2013 Summer Workshop

GEM will be holding its annual summer workshop June 16-21, 2013 at the Snowmass Conference Center in Snowmass, Colorado. Logistical information and workshop agenda can be found at the GEM Workshop Website.

Below are the calls for presentations by active GEM focus groups. Please note that in all e-mail addresses below the symbol @ is replaced by " [at] ". Information about the GEM Student Workshop on June 16, 2013 can be found at GEM Student Forum.

Poster submissions should be made online by Wednesday, June 5 at the GEM Workshop Website.

Substorm Expansion Onset: The First 10 Minutes

Conveners: Vassilis Angelopoulos <vassilis [at] ucla.edu>, Shin Ohtani <Shin.Ohtani [at] jhuapl.edu>, Kazuo Shiokawa <shiokawa [at] stelab.nagoya-u.ac.jp>, Andrei Runov <arunov [at] igpp.ucla.edu>

We would like to invite contributions to the Substorm Expansion Onset: The First 10 Minutes Focus Group at the upcoming GEM meeting in Snowmass on June 16-21, 2013. The Focus Group goals and other information are available at:

http://gem.epss.ucla.edu/mediawikiwiki/index.php/FG12._Substorm_Expansion_Onset:_The_First_10_Minutes

For this summer we plan four 1.5 hr-long sessions to discuss

• Relative timing between onset signatures in space and on the ground
• The role of magnetotail reconnection (distant and near-Earth) in substorms and substorm-related processes, such as pseudo-breakups, PBIs, streamers, and other substorm-related phenomena (joint with the RX Focus Group)
• Substorm-related processes in the tail-dipole transition region
• Substorm onset mapping (joint with the Magnetic Mapping and Techniques Focus Group).

Since it is the Substorm Expansion Onset Focus Group final year, we plan to allocate 10 minutes of each session for the final report discussion.

The workshop agenda is available at http://www.cpe.vt.edu/gem/schedule.html

Each speaker will be allotted time for 5 minutes (3 slides) presentation, in order to ensure enough time for discussion. Please submit tentative titles of your presentation and/or address your questions to the FG coordinators.

GGCM Metrics and Validation

Conveners: Tim Guild <timothy.b.guild [at] aero.org>, Howard Singer <howard.singer [at] noaa.gov>, and Lutz Rastaetter <lutz.rastaetter [at] nasa.gov>

The GGCM Metrics and Validation Focus Group solicits short contributions to three planned sessions at the upcoming GEM meeting in Snowmass, Colorado, on Thursday and Friday, June 20-21. The session descriptions are below. If you have a topic to discuss, please send us a draft title so that we can begin to put together a program; however, in the spirit of GEM, participation and brief, last-minute informal presentations are always welcome.

Session 1: New Validation Results and Methods In this session we solicit short presentations focusing on all aspects of data-model comparisons. Welcomed themes could include geospace model validation using regional ground magnetometer indices, model responses to dynamic magnetopause boundaries, long-term "climatological" model validation, using multi-variate metrics to assess model performance, or any related contribution.

Session 2: How Validation Studies Guide Model Improvements: In this session, we solicit short presentations on specific examples of how discrepancies between models and observations have led to a better understanding of the physics that needs to be incorporated into models. Studies, or ideas, on studies involving model sensitivity to inputs and various model parameters are welcome. The session will include a discussion on better ways to design metrics and validation studies to uncover missing physics in models.

Session 3: Validation of MHD models Coupled with other modules such as the Ring Current and Polar Outflow In this session we will investigate recent advances in the development of coupled models of the magnetosphere, inner magnetosphere, the plasmasphere/polar wind, and the ionosphere/thermosphere. We solicit short presentations on methods to link models, validate the outputs and constrain coupled model systems using observations. Emphasis should be placed on new physical processes that are described by the coupled models and on effects that remain out of scope and that limit the effectiveness and stability of the coupling.

Thank you for your contributions.

Storm-Time Inner Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Convection (SIMIC)

Conveners: Joseph Baker, Stan Sazykin, Mike Ruohoniemi, Peter Chi, Mark Engebretson

Dear Colleagues,

This year's GEM Summer Workshop marks the initiation of a new Focus Group to examine "Storm-Time Inner Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Convection (SIMIC)". The SIMIC Focus Group will bring together observations and modeling to examine the coupled dynamics of the inner magnetosphere and ionosphere during geomagnetic storms. Recent improvements in modeling and ground- and space-based instrumentation allow this topic to be examined with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution and coverage. Some examples of relevant parameters of interest include: plasma distributions, magnetic topology, convection electric fields, and current systems. More details about the SIMIC Focus Group can be found at:

http://gem.epss.ucla.edu/mediawikiwiki/index.php/FG:_Storm-Time_Inner_Magnetosphere-Ionosphere_Convection

We invite short presentations that highlight one or more of the following themes:

1. Improvements in self-consistent physics-based simulations of the coupled inner magnetosphere-ionosphere system during geomagnetic storms.
2. Instrumentation which can be used to examine storm-time magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling over large spatial scales and validate the simulations (e.g. magnetometers, radars, imaging, GPS receivers, etc.)
3. Any other discussion topics relevant to articulating an appropriate scope and emphasis for this Focus Group. (Since this is the first year, we are open to any comments or suggestions about how to move forward most effectively.)

