[GEM] THE GEM MESSENGER, Volume 27, Number 57

[Newsletter Editor]

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     THE GEM MESSENGER
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Volume 27, Number 57
Nov.30,2017

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

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Table of Contents

1. GEMstone Volume 27 Number 3 Available Online

2. 2017 Mini GEM Joint Session Magnetotail Dipolarizations and Substorms

3. 2017 Mini-GEM Session: Dayside Kinetic Processes in Global Solar Wind-Magnetosphere Interaction

4. 2017 Mini-GEM Sessions: Modeling Methods and Validation Focus Group joint with CCMC/LWS Tracking Progress Working Group

5. AGU Fall Meeting SM31C: Bringing Space Down to Earth: Space Physics in the Laboratory, Wednesday, 13 DEC 2017, 8:00-10:00am, Room R02-R03

6. NASA Living With a Star Institute - Call for Proposals

7. JOB OPENING: NASA GSFC Civil Servant Position in Geospace Physics

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1. GEMstone Volume 27 Number 3 Available Online
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From: Peter Chi (pchi at igpp.ucla.edu)

A new issue of the GEMstone Newsletter (Volume 27, Number 3) is available online at:

http://spc.igpp.ucla.edu/gem/GEMstone/GEMstone_Vol27_No3.pdf

Contents include:
- Notes from NSF Program Director
- Notes from GEM Chair
- Solar Wind-Magnetosphere Interaction Research Area Report
  + Dayside Kinetic Processes Focus Group
  + Lunar Distances Focus Group
- Magnetotail and Plasma Sheet RA Report
  + Testing Proposed Links Focus Group
  + Magnetotail Dipolarization Focus Group
- Inner Magnetosphere Research Area Report
  + SIMIC Focus Group
  + IMCEPI Focus Group
  + QARBM Focus Group
- Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Coupling Research Area Report
  + M3-I2 Focus Group
  + 3D Ionospheric Electrodynamics Focus Group
- Global System Modeling Research Area Report
  + Modeling Methods & Validation Focus Group
  + Magnetic Reconnection Focus Group
  + UMEA Focus Group
  + Geospace System Science Focus Group
- Workshop Coordinator Report
- Student Representative Report
- GEM Steering Committee
- List of GEM Focus Groups

Past issues of the GEMstone Newsletter are archived at the GemWiki at http://aten.igpp.ucla.edu/gemwiki/index.php/Newsletters.


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2. 2017 Mini GEM Joint Session Magnetotail Dipolarizations and Substorms
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From: Toshi Nishimura, Kyle Murphy, Emma Spanswick, Jian Yang ,Christine Gabrielse, Matina Gkioulidou, Slava Merkin, Drew Turner, David Malaspina (kyle.r.murphy at nasa.gov)

The “Magnetotail Dipolarization and Its Effects on the Inner Magnetosphere” and “Testing Proposed Links between Mesoscale Auroral and Polar Cap Dynamics and Substorms” Focus Groups are hosting a joint session at Mini GEM on December 10, 2017. The joint session will be held in the Azalea conference room from 12:00-13:30 at the Hilton Garden Inn New Orleans. The focus of the session is comparing and contrasting the effects of storm-time substorms, isolated substorms, and steady magnetospheric convection (SMC) on the inner magnetosphere. This includes, for instance, the intensity and depth of injections, auroral activations, wave activity, and the effect on the outer radiation belt. A set of “challenge” events will be introduced to solicit community participation in the analysis of observational data and global modelling of these “challenge” events leading up to GEM 2018. We also invite the community to submit short studies or additional “challenge” events on storm-time substorms, isolated substorms, and SMCs by emailing Kyle Murphy at kyle.r.murphy at NASA.gov.


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3. 2017 Mini-GEM Session: Dayside Kinetic Processes in Global Solar Wind-Magnetosphere Interaction
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From: Heli Hietala, Gabor Toth, Xochitl Blanco-Cano, Andrew P. Dimmock (heli at igpp.ucla.edu)

We invite you to participate in the Dayside Kinetics Focus Group’s session at the upcoming mini-GEM meeting on Sunday December 10 at the Hilton Garden Inn New Orleans Convection Center. 

Time: 15:30-17:00 PM, Sunday, December 10, 2017
Location: Canal Room

The session will consist of two parts.

Part 1: Dayside Kinetics Challenge

We encourage presentations and discussion on the Dayside Kinetics joint observation-modeling challenge: the southward IMF event on 2015-11-18 around 02:00 UT featuring, among others, MMS, Geotail, and SuperDARN observations of magnetopause reconnection and magnetosheath waves. 

