[GEM] THE GEM MESSENGER, Volume 27, Number 10

Tue Mar 14 09:30:40 PDT 2017

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     THE GEM MESSENGER
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Volume 27, Number 10
Mar.14,2017

Announcement submission website: http://aten.igpp.ucla.edu/gem/messenger_form/

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Table of Contents

1. New Appointment in the Geospace Section of NSF’s Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences

2. MEETING: International Conference on Substorms (ICS13), Second Circular

3. Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Coupling in the Solar System - A Newly Published AGU/John Wiley Monograph Based on Papers from the AGU Chapmen Conference at Yosemite National Park in February 2014

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1. New Appointment in the Geospace Section of NSF’s Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences
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From: Therese Moretto Jorgensen (tjorgens at nsf.gov)

It’s a distinct pleasure for us to announce that Dr. Mike Wiltberbger has taken the position of Program Director for the Magnetosphere Program.  Dr. Wiltberger comes to NSF from NCAR/HAO, where he works as a senior research scientist and Head of the Atmosphere-Ionosphere-Magnetosphere Section. His main area of research is the modeling of the magnetosphere and its interaction with the solar wind and coupled thermosphere-ionosphere system. Dr. Wiltberger earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY, in 1993 and his PhD. in space plasma physics in 1998 from the University of Maryland, College Park. Amongst his many scientific accomplishments are pioneering work on the inclusion of ionospheric outflow and the application of advanced statistical analysis in global models and ground-breaking results proving the connection between localized reconnection and, so-called, Bursty Bulk Flows in high-resolution simulations of the magnetotail. During his career, Dr. Wiltberger also has served in many important community functions, including as chair of the GEM Steering Committee, vice-chair of the AMS Science and Technology Committee on Space Weather, and as Vice Chair of the Solar Wind-Magnetosphere Interactions Panel of the 2010 NRC Decadal Survey for Solar and Space Physics.   Furthermore, he holds Adjunct Professor positions at Rice University and the University of Colorado at Boulder, through which he has supervised several graduate students.  

We are extremely grateful for the extensive experience and broad expertise Mike will add to the Magnetosphere program

At NSF Mike can be reached at: mwiltber at nsf.gov 

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2. MEETING: International Conference on Substorms (ICS13), Second Circular
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From: Jimmy Raeder (J.Raeder at unh.edu)

The 13th International Conference on Substorms (ICS13) will be held in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA, at the Portsmouth Sheraton hotel (http://www.sheratonportsmouth.com/), September 25-29, 2017.  Portsmouth is located on the New Hampshire seacoast about 80 minutes north of Boston.

The meeting web site (http://ics13.unh.edu/) provides further information.  In particular, the registration, abstract submission, support request, and housing pages are now open.  We have reserved a limited number of preferred rate hotel rooms at the Sheraton, which will most likely be booked very quickly.  The web site lists numerous other housing options close to the meeting venue. September/October is still tourist season, so we recommend to book a hotel room (or using airbnb) as soon as possible. Limited funds are available to support students and post-docs.  Requests can be made through the web site.  A preliminary program page is also online.  Each day will start with a Socratic Dialogue on a specific topic.  Invited speakers are also penciled in, as far as they are confirmed, but the order of talks is still subject to change and will not be finalized until the week before the meeting.

Important deadlines:

April 15, 2017: Request financial support.
June 1, 2017: Abstract submission.
August 15, 2017: End of early registration, fees will increase 20% after that.
August 27, 2017:  Deadline to book a hotel room at the preferred rate at the Sheraton.

Social events:  The meeting banquet will take place on the Thomas Laighton (https://islesofshoals.com/cruises).  The meeting date is close to the peak of leafpeeping season (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaf_peeping). At the meeting time, colors are starting to turn in and around Portsmouth. One to two hours drive north of Portsmouth the foliage will be in full color.

