[SPA] SPA SECTION NEWSLETTER, Volume XXXI, Issue 14

[Newsletter Editor]

AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION
SPA SECTION NEWSLETTER
Volume XXXI, Issue 14
Feb.27,2024

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Table of Contents

1. NSF Call for GEM Workshop Proposals

2. MEETING: Magnetospheres of Outer Planets Conference 2024 in Minneapolis

3. MEETING: IMC-IV Workshop – Second Announcement

4. MEETING: International Workshop on Monitoring Geospace Disturbances from the Ground: Scientific Challenges, Observational Networks, and International Collaboration

5. MEETING: Selected Venues for European Space Weather Week 2025 and 2026

6. SESSION: Antarctic Space and Atm. Physics: SCAR OS Conference and AGATA Mentoring Programme

7. GeoDAWG Seminar Series

8. Magnetosphere Online Seminar Series

9. Ph.D Student for Studies of Magnetosphere-Ionosphere-Thermosphere Coupling

10. PhD Opportunities in Interdisciplinary Space Sciences and Planetary Research

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


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NSF Call for GEM Workshop Proposals

From: Tai-Yin Huang (thuang at nsf.gov)

We would like to alert you about an open call for GEM workshop proposals to the Magnetospheric Physics program (PD98-5750) within the Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences at NSF.  Although there is no deadline, proposers should plan to submit their proposal before June 15, 2024 to ensure that there is no lapse in running the workshop for 2025.  Proposers should contact Dr. Tai-Yin Huang (thuang at nsf.gov) for more information and to express interest before submission.  


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MEETING: Magnetospheres of Outer Planets Conference 2024 in Minneapolis

From: Ali Sulaiman (asulai at umn.edu)

The next biennial Magnetospheres of Outer Planets Conference will be hosted by the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities on 8-12 July 2024. The main purpose of the conference is to enhance understanding of the physical processes that control the magnetospheres of the four giant planets through the presentation of recent studies, discussions, and collaborative research. The deadline for abstract submissions is on 29 March 2024. More information can be found in https://mop2024.umn.edu/


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MEETING: IMC-IV Workshop – Second Announcement

From: Yuri Shprits, Julia Himmelsbach, Karina Wilgan, Dedong Wang, Anthony A. Saikin, and Alexander Drozdov (imc-iv at gfz-potsdam.de)

The 4th International Magnetosphere Coupling (IMC-IV) workshop will be held in Potsdam, Germany, from June 2nd to 7th, 2024. For a detailed description of the workshop, please see our website:  http://tinyurl.com/IMC2024

The registration is now open. Please note that the submission of the presentation title(s) is part of the registration process. 

Please note the following important deadlines:

• Early bird registration deadline: March 15
• Regular registration deadline: April 15
• Presentation title(s) should be submitted by April 15.

Building on the success of previous workshops, IMC-IV will bring together researchers to examine and discuss: 

- The strongly coupled inner magnetosphere system.
- How disturbances from the sun can propagate to the magnetosphere, thereby radically altering the plasma conditions and wave distributions. 
- How these disturbances ultimately influence the Earth’s ionosphere and upper atmosphere.
- The tools to predict and monitor: space weather, comparative magnetospheres, and global magnetospheric interactions.

As in previous workshops, short presentations will pave the way for in-depth discussions. The presentation time will be matched by an equal time allocated to discussions to promote the exchange of ideas and foster interdisciplinary collaborations.

The discussion leaders will be: Tuija Pulkkinen, Daniel Baker, Jerry Goldstein, Mary K. Hudson, Ondrej Santolik, Yoshizumi Miyoshi, Rumi Nakamura, David Hartley, Claudia Stolle, Miriam Sinnhuber, Juha-Pekka Luntama, Terry Onsager, Emma Woodfield, Drew Turner, Matt Taylor, Larry Kepko, Philippe Escoubet, and Matina Gkioulidou.

