[SPA] SPA SECTION NEWSLETTER, Volume XXV, Issue 67

[Newsletter Editor]

AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION
SPA SECTION NEWSLETTER
Volume XXV, Issue 67
Oct.20,2018

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Table of Contents

1. Dear Colleague Letter: Mid-Scale Research Infrastructure (Mid-scale RI) Opportunities

2. MEETING: Chapman Conference on Scientific Challenges Pertaining to Space Weather Forecasting Including Extremes -- Final Announcement

3. SESSION: Geospace Sessions at the ESA Living Planet Symposium

4. Monday Science Telecon, October 22

5. JOB OPENING: Assistant Teaching Professor in Physics (Multiple Positions)

6. JOB OPENING: Postdoc Position at Univ. California at Berkeley, Space Sciences Lab.

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


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Dear Colleague Letter: Mid-Scale Research Infrastructure (Mid-scale RI) Opportunities

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

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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MEETING: Chapman Conference on Scientific Challenges Pertaining to Space Weather Forecasting Including Extremes -- Final Announcement

From: Anthony Mannucci (anthony.j.mannucci at jpl.nasa.gov)

Dear Colleagues,

We cordially invite you to attend the Chapman Conference on “Scientific Challenges Pertaining to Space Weather Forecasting Including Extremes” occurring February 11-15, 2019 in Pasadena, California, USA (https://bit.ly/2v7XLjY). We look forward to bringing together the solar and geospace communities to review and advance our scientific understanding of solar-terrestrial relationships as they relate to forecasting space weather, from moderate to extreme conditions. We hope to have strong international participation and a diverse pool of participants. This Chapman Conference is meant to create new community perspectives that will accelerate space weather forecasting as a scientific discipline, and address the barriers that currently exist in its development. 

Discussion among the participants will be a major focus of the meeting. The outcome of the discussion will be used to suggest new research directions within the community. 

The abstract submission deadline is only a few days away: October 24, 2018 (https://bit.ly/2M1Br1B). Travel and registration fee support has been requested and may be available via AGU travel grant application (see website). 

Warm Regards,
Conveners: 
Anthony Mannucci, Delores Knipp, Huixin Liu, Surja Sharma, Bruce Tsurutani, Olga Verkhoglyadova

Program Committee:
Yue Deng, Alexa Halford, Cheryl Huang, Mamoru Ishii, Farzad Kamalabadi, Kanya Kusano, Hermann Lühr, Tomoko Matsuo, Larry Paxton, Tuija Pulkkinen, Nathan Schwadron and Harlan Spence

Local Organizing Committee:
Xing Meng and Ryan McGranaghan


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SESSION: Geospace Sessions at the ESA Living Planet Symposium

From: Guram Kervalishvili, Eelco Doornbos (gmk at gfz-potsdam.de)

Dear colleagues,

I would like to draw your attention to the Geospace sessions at the ESA Living Planet Symposium. The symposium will be held on 13-17 May, 2019 in Milan, Italy. For more details, the symposium website is available at http://lps19.esa.int/, and the Geospace session descriptions are copied below.

Please kindly consider to contribute to a session and to distribute the information about this symposium to your colleagues. The deadline for abstract submission is 11 November 2018.

A.7 Geospace
A7.01 Geospace system science: thermosphere, ionosphere, magnetosphere and their coupling

Regular Contributed
Description: 
This session deals with geospace science on all temporal and spatial scales. It includes new results based on ESA (such as but not limited to Swarm and GOCE) and Third-Party missions and affiliated observing systems, and also novel physics-based modelling approaches for improved understanding of geospace and space weather. Specifically, we solicit contributions on the first-order questions in thermosphere, ionosphere and magnetosphere science, with particular emphasis on coupling between the various elements. Elements linked to ESA's ambitious 4D Ionosphere activities and their link with world-wide R&D activities are particularly welcome. 

Convenors: Claudia Stolle (GFZ), Eelco Doornbos (TU Delft), Jonathan Burchill (U. Calgary), Rune Floberghagen (ESA), Roger Haagmans (ESA))

A7.02 Upper/lower atmosphere coupling

Regular Contributed
Description: 
This session invites contributions dealing with the coupling between the lower and the upper layers of the Earth's atmosphere. Nowadays, many phenomena occurring in the troposphere and stratosphere are regularly observed in-situ by satellites equipped with suitable sensors measuring key parameters of the charged and neutral particle environment. Whistlers, TLEs, gravity waves, planetary waves, atmospheric tides and even observations of high-risk extreme events such as earthquakes, hurricanes, typhoon are steadily reported in the literature. In view of for example ESA's Swarm mission a number of such findings have been reported.However, few meetings offer a platform to discuss these findings with an adequate view to defining research priorities and objectives to arrive at a better physical understanding of this type of coupling phenomena and how it can be used to better understand our home planet and its interaction with the geospace environment.