More information on the Challenge is available at:
https://ccmc.gsfc.nasa.gov/support/GEM/Dayside_Kinetic_Processes/Dayside_Kinetic_Challenge/Introduction.php

Part 2: Contributed presentations

We encourage short presentations of your work on observations and modeling of kinetic processes at the magnetopause, magnetosheath, bow shock and foreshock as well as their global connections. 

If you’d like to speak in our session, please send your talk title, scheduling preference (part 1 or 2), and whether it’s AGU material or work in-progress to Heli Hietala (heli at igpp.ucla.edu) by Thursday, Dec 7.

We also encourage you to attend and participate in the discussions. Hope you will join us! 

More information on the focus group can be found at
http://www-ssc.igpp.ucla.edu/gemwiki/index.php/FG:_Dayside_Kinetic_Processes_in_Global_Solar_Wind-Magnetosphere_Interaction

Heli Hietala, Gabor Toth, Xochitl Blanco-Cano, and Andrew P. Dimmock


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4. 2017 Mini-GEM Sessions: Modeling Methods and Validation Focus Group joint with CCMC/LWS Tracking Progress Working Group
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From: Katherine Garcia-Sage, Alexa Halford, Adam Kellerman (katherine.garcia-sage at nasa.gov)

We’d like to invite everyone to participate in our joint mini-GEM (http://www.cpe.vt.edu/gem-mini/) sessions between the GEM Metrics and Validation group and the International Forum for Space Weather Capabilities Assessment’s working group Assessment of Understanding and Quantifying Progress Toward Science Understanding and Operational Readiness  (We’re working on getting a shorter name). We will have two sessions at Mini-GEM both in the St. Charles/50 room at the Hilton Garden Inn New Orleans Convention Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. Please contact Alexa Halford (Alexa.J.Halford at aero.org) if you would like to present a few slides at either of the mini-GEM sessions.

Session 1 at 12:00 – 1:30 
We hope to have a quick update on the metric and validation GEM focus group and conductance challenge followed by the introduction and discussion of how to apply Application Usability levels (AULs).

Session 2 at 1:50 – 3:20 we will discuss how to find industry/government end users and applications. How to cold call an industry group you think may be interested, what conferences do they attend and what type of talks would be well received at these conferences, and what were the benefits of forming these collaborations.  

We will continue these discussions as well as others centered around metrics and validation at our panel session Monday 8am in New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center 
Room 243-244 https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm17/meetingapp.cgi/Session/24743 . And as this is AGU, I’m sure the discussions will continue more informally throughout the week as well.

Finally, if you’re involved or want to get involved in the ongoing conductance challenge, our first event is the 2016 Oct 13-15 ICME event. The concept for the challenge is that modelers would run at least two versions of their code, one with an "old" conductance specification and another with a "new” specification. If your model self-consistently calculates conductivities, you can do this by testing two different precipitation inputs. And of course we need data for this event, too! We’ll aim to coordinate model-data comparisons by email and/or telecon after the new year. If you have data or model results to contribute and want to get involved or have any questions, please email Katherine Garcia-Sage (katherine.garcia-sage at nasa.gov).


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5. AGU Fall Meeting SM31C: Bringing Space Down to Earth: Space Physics in the Laboratory, Wednesday, 13 DEC 2017, 8:00-10:00am, Room R02-R03
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From: Amy Keesee (Amy.Keesee at mail.wvu.edu)

Laboratory experiments provide an important complement to spacecraft missions to study key questions at the forefront of space physics, including turbulence, magnetic reconnection, particle acceleration, and instabilities. The ability to control parameters, better diagnostic access, and reproducibility are significant advantages that experiments have over spacecraft measurements, making them an important addition to theoretical studies, numerical simulations, and spacecraft observations of space plasmas. Experiments can be performed to determine the physics underlying observed phenomena, test analysis techniques, and inform future spacecraft missions. Because the laboratory and space physics communities often don’t communicate, this session convenes a panel of experts from both communities to highlight common ground, covering new scientific results, analysis techniques, and open questions. These topics are relevant to current and future space missions, including Magnetospheric MultiScale, Van Allen Probes, Solar Probe Plus, GOLD, ICON, Juno, Cassini, and MAVEN.