The SIMIC Focus Group will hold two sessions on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. We have deliberately scheduled the sessions for late in the week to benefit those people who aim to attend both GEM and CEDAR.

If you would like to give a SIMIC presentation, please email Joseph Baker (jo.baker [at] vt.edu) and Stan Sazykin (sazykin [at] rice.edu) with a working title and short description of your talk.

Here's to a great SIMIC kick-off!

Radiation Belts and Wave (RBW) Modeling

Conveners: Yuri Shprits <yshprits [at] atmos.ucla.edu>, Scot Elkington, Jacob Bortnik, Craig Kletzing

The RBW focus group will have 6 sessions this year.

Sessions:

1. Wed, Jun 19, (10:30am-12:15pm) RBW 1 -- GEM particle transport challenge
2. Wed, Jun 19, (1:30pm-3:00pm) RBW 2 -- Dynamical modeling of the radiation belts (Preparing radiation belt models for Van Allen Probes data)
3. Wed, Jun 19, (3:30pm-5:00pm) RBW 3 -- Wave-particle interactions (Particle scattering and transport)
4. Thu, Jun 20, (10:30am-12:15pm) RBW 4 -- Wave excitation, propagation, and distribution (ULF)
5. Thu, Jun 20, (1:30pm-3:00pm) RBW 5 -- Wave excitation, propagation, and distribution (VLF/ELF)
6. Thu, Jun 20, (3:30pm-5:00pm) RBW 6 -- GEM wave challenge, overflow

You can submit the title of your presentation online by following the link below to reserve a time slot during each individual session. We invite potential contributions and encourage to participants to limit presentations to approximately 5 min.

Please submit the title of your presentations by June 5th at

http://goo.gl/B7BY9

In particular, we would like to encourage modelers to participate in the GEM particle modeling challenge as well as the wave modeling challenge.

Data and rules for the GEM challenge are given on the ViRBO web site at http://virbo.org/RBW#2010_RBW_Challenge.

See you at GEM.

Tail-Inner Magnetosphere Interactions

Conveners: Frank Toffoletto, John Lyon, Pontus Brandt, and Vassilis Angelopoulos

The GEM focus group on Tail-Inner Magnetosphere Interactions will hold its breakout sessions on Monday - Tuesday, June 17-18, 2013. We invite presentations that specifically address one of the following topics:

• Origin and evolution of BBFs and related phenomena (bubbles, dipolarization fronts, etc.)
• The impact of BBFs et al on transport during different levels of activity (e.g., quiet times, SMCs, substorms, storm main phases).
• The impact of BBFs et al on the inner magnetosphere, including ring current and radiation belts; braking oscillations and micropulsations.
• Auroral streamers and other ionospheric signatures of BBFs et al.

More information on the focus group can be found at: http://gem.epss.ucla.edu/mediawikiwiki/index.php/GEM_Focus_Groups

We kindly ask presentations to be limited to 2-3 slides/5 minutes. If you would like to be put on the schedule, please contact Frank Toffoletto (toffo [at] rice.edu).

We look forward to seeing everyone at GEM and to your contributions.

Reconnection in the Magnetosphere

Conveners: Paul Cassak, West Virginia University <Paul.Cassak [at] mail.wvu.edu>, Homa Karimabadi, University of California, San Diego, <homakar [at] gmail.com>, Andrei Runov, University of California, Los Angeles, <arunov [at] igpp.ucla.edu>

We would like to solicit contributions to the "Magnetic Reconnection in the Magnetosphere" Focus Group sessions at the upcoming GEM meeting in Snowmass, Colorado on June 16 - 21, 2013. The Focus Group goals description and other information is available at

http://gem.epss.ucla.edu/mediawikiwiki/index.php/FG:_Magnetic_Reconnection_in_the_Magnetosphere.

Thus summer we plan four 1.5 hr-long sessions to discuss

1. Dayside reconnection and its relation to transient phenomena at the magnetopause and bow shock (joint with Dayside Transient FG);
2. Magnetotail reconnection and its role in substorms, pseudo breakups, PBIs and other substorm-related phenomena (joint with Substorm Onset FG);
3. General problems of magnetospheric reconnection. Nominally, the session activities will address Signatures of Kinetic Scale Reconnection Physics (a prelude to the launch of MMS), but contributions on any topic including onset, evolution, and consequences are welcomed.

We welcome contributions based upon data analysis, simulations, and theory.

The tentative agenda of the workshop is available at http://www.cpe.vt.edu/gem/2013GEM_agenda.pdf.

To follow the GEM philosophy and the informal workshop format, your presentations need to be short and concise (without AGU-style introductions and conclusions) in order to engender discussions. We strongly suggest preparing 5 slides or less and 5 min-long presentations focused strictly on the topic. We encourage presentations by graduate students and postdoctoral researchers.

Please submit a tentative topic of your presentation (to help us plan the session) and address your questions, if any, to

Paul Cassak, West Virginia University, Paul.Cassak [at] mail.wvu.edu