[SPA] SPA SECTION NEWSLETTER, Volume XXIV, Issue 57

[Newsletter Editor]

AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION
SPA SECTION NEWSLETTER
Volume XXIV, Issue 57
Oct.19,2017

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Table of Contents

1. Request for Information: Input to the Geospace Dynamics Constellation Science and Technology Definition Team

2. MEETING: Fundamental Physical Processes in Solar-Terrestrial Research and Their Relevance to Planetary Physics 2018, 7-13 January 2018, Kona, Hawaii - Abstract and Registration Deadline: October 31, 2017

3. MEETING: Environments of Terrestrial Planets under the Young Sun: Seeds of Biomolecules, April 9-13, 2018, Greenbelt, Maryland

4. Monday Science Telecon

5. VarSITI Newsletter Vol.15

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Announcement Submission Website: http://goo.gl/forms/qjcm4dDr4g


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Request for Information: Input to the Geospace Dynamics Constellation Science and Technology Definition Team

From: Jared Leisner (jared.s.leisner at nasa.gov)

NASA is soliciting information to provide as input to the formulation process of the next major Living With a Star mission, Geospace Dynamics Constellation. Responses of up to 10 pages should be submitted by November 16, 2017, via NSPIRES in response to NNH18ZDA002L.

Consistent with the 2013 Heliophysics Decadal Survey (“the Decadal Survey”), Solar and Space Physics: A Science for a Technological Society, NASA intends to form an Science and Technology Definition Team (STDT) in late 2017 to conduct a study of mission options, including new science and technology options, for its next major Living With a Star mission, Geospace Dynamics Constellation (GDC). This study will include an assessment and update of the science rationale for the mission and the provision of science parameters, investigation approaches, key mission parameters, and any other needed scientific studies.

In order to inform the STDT process, NASA seeks information from the broader scientific community as input to the STDT. The requested information includes, but is not necessarily limited to, the GDC science goals, potential mission architectures, potential scientific instrumentation and/or measurements, and how GDC will fit into the larger Heliophysics System Observatory and can relate to missions flown by non-NASA organizations. 

NASA particularly encourages the submission of responses on relevant scientific and technological discoveries, innovations, and advances that have been made since the Decadal Survey’s publication.

For more information, including instruction on how to submit a response, please see the full text of the RFI which may be found on NSPIRES under NNH18ZDA002L.

Questions concerning this Request for Information should be addressed to Jared Leisner at jared.s.leisner at nasa.gov.

The RFI may be found at: https://nspires.nasaprs.com/external/solicitations/summary!init.do?solId={FF6DA437-295D-7ADD-C402-90AC2C133DDA}&path=open


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MEETING: Fundamental Physical Processes in Solar-Terrestrial Research and Their Relevance to Planetary Physics 2018, 7-13 January 2018, Kona, Hawaii - Abstract and Registration Deadline: October 31, 2017

From: Hui Zhang, Tony Lui, Qiugang Zong  (hzhang14 at alaska.edu)

Abstract and Registration Deadline: October 31, 2017

Abstract submission is open at https://goo.gl/forms/OfHxMDn3Eh8ikPCI2

Please register and/or purchase guest tickets at the following link:
https://epay.alaska.edu/C21563_ustores/web/store_cat.jsp?STOREID=7&CATID=209&SINGLESTORE=true

Registration Fee: $450 before October 31; $550 after October 31, 2017 (includes icebreaker on Sunday, coffee breaks, lunches Monday-Friday, conference banquet on Thursday, excursion to Volcano Park)

A conference on Fundamental Physical Processes in Solar-Terrestrial Research and Their Relevance to Planetary Physics will be held from 7 to 13 January 2018 in Kona, Hawaii.  The main theme of this conference is to focus on understanding the variability of space plasma phenomena, encompassing those related to the Sun and all planets within our solar system.

Variability of space plasma environment is the norm rather than the exception. The cause of this variability is still under active research. In the interplanetary medium, plasma parameters change continually, permeated by plasma waves, shocks, turbulence, co-rotating interaction regions, and coronal mass ejections that agitate the environment. Such disturbances in the solar wind can lead to geomagnetic storms, which do not seem to produce relativistic electrons in the radiation belt according to their intensity. The ionosphere has variability that impacts severely radio communications. Its outflows during geomagnetic active periods can modify dramatically the magnetospheric population and physical processes within.

