[SPA] SPA SECTION NEWSLETTER, Volume XXX, Issue 69

[Newsletter Editor]

AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION
SPA SECTION NEWSLETTER
Volume XXX, Issue 69
Dec.10,2023

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Table of Contents

1. QUAD Agency Memorandum Of Understanding Signed

2. SPA DEIA Townhall at Fall AGU Friday 1-2pm PST

3. SESSION: Mini-GEM Modeling Methods and Validation (MMV) Sessions - Invitation to Participate

4. SHIELD Webinar: Queer Eye for Space Science

5. New Versions of GOES Extreme Ultraviolet Irradiance Data

6. Mauna Loa UCoMP Data Now Available

7. JOB OPENING: Postdoc Position at CU Boulder

8. Visiting Young Scientist Opportunity at Dartmouth College

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


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QUAD Agency Memorandum Of Understanding Signed

From: Jim Spann (james.spann at noaa.gov)

Space weather scientists and experts across the government celebrated a new collaborative effort to improve space weather forecasts and services to mitigate impacts of space weather.  Senior leaders of four federal agencies, NASA, NOAA, NSF and Department of Airforce (DAF) signed a historic Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) designed to encourage and support collaboration among agencies to advance the nation’s space weather research and operations capabilities. The Dec. 7 event was hosted in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

The absence of a formal interagency process for the transition of space weather research-to-operations and operations-to-research has been long recognized as a critical gap in evolving the nation’s ability to improve space weather forecasts and warnings. This agreement provides a structure through which the four agencies can coordinate and collaborate on space weather research-to-operations-to-research. This includes working together to transition capabilities such as models, observations, forecast applications, techniques, and technology- from research into operations. It also means providing and acknowledging feedback and sharing of operational data and information on space weather impacts on infrastructure.

The need for a framework was identified by the White House Space Weather Operations, Research, and Mitigation Subcommittee. It was identified as a critical gap in the nation’s ability to improve space weather forecasts and warnings to support both our important federal space activities as well as the rapidly expanding commercial space economy. To close the gap, the Promoting Research and Observations of Space Weather to Improve the Forecasting of Tomorrow (PROSWIFT) Act (Public Law No: 116-181, Oct 2020, https://www.congress.gov/116/plaws/publ181/PLAW-116publ181.pdf) directs federal agencies to develop formal mechanisms to transition space weather research models and capabilities to operations.


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SPA DEIA Townhall at Fall AGU Friday 1-2pm PST

From: George Ho, Lisa Winter, Edward Gonzales (george.ho at swri.org)

Please come and join the discussion of the important DEIA topic in our section at AGU.

Town Hall Title: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in Space Physics and Aeronomy

Date and Time: Friday, 15 December 2023: 13:00 - 14:00 PST 

Location: MC, Room: 2014 - West  

Session Type: Hybrid 

Panelist:
Margaret Chen (Aerospace)
Kelly Korreck (NASA HQ)
Mark Moldwin (UMichigan)
Lisa Winter (NSF)


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SESSION: Mini-GEM Modeling Methods and Validation (MMV) Sessions - Invitation to Participate

From: Lutz Rastaetter, Michael Liemohn, Alexa Halford, Josh Rigler (lutz.rastaetter at nasa.gov)

Mini-GEM Modeling Methods and Validation (MMV) Sessions - Invitation to Participate

We cordially invite you to the MMV sessions on “Open Science and Cloud Platform Utilization” at the 2023 Mini-GEM on Sunday, Dec. 10 at the Holiday Inn San Francisco – Golden Gateway (500 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco). 

There are two sessions: 12:00 – 13:30 and 13:45 – 15:15 in Gold Rush B.

In our first session, Rebecca Ringuette will present and discuss the “Magnetopause Open Validation Experiment (MOVE).”
The Heliophysics Digitial Resource Library (HDRL) is planning to solicit feedback on their cloud platform.
Representatives from CCMC will present their approach to cloud computing and demonstrate initiatives that support open science.
Most of the remaining time in our sessions will be dedicated to discussion.

