AGU Chapman Conference on Universal Heliophysical Processes (IHY)
Savannah, Georgia, USA
10–14 November 2008
Conveners
- Nancy Crooker, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Marina Galand, Imperial College, London, England, UK
Program Committee
- Terry Forbes, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, USA
- Joe Giacalone, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA
- Wing Ip, National Central University, Jhongli City, Taiwan
- Chris Owen , University College London, Surrey, England, UK
- George Siscoe, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Roger Smith, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska, USA
- Jan-Erik Wahlund, Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala, Sweden
- Gary Zank, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, California, USA
Sponsors
To come.
Conference Objectives and General Description
The conference title reflects the primary science theme of the 2007–2008 International Heliophysical Year (IHY), advancing our understanding of the fundamental heliophysical processes that govern the Sun, Earth, and heliosphere. The conference program will reflect the approach to research described in the 2004 report of the National Research Council (NRC), Plasma Physics of the Local Cosmos (available online), which is organized into five categories: creation and annihilation of magnetic fields, formation of structures and transients, plasma interactions, explosive energy conversion, and energetic particle acceleration. This approach seeks to find universal physical laws through comparative studies in the laboratory of the solar system. It contrasts with the less-focused, traditional approach that deals with a heterogeneous collection of structures and processes that have fixed locations and distinct modes of organization, like sunspots, solar flares, coronal mass ejections, the solar wind, solar energetic particles, Earth's bow shock, magnetopause, magnetotail, magnetosphere, substorms, radiation belts, and auroras. Each has been the sole or featured subject of at least one conference and at least one book. This compartmentalization of study that pervades the basic side of the field inhibits desired progress from a derivative to a stand-alone field of science. It invites ad hoc explanations instead of universal explanations that apply generally to plasmas in the cosmos. The objective of the conference is to help focus efforts on finding the universal explanations.
Format
Five days, to include invited presentations in each of the five categories listed above followed by discussion sessions addressing specific questions in those categories. All submitted abstracts will be treated as poster presentations; during the discussion sessions, participants will be free to show one or two figures from their posters that are relevant to the questions. Sessions on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday will close with a poster session that is also a social hour. An afternoon outing and dinner banquet are planned for Wednesday.
Schedule
| Monday, 10 November | |||
| Introduction | |||
| 9:00 | Opening Remarks | Nancy Crooker and Marina Galand | |
| 9:15 | Unifying principles and purview of heliophysics | George Siscoe, Roger Smith | |
| Topic 1: Creation and annihilation of magnetic fields | |||
| 10:15 | Creation and annihilation of magnetic fields | Aad van Ballegooijen | |
| 10:45 | Break | ||
| 11:15 | Comparative studies of reconnection signatures in the magnetosphere and solar wind | Jack Gosling | |
| 11:45 | Evidence for and against Axford's conjecture that magnetic reconnection in cosmic contexts is driven by global-scale as opposed to kinetic-scale requirements | John Dorelli | |
| 12:15 | Lunch | ||
| 14:00 | Discussion | ||
| Can some synthesis view be reached between Axford’s conjecture and kinetic control of reconnection? | |||
| How much particle acceleration and plasma heating occur in the diffusion region at the reconnection site, as a direct result of the process, and how much occurs outside the region as the plasma with its embedded, reconnected fields accelerates away from it? | |||
| 15:30 | Break | ||
| 16:00 | Discussion, continued | ||
| 17:00 | Poster session with refreshments and cash bar | ||
| 18:30 | Adjourn | ||
| Tuesday, 11 November | |||
| Topic 2: Formation of structures and transients | |||
| 9:00 | Commonalities between turbulence, flux rope structure, and current sheets | Joe Borovsky | |
| 9:30 | Comparative shock studies | Merav Opher | |
| 10:00 | Comparative turbulence studies | Bill Matthaeus | |
| 10:30 | Break | ||
| 11:00 | Discussion | Moderator, TBD | |
| Are there general laws (e.g., self-organized criticality, minimum energy, or minimum rate of entropy generation) that govern gravitationally tethered and gravitationally free, magnetically organized structures? | |||
| Are there scaling laws that apply? | |||
| 12:30 | Lunch | ||
| 14:00 | Discussion, continued | ||
| What universal properties of turbulence transcend the boundary between magnetically and gravitationally organized matter? (suggestion from Roger with a possible invited moderator) | |||
| More questions | |||
| 15:00 | Break | ||
| Topic 3: Plasma interactions | |||
| 15:30 | Comparative planetary ionosphere-neutral atmosphere interactions | Tim Fuller-Rowell | |
| 16:00 | Comparative solar wind — planetary magnetosphere — ionosphere interactions (with | ||
| emphasis on magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling and solar wind influence on this coupling) | Michel Blanc | ||
| 16:30 | Solar wind interactions with unmagnetized bodies | Janet Luhmann | |
