Monday June 27, 10:30 AM-12:00 PM in La Terraza
Chairs: Robert Winglee and Bill Peterson
Specifying the global outflow of ions of all energies and validating them observations is necessary for progress in global magnetospheric models. This session is a follow on to the challenge issued in a joint session with GGCM campaign at the 2004 summer workshop. An interval (14:30 on 3/18/97 to 02:00 on 3/19/97) with well defined solar wind conditions and mass resolved ion outflow data from Akebono, Polar, and FAST was identified as an example. Data for this interval is available at the URL: ftp://willow.colorado.edu/pub/exchange/GEM/
We are interested in hearing from modelers who have used this or other event data to validate their large scale simulations.
We are also interested in hearing about recent global average observations of the polar wind, energetic ions, and especially observations on the altitude the rate of energy gain as a function of altitude in the auroral zone.
Other presentations related to ionospheric outflows/polar wind and their interaction in the magnetosphere and/or plasmasphere are also welcomed.
Please notify the conveners: Robert Winglee winglee@geophys.washington.edu and Bill Peterson Bill.Peterson@lasp.colorado.edu of your intention to participate. Please give them a short description of what you plan to say and how long you will need to say it. We want to encourage discussion so we, strongly encourage short focused presentations.
Schedule:
Monday June 27, 01:30-03:30 PM in La Terraza
Chairs: Josh Semeter and Bill Lotko or Peterson
Large scale magnetospheric models currently account for the electromagnetic decoupling of the magnetosphere and ionosphere (associated with the auroral acceleration, or 'GAP' region) by invoking the ``Knight relation" and the "Robinson formulas". These relations, however, constitute crude approximations that apply only to the upward current region. Acceleration processes and associated decoupling also occur in downward current regions and in Alvenic acceleration on auroral field lines.
There is a strong need for practical parameterizations of this 'gap region'. In this session we seek to approach the problem from a system identification perspective; we solicit contributions that address the question: What are the critical inputs and outputs required to characterize the gap region for global models?
Please notify the conveners: Josh Semeter ( jls@bu.edu ) and Bill Peterson Bill.Peterson@lasp.colorado.edu of your intention to participate. Please give them a short description of what you plan to say and how long you will need to say it. We want to encourage discussion so we, strongly encourage short focused presentations.
Schedule:
Monday June 27, 04:00-06:00 PM
The structure and composition of the polar ionosphere are altered not only by direct forcing (e.g., precipitation, wave heating, convection, solar production), but also indirectly as a result of plasma instabilities (e.g., gradient-drift, Farley-Buneman). This induced variability influences M-I coupling in two broad ways. First, structure is commensurate with density gradients which, in turn, lead to polarization fields when currents are present, affecting the rate and distribution of Joule dissipation. Second, any process which affects composition affects the reservoir of ions available for magnetospheric extraction. Plasma transport across an open-close field line boundary is such a process.
The purpose of this session is to explore physical connections between processes that structure the high latitude ionosphere and models of magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling at all scales. Particularly encouraged are new and provocative ideas that address (solidly or speculatively) the validity of current models. Lower latitude results that fit into this theme are also welcome.
If you wish to contribute a viewpoint at this session, please notify Josh Semeter ( jls@bu.edu ) with a brief description, including how much time you think you would need.
Tuesday June 28, 01:30-03:00 PM & 04:00-06:00 PM
The GEM MI Coupling campaign has added a new working group this year to focus on global-scale observations and modeling of distributions of currents, electric fields, and ionospheric conductance. An associated topic is the amount, distribution, and partitioning of energy deposition in the MI system. Recent global observations have provided some of the first quasi-instantaneous and quasi-global measurements of the Poynting flux flowing through the MI interface [e.g., Waters et al., 2004; Korth et al., 2005]. These observations supplement existing capabilities of estimating the global precipitating particle energy flux into the ionosphere. Both of these quantities and their relative amplitudes and distributions are critical to global models that now couple to the ITM system. Poynting flux has also been found to be a useful parameter for characterizing ionospheric outflow processes [Strangeway et al., 2005].
We solicit contributions concerning the observation and modeling of global patterns of Poynting flux (at both DC and AC frequencies) and precipitating particle energy flux as a function of solar wind and IMF driving. We also solicit presentations that illustrate how these drive or effect MI coupling processes such as ionospheric outflow or thermospheric heating. Since this is the first session of a new working group, we are particularly interested in brief presentations and ones that explore or advocate possible future "GEM challenges" in this area.
Contact the session organizers David Murr ( David.Murr@Dartmouth.edu ) if you wish to contribute a viewpoint to this session.
Joint session, Wednesday, June 29 01:30-03:30 PM in La Fonda Ballroom
overflow: Thursday June 30, 01:30 -03:30 PM in La Fonda Ballroom
Chairs: Josh Semeter and Bill Peterson
GEM modeling has progressed to the point where investigators are comfortable tracing field lines and identifying the boundary of the open/closed field lines as the poleward auroral boundary.
With the advent of AMISR and support of the large array of ground and space based instrumentation that simultaneously cover a significant fraction of the auroral oval region it makes sense to start thinking about if and how information about the instantaneous location of the poleward and equatorward auroral boundaries can be derived and used either as ground truth or validation of large scale magnetospheric codes.
We are organizing a breakout session for a discussion of these issues. In the spirit of the workshop mode, and to provoke thoughtful discussion, we solicit short, less than 3 viewgraph, presentations on techniques for identifying auroral boundaries in models and data acquired from ground and space based observatories. We especially solicit short discussions on how the equatorward and poleward boundaries of the auroral oval could be identified in large-scale magnetospheric codes. We suggest, but do not require, that presenters focus on the set of well defined intervals that are the subject of special issues of AGU publications http://www.agu.org/pubs/call4/sunearth04.html : The violent Sun-Earth connection events of October-November 2003, or the April 2002 events.
Please notify the organizers: Josh Semeter, jls@bu.edu and W.K. (Bill) Peterson, Bill.Peterson@lasp.colorado.edu if you plan to present in this session.
Speakers have been asked to limit themselves to ~3 View Foils and discuss the unique aspect of their boundary identifications
Schedule:
Wednesday, June 29 04:00-06:00 PM
This session will challenge modellers and experimenters
to characterise the statistical properties of fluctuations in the M-I system
(e.g.,
power spectra in time and space, probability distributions of
fluctuations (e.g., velocity differences) at varying separations in time
and space, etc.) and to compare these properties in order to answer specific questions:
The challenge to modellers and experimenters is to look at much larger quantities of data than usual in order to access varying scales and get good statistics. How do we do this? Do we need new instruments, computers, technologies?
If you wish to contribute a viewpoint at this session, please notify Mervyn Freeman <MPF@bas.ac.uk> or David Murr <david.murr@dartmouth.edu> with a brief description, including how much time you think you would need.