The second session will be used to define MMV initiatives that will benefit the GEM community in the Heliophysics Big Year that just started.

If you would like to contribute by presenting, please send us (Lutz Rastaetter at lutz.rastaetter at nasa.gov and Michael Liemohn at liemohn at umich.edu) your 5 minutes’ worth of slides or see us at the beginning of each session.

The Zoom link for virtual participation is available on the GEM website. Please do not forget to register for the mini-GEM.

Lutz Rastaetter, Michael Liemohn, Alexa Halford, Josh Rigler


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SHIELD Webinar: Queer Eye for Space Science

From: Nick Gross (gross at bu.edu)

Next SHIELD Webinar: Queer Eye for Space Science
Friday, Jan. 19th, 2024, 2pm ET 

The value of diversity within a scientific team is well documented. Team members with different backgrounds and experiences bring different perspectives to the problems and challenges faced by the team. This webinar will bring together 3 space scientists who are also members of the LGBTQ+ community to discuss how being queer influenced their trajectory and made their science a richer experience. We will discuss their personal trajectories, mentorships, and aspects such as - did being queer make them do or have a different approach to exploring scientific questions. As usual with our webinars, we will have an unguarded frank conversation and will be open to the audience for questions.

Panelist include:
Merav Opher (she/her), Professor in the Astronomy Department at Boston University.
Edgard G. Rivera-Valentín (they/he) Planetary Scientist at JHU Applied Physics Lab 
Jaye Verniero (they/he); Astrophysicist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. 
For more information: https://shielddrivecenter.com/shield-webinars/


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New Versions of GOES Extreme Ultraviolet Irradiance Data

From: Janet Machol (janet.machol at noaa.gov)

New versions of science-quality Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) irradiance data are now available for GOES-R (GOES-16 through -18) and for GOES-14 and -15.  On the GOES-R series satellites, the EUVS instrument measures irradiance for seven solar lines (25.6, 30.4, 28.6, 117, 121, 131, and 140 nm) and the Mg II core-to-wing ratio (Mg II index). The data products include averages of the solar lines and the Mg II index, as well as an empirically modelled EUV spectrum from 5 to 127 nm.  The GOES-R EUVS science-quality datasets begin in February 2017. The data is available as daily, yearly, and mission-length aggregations in netCDF format and is updated daily.  For GOES-14 and -15, new (Version 5) science-quality Lyman alpha (121.6 nm) irradiances have been created that cover the full mission periods from 2009 to 2020.  We acknowledge many people on the EXIS teams at the University of Colorado CIRES and LASP for their work to produce this data. 

Data, plots, documentation, and sample Python code are available from the  'Level 2 Data' and 'GOES 1-15' tabs at https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/stp/satellite/goes-r.html. Please contact Janet Machol (janet.machol at noaa.gov) and Jamie Mothersbaugh (james.mothersbaugh) for questions or comments or to be added to a mailing list for occasional email updates about GOES EUVS.


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Mauna Loa UCoMP Data Now Available

From: Joan Burkepile (iguana at ucar.edu)

The Mauna Loa Solar Observatory Upgraded Coronal Multi-Channel Polarimeter (UCoMP) coronagraph science data (version 1.0.1) have now been released to the community via the Mauna Loa web page:  https://www2.hao.ucar.edu/mlso

These data cover the period from July 18, 2021 through Nov 9, 2022.  UCoMP observes the solar corona from 1.04 to ~2 solar radii in 9 coronal emission lines. Data have been released for 5 coronal emission lines: FeXIII 1074.7 and 1079.8 nm; FeXI 789.4 nm; FeX 637.4 nm; and FeXV 706.2 nm. Science products are in fits format and include: Level 1 observations of Stokes I, Q, U, and V at multiple wavelengths across each emission line; Level 2 products: Intensity [center wavelength, enhanced and peak]; line-of-sight Doppler velocity; FWHM Line Width; weighted average Stokes I, Q, U, V and linear polarization;  plane-of-sky magnetic field azimuth and radial azimuth; and a noise mask. Quicklook images and movies are also provided.