PANEL DISCUSSION: This session follows an alternate format with 8 panelists (listed below), including laboratory experimentalists and spacecraft instrumentalists across solar, heliospheric, geospace, and planetary fields to provide as broad a range of perspectives on this topic as possible. Audience members will have the opportunity to pose questions to the panel to learn more about efforts to use laboratory experiments to bolster our study of space science. We invite all members of the AGU space science community to attend and contribute to the discussion. We have three key goals for this panel discussion:

1) Introduce the AGU space physics community to previous, ongoing, and upcoming efforts to exploit laboratory experiments as a complementary approach to explore the physics of the space environment. In particular, we hope to highlight how the controlled and accessible nature of laboratory experiments can overcome a number of limitations inherent to spacecraft measurements.
2) Identify key space physics questions where laboratory investigations have the potential to make a unique contribution to our understanding of the problem.
3) Highlight current and future opportunities where improvements in experimental facilities, diagnostic capabilities, or analysis methods can make possible new investigations that fill in important gaps in our understanding of the mechanisms at play in space physics.

Panelists:
Craig A. Kletzing, University of Iowa
Bill Amatucci, Naval Research Laboratory
Thomas E. Moore, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Kristina A. Lynch, Dartmouth College
Daniel F. Berisford, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Shreekrishna Tripathi, UCLA
Justin C. Kasper. University of Michigan
Robert P. Hodyss,  Jet Propulsion Laboratory


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6. NASA Living With a Star Institute - Call for Proposals
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From: Susanne Demaree (cpaess-apply at ucar.edu)

Announcing the NASA Living With a Star Institute
Call for Proposals

Application deadline:  1 March 2018

Purpose

The goal of the NASA Living With a Star program is to “Develop the scientific understanding necessary to enable the U.S. to effectively address those aspects of the connected Sun-Earth system that directly affects life and society.” 

An LWS Institute Working Group (WG) proposal will:

• Focus on a particular technology area that will be positively affected by space weather research advances, 
• Identify a team that is composed of members who perform heliophysics research that is relevant to the affected technology, who forecast or model space weather for this technology, and who use (or who will use) this technology (when it is successfully improved),
• Describe how the team will quantify and parameterize the magnitude and pathways of the impacts on the affected technology and will scope the new ranges of targeted research that accordingly will be needed, and
• Articulate the impacts of this targeted research by envisioning the resulting, improved operational capability that will make a positive difference to society.

Proposals should focus on:

• Improving understanding of the process and/or magnitude of the impacts of space weather on the selected system, 
• Identifying the science needed to enable our forecast ability for that system, and
• Outlining, if not executing, research that may develop abilities to reduce the impacts of space weather on that system. 

2018 Working Group topics area:

We are seeking proposals that develop these principles in relation to one or other of the following two topics: 

• TEC and ionospheric scintillation for GPS applications

• Prediction and specification of >10 MeV proton flux

Proposals should focus on reviewing the current state of the art models and observations, evaluate how leading predictive models agree with in situ measurements and identify paths forward for addressing the key science and application gaps that need to be solved for improvements in models and predictions. 

How the program works:

Up to twice a year, a call for applications will be released for international teams of scientists to address specific topic areas related to the broad theme of Living With a Star, including pure and applied research into the nature of space weather and space climate phenomena and their impacts on society and its infrastructure. Teams may be made up of approximately 8 to 15 scientists from different research labs, universities, and industry, from different countries and with complimentary expertise. The teams will meet approximately twice in a 12-month period for about a one-week duration each time.  Meeting locations may vary depending upon cost and home institution locations of the participating scientists.

For details and how to apply, please visit the website:

https://cpaess.ucar.edu/opportunities/ncep-research-collaboration-opportunities


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7. JOB OPENING: NASA GSFC Civil Servant Position in Geospace Physics
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From: Eftyhia Zesta, Barbara Giles (barbara.giles at nasa.gov)

The Geospace Physics Laboratory (Code 673) at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center is seeking a highly skilled scientist to provide expertise in space plasma physics theory, modeling, and simulation development.  This is a civil servant position with NASA.  Applications at the GS13 or GS14 level are being accepted through the USAJOBS web site at http://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/484977900.

The Geospace Physics Laboratory is part of the Heliophysics Division at GSFC and is NASA’s largest organization of scientists, engineers, and technologists dedicated to understanding the Sun’s interactions with the Earth’s geospace system and with the other bodies of the solar system.  The lab has 16 civil servant scientists and upwards of 24 contractor scientists, postdocs, students, and engineers.  The lab manages the MMS mission and its Fast Plasma Investigation, supports a vibrant theory and modeling/simulation group, and has several instrument technologies and mission concepts under development.  Applications must be received at the USAJOBS site no later than Dec 22, 2017.


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The Geospace Environment Modeling (GEM) program is sponsored by the Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences (AGS) of the National Science Foundation (NSF).

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