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3. Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Coupling in the Solar System - A Newly Published AGU/John Wiley Monograph Based on Papers from the AGU Chapmen Conference at Yosemite National Park in February 2014
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From: Rick Chappell, Bob Schunk, Peter Banks, Richard Thorne, Jim Burch (rick.chappell at vanderbilt.edu)

In February, 1974, a group of atmospheric, ionospheric and magnetospheric physicists gathered at Yosemite National Park to talk about how these three regions of the Earth space environment might be coupled together.  This was a  time in which it was becoming recognized that the ionosphere could supply up-flowing cold ions to create the plasmasphere and that these same cold plasmaspheric ions and electrons could affect the generation and propagation of waves which could effect the more energetic particles of the ring current and the radiation belts.  But the role of the ionosphere as a strong particle source was then limited to the cold plasmaspheric particles only, although there was a hint of a broader source from the “new” measurement of energetic O+ in the magnetosphere.

This entire 1974 meeting was videotaped and this original large videocassette taping format was later digitized and archived online at Utah State University’s Digital Commons.  The goal of this first meeting was to bring together scientists from the three, then mostly separated, communities of the atmosphere, ionosphere and magnetosphere.  This original video contains classic talks beginning with Ian Axford’s talk on the magnetosphere-ionosphere, Bill Hanson’s preview of the “new” driftmeters that were to fly on Atmospheric Explorer, Richard Thorne’s talk on how the plasmasphere might affect the inner boundary of the ring current, combined with S-cubed satellite data on this same topic presented by Don Williams and Jim Burch with insights from Keith Cole, Dick Johnson’s talk about the growing knowledge of O+ in the magnetosphere and Andy Nagy’s presentation of the first data about neutral winds measured from ground-based Fabry-Perot interferometers among many others.  This meeting ended with the discussion of a potential new NASA mission which became Dynamics Explorer, a two spacecraft mission to address what came to be a new paradigm about the degree to which the Earth’s ionosphere supplies plasma to fill its magnetosphere.  This video shows “the way we were” in 1974 with regard to our understanding (or lack of it) more than “a career” ago and it is available to the SPA community.

Many of the same people from the 1974 meeting returned to Yosemite in February, 2014 to discuss this same topic four decades later and to broaden the topic from just the Earth to the Earth and other planets of the solar system.  Now there were many more measurements available such as the new Van Allen Probes at Earth and Cassini at Saturn as well as sophisticated models that could couple the outflow of ionospheric plasma up into the magnetospheres above. This meeting was also captured on video, this time color HD video, and this video is also archived online in the Utah State University Digital Commons and is available to the SPA and planetary communities.  

An AGU/John Wiley monograph, “Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Coupling in the Solar System” has just been published in January of this year.  It consists of papers from the 2014 AGU Chapman Conference at Yosemite and has been edited by Rick Chappell, Bob Schunk, Peter Banks, Richard Thorne and Jim Burch.  The monograph is available in print or electronic versions with a discount for AGU members.  Information can be found at:
http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1119066778.html

The monograph displays our new knowledge about the many aspects of the role of the ionosphere as a major element of magnetospheric plasma supply and dynamics at Earth and other planets.  This monograph has weblinks throughout that can connect the reader to the USU Digital Commons online to view the talks and discussion from both the 1974 and the 2014 conferences.  It represents a unique source of information about these interconnected regions both from coupled models and measurements and it sets the stage for upcoming measurements from recently launched spacecraft such at the Van Allen Probes and the Magnetospheric Multiscale satellites.  It also represents a double “time capsule” look at our understanding over a 40 year period and as such is an excellent source of insight into the history of our SPA science over a significant period of space exploration.  It can be used to introduce new graduate students to some of the leaders in our field who are no longer with us and to be a resource for graduate studies of the history of how our SPA scientific understanding has evolved over this time.

For more information, contact Rick Chappell at:  rick.chappell at vanderbilt.edu

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