[GEM] THE GEM MESSENGER, Volume 28, Number 50

Newsletter Editor editor at igpp.ucla.edu
Tue Oct 16 18:10:10 PDT 2018


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     THE GEM MESSENGER
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Volume 28, Number 50
Oct.16,2018

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

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Table of Contents

1. NSF Dear Colleague Letter: Mid-Scale Research Infrastructure 

2. GEM Merged Modeling and Measurement of Injection of Ionospheric Plasma into the Magnetosphere (M3I2) Focus Group: 2018 Workshop Report

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1. NSF Dear Colleague Letter: Mid-Scale Research Infrastructure 
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From: Carrie Black (cblack at nsf.gov)

https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2019/nsf19013/nsf19013.jsp?WT.mc_id=USNSF_25&WT.mc_ev=click

October 15, 2018

Dear Colleagues:

Mid-Scale Research Infrastructure (Mid-scale RI) is an NSF-wide Big Idea designed to address the research community's growing needs for contemporary research infrastructure to support the advancement of science and engineering research, as well as science, technology, engineering and mathematics education research. Mid-scale RI will fund the implementation of experimental research capabilities in the mid-scale range (i.e., with a total project cost of between $6 million and $70 million). The overall objective of Mid-scale RI is to transform scientific and engineering research fields by making available new capabilities, while simultaneously training researchers in the acquisition, implementation, development, design, and/or construction of cutting-edge infrastructure.

Mid-scale research infrastructure has been identified as critical for scientific advances in many research areas. In recognition of this scientific importance, the 2017 American Innovation and Competitiveness Act (AICA) directed NSF to "evaluate the existing and future needs, across all disciplines supported by the Foundation, for mid-scale projects" and to "develop a strategy to address the needs identified." NSF issued a Dear Colleague Letter (NSF 18-0131) and received responses whose execution would require $8 billion to $10 billion in funding for projects in the $20 million to $100 million range.

This fall, NSF intends to announce Mid-scale RI funding opportunities. These will be for research infrastructure that will advance the frontiers of discovery in any of the research domains supported by NSF.2 These forthcoming funding opportunities are intended to encompass research infrastructure broadly defined, from the creation of mid-scale disciplinary instrumentation to the implementation (including acquisition and construction) of mid-scale facilities, cyberinfrastructure and other infrastructure that are demonstrated to be necessary to support specific science, engineering or education research objectives associated with current or future NSF-supported research activities. This portfolio may also include mid-scale upgrades to existing research infrastructure.

NSF anticipates that one solicitation will include an opportunity to propose Mid-scale RI projects with a total project cost of between approximately $6 million and approximately $20 million, pending the availability of funds. A second solicitation is expected to include an opportunity to propose Mid-scale RI projects with a total project cost of between approximately $20 million and approximately $70 million, pending the availability of funds.

Both Mid-scale RI programs will emphasize strong scientific merit, responsiveness to an identified need of the research community, technical readiness for implementation, sound management, and a well-developed plan for training students and involving a diverse workforce in mid-scale facility development and/or data management.

CONTACTS
Information regarding the Mid-scale RI funding opportunities will be available this fall via the NSF website. The funding opportunities will list NSF-wide and directorate-specific points of contact. In the meantime, general questions about this Dear Colleague Letter may be addressed to:

MSRI at nsf.gov

Sincerely,

Joanne S. Tornow, Assistant Director (Acting), BIO
James Kurose, Assistant Director, CISE
Karen Marrongelle, Assistant Director, EHR
Dawn M. Tilbury, Assistant Director, ENG
William E. Easterling, Assistant Director, GEO
Anne Kinney, Assistant Director, MPS
C. Suzanne Iacono, Office Head, OIA
Rebecca L. Keiser, Office Head, OISE
Arthur W. Lupia, Assistant Director, SBE


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2. GEM Merged Modeling and Measurement of Injection of Ionospheric Plasma into the Magnetosphere (M3I2) Focus Group: 2018 Workshop Report
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From: Barbara Giles, Shasha Zou, and Rick Chappell (rick.chappell at vanderbilt.edu)

The Merged Modeling and Measurement of Injection of Ionospheric Plasma into the Magnetosphere (M3I2) and Its Effects—Plasma Sheet, Ring Current, Substorm Dynamics GEM focus group held four sessions at the GEM meeting in Santa Fe. The focus group sessions took place on Thursday, June 21 and Friday, June 22.  The sessions consisted of a few invited talks to set the stage for the sessions, but were set up in the workshop mode so that everyone could show their data and models. 