In other planets, plasma sources from their moons play a similar role in influencing magnetospheric environment and processes much like that of the Earth's ionospheric plasma source. Information exchange on magnetospheric research between Earth and other planets can provide valuable insights into universal processes occurring throughout our solar system. Understanding and predicting the variability of space plasma phenomena requires knowledge of not only individual physical processes or magnetospheric phenomena but also the interplay between them in a system-wide approach.

More information on the conference is available at the following link:  http://hawaiiconference2018.gi.alaska.edu

Conveners: Hui Zhang, Tony Lui, Qiugang Zong
Scientific Program Committee: David Sibeck, Guan Le, Philippe Escoubet, Hiroshi Hasegawa, Dong-Hun Lee


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MEETING: Environments of Terrestrial Planets under the Young Sun: Seeds of Biomolecules, April 9-13, 2018, Greenbelt, Maryland

From: Vladimir Airapetian (vladimir.airapetian at nasa.gov)

International Symposium "ENVIRONMENTS OF TERRESTRIAL PLANETS UNDER THE YOUNG SUN: SEEDS OF BIOMOLECULES" will be held on April 9-13, 2018, hosted by the Sellers Exoplanet Environments Collaboration at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA. 

This symposium is a major international interdisciplinary conference in the emerging area of astrobiology covering astrophysical, physico-chemical, atmospheric and geological aspects of environments of early terrestrial planets with a focus on the impacts of the young Sun's space weather on the precursors of life.

The understanding of impacts of external factors on prebiotic chemistry including UV and particle fluxes from the young Sun (and other active stars) along with the physio-chemical evolution of planetary atmospheres under the influence of their volcanic and tectonic activity will sharpen our definition of habitability on early terrestrial and terrestrial-type exoplanets. It will also help to specify environmental constraints for prebiotic atmospheric chemistry experiments that will better specify the most plausible pathways to the origin of life. This is only possible by forming a key linkage between astrophysics, heliophysics, planetary scientists, Earth science and the prebiotic chemistry/origin of life community.


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Monday Science Telecon

From: David Sibeck (david.g.sibeck at nasa.gov)

At 12:00 noon EST on Monday (October 23), we plan to hold the next in our ongoing series of science telecons. The speaker this Monday will be Joseph B. Jensen from University of New Hampshire. The topic will be "When polar cap potential and reconnection rate don’t agree; understanding viscous interaction and polar cap saturation".

The telecom will be broadcast live via webex. If you would like to join, please
go to http://uclaigpp.webex.com/, search for the ‘Dayside Science' meeting, enter your name and contact information, and then the meeting password, which is Substorm1!

To hear the audio, do not dial the number that pops up on the webex website. Instead, please dial the following toll free (in the United States) number:
1-844-467-6272
with passcode 901533

Please remember to mute your telephone if you are not speaking.

Looking forward to speaking with you.


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VarSITI Newsletter Vol.15

From: Kazuo Shiokawa and Katya Georgieva  (shiokawa at nagoya-u.jp)

SCOSTEP's VarSITI (Variability of the Sun and Its Terrestrial Impact, 2014-2018)

VarSITI Newsletter volume 15 has now been published.  The PDF file is available at 

http://newserver.stil.bas.bg/varsiti/newsL/VarSITI_Newsletter_Vol15.pdf

Below are the contents of this volume.  

Contents of VarSITI Newsletter Volume 15

Articles
1. Solar Irradiance Monitor on-board FengYun 3 Meteorological Satellites
2. Space Weather Studies of IONOLAB Group
3. Progress reached by ROSMIC WG3 “Trends in Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere”

Highlights on Young Scientists
1. Julia K. Thalmann/ Austria
2. Sushant S. Mahajan/ USA

Meeting Reports
1. The Second VarSITI General Symposium, 10-15 July 2017, Irkutsk, Russia
2. International Capacity Building School on “Advanced Concepts in Solar-Terrestrial Coupling in the Context of Space Weather”
3. LPMR workshop
4. 2nd International School on Equatorial and Low-Latitude Ionosphere (ISELLI-2)
5. IAU Symposium 335

Upcoming Meetings

Short News
1. Effort towards the Next Scientific Program of SCOSTEP
2. SCOSTEP's 14th Quadrennial Solar-Terrestrial Physics Symposium (STP 14), July 9-13, 2018, York University, Toronto, Canada


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