Activities

  1. Reconnection Electric Field and Magnetopause Boundary Normal Magnetic Field
  2. Particle Entry, Boundary Structure and Transport
  3. Current Systems and Mapping
  4. Data Task Force
  5. GGCM Assembly
     Sub Working Groups of Working Group 5
        1. The Core Unit
        2. The Boundary Unit
        3. The Tail/Substorm Unit 

2. Magnetotail/Substorm Campaign (1994-present)

Working Group Activities (1994-1997)

  1. Substorm Onset Signatures: Identification, Location, and Timing
  2. Substorm/Tail Phenomenology - Observations and Models
  3. Quantitative Tail and Substorm Models 

New Working Groups (1998-present)

  1. Substorm Observations
  2. Quantitative Tail and Substorm Models
  3. Tail/Substorm Challenge 

3. GGCM Campaign

   * Report of the GGCM Steering Committee - 2001 Snowmass Workshop
   * Working Group Activities 

4. Inner Magnetosphere and Storms Campaign (1996-present)

   * Updated Plan for GEM Inner Magnetosphere and Storms Campaign 

Working Group Activities

  1. Plasmasphere and ring current coupling
  2. Radiation belts
  3. Joint CEDAR-GEM-SHINE magnetic Storms Campaign 

5. Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Coupling Working Group (1998 to Present)

(It is autonomous and will interact with each campaign)

Working Group Activities

  1. Mass Exchange
  2. Electrodynamics of MI Coupling