Among the invited speakers are: Richard Horne, Lauren Blum, Jean-Francois Ripoll, , Yue Chao, Fabian Darrouzet, David Malaspina, Raluca Illie, Alex Glocer, Austin Brenner, Yoshi Miyoshi, Joe Borovsky, Stefaan Poedts, Yann Kempf, Christy Lentz, Rick Wilder, Kirsti Kauristie, Emma Spanswick, Jens Berdermann, Balazs Heilig, Hilde Nesse, Yosuke Yamazaki, Jay Albert, Frantisek Nemec, Sebastien Bourdarie, Elias Roussos, Kanya Kusano, Rebecca Bishop, Enrico Camporeale, Ferdinand Plaschke, Cristian Ferradas, Lynn Kistler, Scott Thaller, Maria Usanova, Sasha Ukhorskiy, Elena Kronberg, Lauren Blum, and Allison Jaynes.


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MEETING: International Workshop on Monitoring Geospace Disturbances from the Ground: Scientific Challenges, Observational Networks, and International Collaboration

From: Shun-Rong Zhang (shunrong at mit.edu)

Where: São Paulo, Brazil
When: 23-27 September 2024
Abstract Deadline: 31 July 2024
Registration Deadline: 1 September 2024
  
Understanding the fundamental geospace processes that shape our solar-terrestrial environment, encompassing the entangled coupling of magnetosphere, ionosphere, upper atmosphere, lower atmosphere and Solid Earth, is a crucial scientific challenge for the world space weather community and has major societal impacts. To properly address the scientific challenge and make progress on space weather specification and forecast capabilities, the development and synergistic uses of ground-based geospace monitoring, space-borne observations and sophisticated modeling tools is mandatory. With major space missions such as SMILE, GDC, and DYNAMIC targeting global geospace system science on the horizon, coordinated operation of world-wide ground-based observation networks over long periods will be critical to study the diverse multi-scale, multi-regions coupling processes impacting geospace at temporal scales ranging from minutes to decades and even longer.

Workshop Objectives 

The main objective of the workshop is to advocate the unique contributions of ground-based observations and the particular significance of global and regional collaboration in addressing the broad challenge of monitoring and understanding geospace. The workshop will serve as an ideal platform to (1) showcase interdisciplinary discoveries and new progress, and (2) promote discussions aimed at enhancing observational effectiveness through organized networks for ground-based observational coordination. An illustrative example of global collaborative network is the International Meridian Circle Program (IMCP). IMCP focuses on ground-based observations and geospace research along the Great Meridian Circles spanning 120°E/60°W longitudes as well as 30°E/150°W longitudes. The dozens of new observational facilities within the Chinese sectors, for example, constitute a cornerstone of the IMCP in the eastern hemisphere.

Scientific Program

The scientific program of the workshop, which will take place during the peak of the present solar cycle, will cover the broad spectrum of fundamental processes which cause in an intricately way the variability of our space environment: solar and geomagnetic activities, geospace coupling, atmospheric weather and global climate change, earth magnetic field secular changes, and solid earth hazards. Its open format will facilitate in-depth discussions on the sources of geospace variability, relevant modeling of geospace-atmosphere-lithosphere system, and data science. It will also stimulate the emergence of new ideas for instrumentation and international coordination using IMCP and other networks, while fostering synergy between space missions and ground facilities.

A great venue at a symbolic time

Scheduled for the week of 23-27 September 2024, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the workshop will coincide with the 63rd anniversary of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) and the 10th anniversary of the China-Brazil Joint Laboratory for Space Weather. This venue, symbolizing the spirit of collaboration and excellence in space weather research, will be well suited for the international community to engage in discussions about advancing geospace science and monitoring through collaboration.
  
Organizing Committee Co-Chairs 

Chi Wang, National Space Science Center (NSSC), Chinese Academy Sciences, China 
Clezio De Nardin, National Institute for Space Research (INPE), Brazil
Shun-Rong Zhang, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA 
Michel Blanc, Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie (IRAP), Observatoire Midi-Pyrenees, France

Local Organizing Committee and Contact Information

Liwen Ren (lwren at spaceweather.ac.cn)
Patrícia Leite (patricia.leite at inpe.br)
Sheila Huang (sheila.huang at nssc.ac.cn)
Zhengkuan Liu (liuzhengkuan at nssc.ac.cn)


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MEETING: Selected Venues for European Space Weather Week 2025 and 2026

From: Piers Jiggens (piers.jiggens at esa.int)

The European Space Weather Week (ESWW) Programme Committee (PC) is pleased to announce the selected host cities for ESWW in the years 2025 and 2026. The 2025 edition will take place in Umeå, Sweden. The 2026 edition will take place in Firenze (Florence), Italy. These will be the first occasions when these two countries with prominent space weather communities host the event and each will add their own unique flavour to the conference. The ESWW PC is hoping to make an announcement for the host city for 2027 soon.

