2011 CEDAR-GEM Joint Workshop

This year GEM will be holding its annual summer workshop jointly with CEDAR at the Santa Fe Convention Center in Sante Fe, New Mexico on June 26 - July 1, 2011.

Logistical information and workshop agenda can be found at the GEM Workshop Web Site.

Listed below are the Calls for Presentations announced by GEM Focus Groups or by special joint CEDAR-GEM sessions. (Note: In the e-mail addresses below the symbol @ is replaced by " [at] ".) More sessions can be found in the tentative agenda provided by the GEM Workshop Website.

Response of the Magnetosphere to High-Speed Streams (Sunday-before-the-Workshop Special Session)

Convener: Mike Liemohn <liemohn [at] umich.edu>

On the Sunday before the joint GEM-CEDAR Workshop, there will be a day of sessions at the Eldorado Hotel¹s Sunset Ballroom. There is no extra registration fee, but we ask that you note your intention to attend either via the GEM registration page or with an email to Mike Liemohn.

This day of talks and discussion is centered on the phenomena of high-speed stream (HSS) passages past Earth's magnetosphere. These times represent a unique opportunity because the streams often repeat their geomagnetic activity cycle for several solar rotations, providing a natural laboratory for geospace researchers to understand the physical processes of solar wind-magnetosphere energy coupling. In addition, the geomagnetic activity resulting from these solar structures exhibits systematic responses within geospace. This special day is devoted to exploring the causes and consequences of the systematic geomagnetic response during high-speed streams. Of special interest is the comparison of what happens during HSS times with what occurs during other quiet and active times driven by other solar wind structures.

This day is sponsored by the NASA Living With a Star Program, through one of their Focused Science Topic (FST) Teams. Now in the FST's final year, this event represents the culmination of the group's activities toward understanding near-Earth particle energization in the near-Earth space environment, focusing on the nightside plasma sheet, ring current, and radiation belts. The FST team chose high-speed streams as a central theme for our group-wide effort, narrowing this down to a few selected events for intense analysis.

This 1-day special event will include presentations from investigators in the FST team as well as many from researchers beyond the group. Everyone is welcome to come for the day, hear the talks, and participate in the ongoing discussions (within each session and at the end of the day's agenda).

We ask that those planning to attend this special Sunday session to please click the button for this on the GEM registration page. This will allow for an accurate count for ordering break-time refreshments.

We look forward to seeing you there!

9:00 - 10:30: Session 1 on HSS global magnetospheric processes 10:30 - 11:00: Break 11:00 - 12:30: Session 2 on HSS near tail/inner mag processes (non RB) 12:30 - 2:00: Lunch (on your own)

2:00 -  3:30:  Session 3 on radiation belts during HSS
3:30 -  4:00:  Break
4:00 -  5:00:  Session 3 part II
5:00 -  6:00:  Open discussion, summary, and future plans

Session 1: addresses solar wind-magnetosphere coupling during high-speed streams, in particular examining the energy transfer efficiency and mass and energy flow processes.

Session 2: focuses on the flow of mass and energy through the magnetosphere during high-speed streams, in particular focusing on the nightside plasma sheet and near-Earth non-relativistic plasma populations.

Session 3: examines radiation belt processes during high-speed streams, addressing both the acceleration mechanisms and the loss processes for these high-energy particles in near-Earth space.

Radiation Belts and Wave (RBW) Modeling

Conveners: Y Shprits <yshprits [AT] atmos.ucla.edu>, J Bortnik <jbortnik [AT] gmail.com>, S Elkington <lkingto [AT] lasp.colorado.edu>, and C Kletzing <cak [AT] delta.physics.uiowa.edu>

1) GEM Radiation Belt and Waves challenge

The GEM Radiation Belt and Waves focus group would like to invite modelers and data assimilators to participate in its first GEM challenge, in which the pool of participants will be simulating a specified set of events, using a common data set as input.

An outline of the challenge, the rules and the relevant data are hosted on the Virtual Radiation Belt Observatory website and can be accessed at: http://virbo.org/RBW#Challenge_Data

The comparison of models and observations will take place at the 2011 GEM summer meeting. For the explanation of rules please contact "Jacob Bortnik" <jbortnik AT gmail.com>, "Scot Elkington" <elkingto AT lasp.colorado.edu>, "Paul O'Brien" <Paul.OBrien AT aero.org>, "Kletzing, Craig" <cak AT delta.physics.uiowa.edu>.

2) RBW schedule

This year we will have 5 GEM sessions and 1 joint GEM cedar session. We encourage participants to submit the titles of their presentations to http://www.atmos.ucla.edu/~yshprits/rbw2011.html by June 12th. Contributed presentations will be approximately 5 min and include no more than 3 slides. Invited presentations will be limited to 10 min and 7 slides. Presentations submitted after June 12 and walk-in presentations will be limited to 1 slide. We particularly encourage participants to submit their presentations to the Joint with CEDAR session: Remote Sensing the Inner Magnetosphere.

3) RBSPb event list

The RBSPb event list, page is now operational on ViRBO http://virbo.org/RBSPb . The web site design contains a list of storms, relevant papers, data, and figures. We encourage participations of the RBW working group to email publication titles and data relevant to these events to virbo+RBSPb AT virbo.org.

For comments/ questions please contact "Drew Turner" <drew.lawson.turner AT gmail.com>, "Michael Hartinger" <mhartinger AT igpp.ucla.edu>, "Weichao Tu" <Weichao.Tu AT colorado.edu>, "Yuri Shprits" <yshprits AT atmos.ucla.edu>, "Bob Weigel" <rweigel AT gmu.edu>

Pre-Focus Group Planning Session on Magnetic Reconnection

Conveners: Paul Cassak <Paul.Cassak [at] mail.wvu.edu>, John Dorelli, and Brian Sullivan

We would like to announce a pre-focus group planning meeting for a GEM session on magnetic reconnection to be held at the upcoming GEM meeting in Santa Fe. We encourage any and all community members interested in helping to formulate the scope and direction for an upcoming proposal for a focus group to attend. Ideal directions for a focus group incorporate a close interaction between observers, theorists, and/or global modelers. Suggestions for leadership and science focus are encouraged. The session is planned for Tuesday, June 28th, from 1:30-3:30pm. Please email us at Paul.Cassak at mail.wvu.edu with any questions or comments. People not planning on attending that have ideas are encouraged to email their comments in advance.