----------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Invitation to Participate in the Plasmasphere and Ring Current Working Group at the 1998 GEM meeting ----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Janet Kozyra and Jim Horwitz Dear Colleagues, The GEM meeting is fast approaching. One main focus of the meeting this year will be the formulation of a science strategy for the Plasmasphere - Ring Current component of the Inner Magnetosphere - Storm campaign. We are soliciting inputs from anyone with active interests in such phenomena as ring current decay, plasmasphere filling, magnetic storm modeling and related areas, who is considering participating in the GEM Inner Magnetosphere - Storm campaign. We are in the process of contacting individuals semi-independently of this announcement, but are very interested in receiving additional suggestions particularly of persons who may be considering a sustained activity and/or collaborative efforts in association with this campaign. Delores Knipp will be presenting an overview of the November 1993 storm campaign, the new scientific results that emerged from this effort, the logistics of organizing such an effort and lessons learned. This will be a jumping-off point for discussion on how to organize the storm campaign. By the end of GEM this year, we hope to emerge with a strategy or a number of interlinking strategies to take forward through the coming year and make real progress toward resolving issues that stand in the way of developing an accurate model of the inner magnetosphere, driven by inputs from the solar wind and from the magnetotail. There have been a number of strategies that have emerged from other campaigns over the course of GEM: (1) intensive event studies (such as for the November 1993 magnetic storm), (2) grand challenge efforts (such as in comparison of outputs from global MHD models, (3) studies of a collection of events selected to demonstrate particular effects (such as for the Boundary Layer campaign). For each of these efforts, GEM provided the conduit for data access and collaboration with observational groups, model output dissemination, and interfacing between groups working on related issues mainly through the maintenance of specialized web sites and focused interactions at the annual GEM meetings. At the end of the current GEM meeting we would like to arrive at a list of science issues that must be addressed before an effective model of the inner magnetosphere can be constructed. We would like to make use of the experience acquired through other GEM campaigns and focus on an effective strategy for the Inner Magnetosphere - Storm Campaign. If there are (1) suitable storm events with good data coverage both in the solar wind, the inner tail and the inner magnetophere as well as on the ground, (2) events with less global data coverage that are appropriate for addressing specific issues, or (3) grand challenge efforts that could be undertaken, these could form the basis of an exiting campaign strategy. Please email one of the working group chairs (Janet Kozyra or Jim Horwitz) if you have specific science contributions, data sets or strategy ideas you would like to present at GEM. A tentative schedule for the meeting is available at http://rigel.rice.edu/~GEM/. The inner magnetosphere - storm campaign will meet Monday and Tuesday, June 15 and 16. We look forward to a dynamic and exciting meeting.