The scope of the three workshop sessions focused on the upflow/outflow from the ionosphere, the effects of outflow on the magnetosphere, and merged modeling of the ionospheric outflow and the magnetosphere population and dynamics. The fourth session was an open discussion and planning for future focus group activities.  The four sessions with the speakers and their topics are shown below.  The storm periods that have been chosen for study so far are:  2016 Mar 4-8 (DOY 64-68), 2016 Oct 11-15 (285-289), and 2016 May 6-10 (127-131).

General Overview

There have been exciting new results both in the observations of ion upflow/outflow and in the merged modeling of the outflow and the magnetosphere.  Ground-based ISRs show clear magnetic local time, solar wind and geomagnetic activity dependences of ion upflows. Sounding rocket experiment revealed heavy ion upwelling dynamics. Observations of the composition of the magnetospheric plasmas are beginning to show the relative strengths of the ionospheric and solar wind sources.  New data from the VAP and MMS spacecraft will be very important for this study in the immediate future.  VAP and MMS data are also showing the ionospheric outflow in the lobes of the tail and its entry into the plasma sheet and ring current.  The effects of the ionospheric source on fundamental processes in the magnetosphere was reviewed and shown to be widespread and potentially very significant.

The merged modeling of the ionospheric outflow and the magnetospheric plasmas is beginning to give a unique insight into the relative contributions of the outflowing ionospheric H+ and the solar wind H+.  Multi-fluid, merged models can track the movement of each of these H+ sources separately and show their relative contributions and dynamics during the course of a storm.  The details of the ionospheric source contributions in these merged models are continuing to increase enhancing the accuracy of the overall model results.

A large portion of the planning session addressed the need to bring together ionospheric upflow/outflow and inner magnetosphere/magnetotail dynamics groups in sharing both observational data and models.  The mutual interests and opportunities that exist between these two groups is significant and can be realized through joint focus group sessions as well as possible specialized topical workshops in the future.  Initial discussions regarding both approaches were positive and will be pursued at the next GEM meeting.  The outlook for this merged focus group approach both for observations and models holds excellent promise and will be a key to progress in magnetospheric systems studies.

Focus Group Sessions

Observations/Physical Processes of Upflow/Outflow
—Rick Chappell, Focus Group co-Chair emeritus: Overview of Working Group Goals
—Invited: Lynn Kistler of UNH: Recent Outflow Observations using MMS, Cluster, and also ARASE!
—Invited: Matina Gkioulidou: Van Allen Probe observations of ion outflow
—Marc Lessard of UNH: Rocket observations of N2+ upwelling in the cusp region
—Chih-Ping Wang of UCLA: Contribution of tail mantle and LLBL to ionospheric upflow
—Jun Liang of UCalgary: REGO and ePOP observations of Alfvenic Aurora

Observations/Physical Processes of the Coupled Ionosphere-Magnetosphere System as a Consequence to Upflow/Outflow
—Invited: Joe Borovsky of SSI in Boulder: Impacts of ionospheric plasmas on 			magnetospheric behavior
—John Wygant of Univ MN: Observations of Strong Field-aligned Poynting Flux in the Earth's Magnetosphere and Its Role in the Efficient Driving of Intense Outflowing Ion Energy Fluxes in the Cusp and Tail
—Tian Shen: Additional comments
—Shasha Zou of UMichigan: PFISR observations of ion upflow and downflow

Advances/Issues in Modeling of the Coupled Ionosphere-Magnetosphere System and Model-Data Comparisons
—Invited: Alex Glocer of NASA Goddard: Ionospheric Contributions to the 				Magnetosphere - blue H+ vs red H+!
—Invited: Roger Varney of SRI: Effects of Neutrals on Ion Outflow
—Jonathan Krall: SAMI3 simulations suggest a connection between the tongue of ionization and the plasmasphere plume.
—Rick Chappell: MMS FPI observations of ion outflows
—Naritoshi Kitamura of the Univ of Tokyo: Cold ion observations by MMS at the lobe and near PSBL
—Naritoshi Kitamura: In-situ Observation Plans in Next Japanese Space Exploration Mission(FACTORS) for Ion Acceleration/Heating Processes in the Terrestrial Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Coupling System

Focus Group Planning Session — Further work on the Community Storm Studies for Upflow/Outflow
—Rick Chappell, Focus Group co-Chair emeritus: Summary of Progress, thoughts for the next year
—Barbara Giles of NASA Goddard Additional access to Polar TIDE outflow data base, new tools, new data products
—Chao Yue, UCLA VAP observation of O+ in the ring current


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