The UCoMP Data User Guide is provided with every fits tar download and quicklook zip download. Please see the user guide for more information. 

This is the first release of the data and some problems remain. The most significant are stray light, wavelength tuning drift and image alignment. The stray light and wavelength drift impact the line width and Doppler images. We are working to solve these issues for the next release in 2024. The guide includes the link to the github system where you can read details about all UCoMP issues. 

Please report any problems or questions about UCoMP data to mlso_data_requests at ucar.edu 


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JOB OPENING: Postdoc Position at CU Boulder

From: Dave Brain (david.brain at lasp.colorado.edu)

We seek a postdoc to join the “Retention of Habitable Atmospheres in Planetary Systems” (RHAPS) project at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado Boulder. The project is funded by NASA’s Interdisciplinary Consortia for Astrobiology Research (ICAR). The position is at LASP in Boulder, but the successful candidate will spend 50% of their time interacting with team member Alex Glocer from NASA GSFC to work with the PLANETary Ionosphere Thermosphere Tool for Research (PLANET-ITTR) model and the Polar Wind Outflow Model (PWOM). Occasional travel to NASA GSFC will be required. The remaining 50% of their time will be spent interacting with any of the RHAPS team members at LASP and CU (Dave Brain, Mike Chaffin, Kevin France, Aimee Merkel, Zach Berta-Thompson, Bill Peterson, Robin Ramstad) to pursue research relevant to the RHAPS objectives.

These objectives include:
1. Determining stellar inputs for atmospheric escape
2. Modeling upper atmospheric reservoirs for escape
3. Modeling escape processes
4. Comparing models with relevant observations of escape
5. Making model results accessible via a web interface
6. Using model results to estimate atmospheric lifetimes and make predictions for future observations of exoplanets.

The University of Colorado Boulder is committed to building a culturally diverse community of faculty, staff, and students dedicated to contributing to an inclusive campus environment. We are an Equal Opportunity employer, including veterans and individuals with disabilities.

LASP at the University of Colorado Boulder is one of the largest research institutes at the University of Colorado Boulder. With a focus on solar, stellar, space plasma, atmospheric and planetary sciences, LASP employs both experimental and theoretical approaches to answer key science questions. Since its inception in 1948, LASP has developed, operated, and analyzed the data from scientific instrumentation for solar science, Earth atmospheric, planetary, deep-space, and Earth-orbiting spacecraft missions investigating the Sun, all eight planets, Pluto, and beyond. The progressive development of research capabilities and the use of innovative technologies in pursuit of emerging research initiatives ensures a continued leadership role for LASP in today’s growing “new space” era.

More information can be found at: https://jobs.colorado.edu/jobs/JobDetail/?jobId=53331. Or contact david.brain at lasp.colorado.edu 


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Visiting Young Scientist Opportunity at Dartmouth College

From: James LaBelle (james.w.labelle at dartmouth.edu)

A visiting appointment for a recent Ph.D. scientist is available at Dartmouth College.  The appointment would be for up to 6 months starting August or earlier in 2024. The position includes teaching in the departments of Physics and Astronomy, Engineering, or Earth Sciences.  Extension of appointment may be possible using appropriate sponsored research projects.  To qualify, candidates must be U.S. citizens engaged in research related to space science, planetary science, astrophysics, remote sensing, aerospace technology, or technology dependent on space-based platforms.  To apply, send a 1-2 page summary of short-term and long-term (career) teaching and research goals, curriculum vitae, and the names of three references to: Visiting Young Scientist, c/o James LaBelle, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Dartmouth College, 6127 Wilder Hall, Hanover, NH 03755, or by email to james.w.labelle at dartmouth.edu.  For more information, e-mail james.w.labelle at dartmouth.edu.  Applications will be reviewed starting January22, 2024.  The position is funded by NASA NH Space Grant. Dartmouth College is committed to diversity in hiring, and members of under-represented groups are encouraged to apply.


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