ESWW 2024 will take place in Coimbra, Portugal from 4th – 8th November 2024. The community is encouraged to routinely check the website for updates:
https://esww2024.org/


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SESSION: Antarctic Space and Atm. Physics: SCAR OS Conference and AGATA Mentoring Programme

From: Wojciech Miloch (w.j.miloch at fys.uio.no)

The Antarctic Geospace and ATmosphere reseArch (AGATA) Programme Planning Group under the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) is a coordinated, worldwide effort to monitor, investigate and better understand the physics of the polar atmosphere and the impact of the Sun-Earth interactions on the polar regions (https://scar.org/science/research-programmes/agata) 

AGATA will be actively present at the SCAR Open Science Conference "Antarctic Science: Crossroads for a new hope", which will be held in Pucon, Chile 19-23 August 2024!

We organise a dedicated scientific session at SCAR OSC titled "From atmosphere to geospace: collaborative efforts in the polar regions".
https://www.scar2024.org/programme/parallel/

Abstract deadline 18 March 23:59 UTC

Convenors: Dr Manuel Bravo, Dr Lucilla Alfonsi, Dr Graciela Molina, Prof Wojciech J. Miloch, Dr Nicolas Bergeot

AGATA Mentoring Programme

AGATA is happy to announce the AGATA mentoring programme for Early Career Scientists and graduate students (PhD level). AGATA mentoring programme aims to bring students and ECS together, provide them with guidance, and support their travel to the SCAR Open Science  Conference. Successful applicants will actively participate in all AGATA activities at SCAR OSC including the AGATA business meeting, and also participate in the online workshops with a dedicated programme before the SCAR OSC. The goal is not only to create a network of young researchers, but also to write and submit collaborative scientific papers led by ECRs.

The candidates to the AGATA mentoring programme should be in the early stage of their career, either PhD students or up to 5 years after the PhD defence by the time of application deadline. Parental leaves, sick leaves etc. will be accounted for.

AGATA mentoring programme can offer scholarships of up to 1000 EURO for covering justified travel expenses to SCAR OSC.

Applicants must submit an abstract to SCAR OSC session: "From atmosphere to geospace: collaborative efforts in the polar regions".

Applications must include:

- CV (max 4 pages)
- Motivation letter (max 1 page)
- Plan for the candidate's research under the umbrella of AGATA (max 1 page)
- Copy of abstract submitted to SCAR OSC
- Cost estimate of their travel to SCAR OSC and request for funding.

Applications have to be send by email by the deadline of 15 March to the AGATA PSG leadership:

Lucilla Alfonsi: lucilla.alfonsi at ingv.it,
Wojciech Miloch: w.j.miloch at fys.uio.no,
Nicolas Bergeot: nicolas.bergeot at oma.be,

with the email subject: "AGATA Mentoring Programme”

Please spread the word.
See you in Pucon!
Best regards
Lucilla, Wojciech, Nicolas
on behalf of the session conveners


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GeoDAWG Seminar Series

From: Tomoko Matsuo, David Themens, Anthony Sciola, Adam Michael (adam.michael at jhuapl.edu)

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to attend the monthly seminar series of the IAGA “Geospace Data Assimilation Working Group” (GeoDAWG). GeoDAWG’s purpose is to provide a forum to aid in the discussion of data assimilative modeling methods across the geospace sciences. More information can be found on our website: https://sites.google.com/view/geodawg/home

Seminars are held virtually at 11 am Eastern Time on the first Tuesday of every month. 

The next seminar will be on March 5th by Ludger Scherliess titled “Data Assimilation for the Ionosphere.”