Convenors: Ian Mann (U. Alberta), Ewa Slominska (OBSEE), Rune Floberghagen (ESA), Roger Haagmans (ESA)
A7.03 Space weather

Regular Contributed
Description: 
Space weather can have profound effects on the science and operations of European Earth observation satellite missions. These can range from ionospheric effects on satellite radar and tracking signals to thermosphere drag affecting orbit and formation maintenance. 
Often, the mitigation measures available on board Earth observation satellites, such as dual frequency radiometric systems, can also provide interesting information on space weather events.
Missions like Swarm and GOCE have already provided direct space weather related data products and inputs to space weather and space climate models.
This session aims to bring together contributions on these topics, in particular related to current limitations, new developments, and data products, related to space weather. 

Convenors: Eelco Doornbos (U. Delft), Guram Kervalishvili (GFZ)


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Monday Science Telecon, October 22

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

At 12:00 noon EST on Monday (October 22), we plan to hold the next in our ongoing series of science telecons. The speaker this Monday will be Yasuto Hoshi from ISAS/JAXA. The topic will be "Seasonal and solar wind control of the reconnection line location at the Earth's dayside magnetopause".

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 (Meeting number: 280 328 066), 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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JOB OPENING: Assistant Teaching Professor in Physics (Multiple Positions)

From: Ofer Cohen (ofer_cohen at uml.edu)

The Department of Physics and Applied Physics at the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML) invites applications for a number of teaching faculty positions to begin September 2019.  We are especially interested in candidates who can complement and/or enhance existing instructional service programs in the department.
The applicant would be expected to teach introductory-level high-enrollment Physics and Astronomy courses. The successful candidate should have a strong commitment to teaching at both the undergraduate and graduate levels with skills that complete and enhance the department’s growing base of full-time faculty. Additional duties would include coordination of the graduate teaching assistants leading the laboratory component of these high-enrollment lecture courses.  

Minimum Qualifications (Required):
• Ph.D. in Physics or related field (must have Ph.D. by the time of appointment)
• Demonstrated teaching ability in physics and excellent communication skills-Ability to work effectively with diverse groups 

Special Instructions to Applicants:
Please include a CV, cover letter, teaching statement/philosophy, evidence of teaching and teaching evaluations with your application.  Names and contact information for three references will be required at the time of application.

To apply, visit the URL:
http://explorejobs.uml.edu/lowell/en-us/job/495957/assistant-teaching-professor-in-physics-multiple-positions


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JOB OPENING: Postdoc Position at Univ. California at Berkeley, Space Sciences Lab.

From: Andrew Poppe (poppe at ssl.berkeley.edu)

The Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL) at the University of California, Berkeley seeks applications for a full-time (100%) Postdoctoral Scholar with an appointment start date between November 1, 2018 and February 1, 2019. The Postdoctoral Scholar will work with Dr. Andrew Poppe in the fields of lunar and small body plasma and exospheric research as part of the DREAM2 team of NASA’s Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI). The successful applicant will join a dynamic and productive group of researchers investigating solar and magnetospheric plasma interactions with the Moon, asteroids, the moons of Mars, and the outer planet satellites. Research is conducted via both analysis of existing in-situ datasets from missions such as ARTEMIS and MAVEN, and via numerical modeling across a broad range of scales.

The initial appointment will be for two (2) years, with the possibility of renewal based on performance and availability of funding. The position will remain open until filled.

Preferred Qualifications:

Ph.D. in physics, astrophysics, astronomy, planetary science, or a related field.
Skills and/or experience of particular interest include:
 - hybrid and/or particle-in-cell simulations of plasma interactions with airless bodies
 - analysis of particle and magnetic field data from in-situ observations
 - neutral Monte Carlo modeling of satellite exospheres

For full information and to apply, please visit: https://aprecruit.berkeley.edu/apply/JPF01945 

Please address inquires to Dr. Andrew Poppe at poppe at berkeley.edu 


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