| 17:00 | Poster session with refreshments and cash bar | ||
| 18:30 | Adjourn | ||
| Wednesday, 12 November | |||
| 9:00 | Discussion What factors control solar wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere-neutral atmosphere interactions (e.g., planetary rotation, strength of internal field, distance from the Sun, dipole and rotation axis orientation compared with the orbital plane)? To what extent? |
Moderator, Jan-Erik Wahlund and Marina Galand | |
| What are the commonalities and differences in terms of drivers and physical processes between the different types of plasma interactions encountered in the solar system? | |||
| What do we need to know to predict the behavior of a planetary magnetosphere (e.g., Earth), say, when the dipole strength was half or twice its present value? or with solar wind properties changed to reflect an earlier time in the history of the solar system? (relates to early Earth and exoplanet conditions) | |||
| 10:30 | Break | ||
| 11:00 | Discussion | Moderator, Wing Ip | |
| What can space physics say about wave-particle interactions and acceleration processes (observed in comet-solar wind interaction and Io/ Enceladus plasma torus) to astrophysics? | |||
| What is the role of dust–plasma interaction in planetary rings? | |||
| What can space physics say about the formation of planets and the ionization of the accretion disk? What is the role of dust in the formation of stars? | |||
| 12:00 | Lunch | ||
| 13:00 | Excursion and conference dinner | ||
| Thursday, 13 November | |||
| Topic 4: Explosive energy conversion | |||
| 9:00 | Comparison of CME and magnetospheric substorm initiation mechanisms I | Terry Forbes | |
| 9:30 | Comparison of CME and magnetospheric substorm initiation mechanisms II | Michael Hesse | |
| 10:00 | Comparative planetary substorms | Emma Bunce | |
| 10:30 | Break | ||
| 11:00 | Discussion | Moderator, TBD | |
| To what extent does the process of CME initiation versus propagation determine CME speed? | |||
| Are bursty bulk flows in the magnetotail and blobs emanating from the corona both manifestations of reconnection processes in the wake of explosive energy conversion? | |||
| 12:30 | Lunch | ||
| 14:00 | Discussion, continued | ||
| More questions | |||
| 15:00 | Break | ||
| Topic 5: Energetic particle acceleration and plasma heating | |||
| 15:30 | Comparisons of inner radiation-belt formation in planetary magnetospheres | Richard Horne | |
| 16:00 | Universal nature of suprathermal tails (ACRs, SEPs, pick-up ions, solar wind, | ||
| planetary magnetospheres) | George Gloeckler | ||
| 16:30 | Universal aspects of diffusive shock acceleration | Randy Jokipii | |
| 17:00 | Poster session with refreshments and cash bar | ||
| 18:30 | Adjourn | ||
| Friday, 14 November | |||
| Topic 5: continued | |||
| 9:00 | Discussion | Moderator, Joe Giacalone | |
| What mechanisms may be responsible for suprathermal tails? | (Gloeckler) | ||
| How can diffusive shock acceleration explain observations of energetic particles at heliospheric shocks? | |||
| 10:30 | Break | ||
| 11:00 | Discussion, continued | ||
| Might inductive electric field acceleration associated with substorms be responsible for GeV particles associated with flares? | (Schwadron) | ||
| Are there universal aspects of 2nd-order Fermi acceleration? | |||
| Conclusion | |||
| 12:00 | Discussion | Moderator, George Siscoe | |
| What are the most productive avenues for future research? | |||
| 13:00 | Adjourn | ||
Expected Participation
80–100 attendees from the fields of aeronomy and solar, heliospheric, and magnetospheric physics.
Abstract Submission
Abstract Submission Deadline: 12 September 2008
Please submit your abstract for a poster presentation using the abstract submission instructions.
Registration
Pre-Registration Deadline: 12 September 2008
Please complete the pre-registration form if you plan to attend but will not be submitting an abstract for a poster presentation.
Registration Deadline: 6 October 2008
Registration fees will be set in mid-August and will not exceed $450 for full registrants and $200 for students and those from low income countries. A reduced one-day registration fee will be available.
Registration fees will include a Sunday Welcome Reception (9 November), morning and afternoon refreshment breaks, a Wednesday afternoon tour and Wednesday evening dinner (12 November). The conference will adjourn on Friday at 1300 h (14 November).
Accommodations
Housing Deadline: 6 October 2008
A block of room is being held at the Mulberry Inn in Savannah, Georgia. The hotel is offering conference participants sleeping rooms at the rate of $129.00 for a single or double occupancy room. Reservations can be made by calling the hotel directly at (912) 238-1200. Be sure to mention that you are attending the AGU Chapman Conference. This rate will only be available until 6 October 2008.
Travel Support
Deadline: 10 September 2008
In anticipation of funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation, applications are solicited from U.S. students for travel grants to this conference. To apply, please e-mail the following information to Professor Crooker, crooker@bu.edu.
- Name, institution, year in graduate school, name and contact information of thesis director
- Short paragraph stating why topic of conference is of interest to you
- Abstract for poster paper
Further Information
If you have questions or would like to be placed on a mailing list (be sure to include the name of the meeting you are interested in), e-mail chapman-help@agu.org or call the AGU Meetings Department at +1-202-777-7329.