A link to join the seminar via Zoom can be found on the GeoDAWG website: https://sites.google.com/view/geodawg/seminars, along with the current GeoDAWG seminar schedule.

You can request to join our mailing list, https://sites.google.com/view/geodawg/mailing-list, if you would like to receive our regular newsletter where we share research highlights and information relevant to the community.

Speaker suggestions or questions can be also submitted online: https://sites.google.com/view/geodawg/contact-us, or you can email us directly at iaga.geodawg at gmail.com


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Magnetosphere Online Seminar Series

From: Kyle Murphy (kylemurphy.spacephys at gmail.com)

On Monday March 4 Robyn Milan will kick off the 2024 Magnetosphere Online Seminar Series with a discussion of “CINEMA (Cross-Scale Investigation of Earth's Magnetotail and Aurora): A NASA Small Explorer Mission Concept” at 12 noon eastern. 

Jesper Gjerloev will follow this on March 11 with a discussion of the “The NASA EZIE Mission: What is it and why is it exciting?”. 

The seminars will continue every Monday at 12 noon eastern. If you are interested in giving a seminar please contact us.

A link to join the seminar via Zoom or YouTube can be found on our home page (https://msolss.github.io/MagSeminars/). The password to join the Zoom seminar is Mag at 1. 

Add your name to the mailing list here - https://msolss.github.io/MagSeminars/mail-list.html

And see previous talks here - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNlOK9mCmI3V111EHQRCuEQ


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Ph.D Student for Studies of Magnetosphere-Ionosphere-Thermosphere Coupling

From: Amani Reddy, Vikas Sonwalkar (areddy1 at alaska.edu)

We are looking for a highly motivated PhD student to investigate the response of Earth’s upper atmosphere to changing levels of geomagnetic activity. During geomagnetic storms, high-velocity disturbed neutral winds and high-latitude electric fields penetrating low latitudes catalyze plasma flows along geomagnetic field lines, coupling the nearly collisionless magnetosphere to the highly collisional ionosphere/thermosphere.

This project will focus on understanding the response of coupled Magnetosphere-Ionosphere-Thermosphere system to geomagnetic storms using radio sounding data from the IMAGE satellite, ray tracing inversion method that permits measurements of field-aligned plasma density and composition, and physics-based model simulations (e.g., SAMI2/SAMI3).

The position is funded for three years, with a start around August 2024. The Ph.D. student will belong to the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering or Physics Department and must fulfill the University of Alaska Fairbanks requirements. The ideal candidate is highly motivated for satellite wave data analysis and numerical modeling and has a very strong interest and skill set in Fortran, IDL, MATLAB, Python, and HPC. Prior experience and contribution to open-source projects are strong assets.

The application should include a CV, copies of academic transcripts, links/copies of previously written reports/thesis/publications, and a short (1-page) letter to explain the motivation for the project and demonstrate the required skills in development. 

Applications should be sent by email to: areddy1 at alaska.edu and vssonwalkar at alaska.edu


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PhD Opportunities in Interdisciplinary Space Sciences and Planetary Research

From: Ruth-Sophie Taubner (ruth-sophie.taubner at oeaw.ac.at)

The Young Researcher Program YRP at Graz welcomes applications for PhD positions. YRP at Graz is jointly supported by the Space Research Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the Graz University of Technology, and the University of Graz.

The application process has two stages with which we aim to decrease selection biases: The first stage of the application process is anonymised (submission deadline: April 30th), the second stage takes the form of an interview.

We seek excellent candidates with a strong background in natural sciences. Successful candidates must hold a Master’s degree in (astro)physics, geoscience, computational chemistry, or equivalent at the latest by the starting date of the position but preferably at the time of application. Previous experience on aspects of astrophysics, machine learning and related fields, and a track record of teamwork will be beneficial for the selection, as will experience in computational coding.

The three offered projects are:
•	Machine Learning supported exoplanet cloud modelling
•	Solar Eruptions and their global magnetic environment
•	Magnetic helicity in solar eruptions and related interplanetary disturbances

Details about the offered projects and the application process can be found here: https://www.oeaw.ac.at/en/iwf/research/young-researcher-program/phd-students

We are looking forward hearing from you!


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