Early submissions are strongly encouraged. The number of submissions during the final week before the deadline is usually very high, sometimes causing delays and other problems. You are encouraged to submit your abstract electronically as early as possible.

The first list of abstracts received will be posted on the web in mid October, with updates posted daily.

General Information

There are two major sections to the Web form: a section for administrative details (i.e., submittal information items, authors, corresponding author information, etc.), and a section containing the body of the abstract.

After you have completed the Web form by entering all the necessary information, review all the information for accuracy, particularly the corresponding author's e-mail address. You may choose to preview your formatted abstract before submission. When you are ready to submit you abstract, enter the payment information and click on the "Submit" button. You will receive two forms of acknowledgment: (1) a web page acknowledging the receipt of your submission; and (2) a second acknowledgment (via e-mail) within two business days, following verification of certain elements in your abstract submission.

NOTE:

1. 'Saving' an abstract does not constitute a submission. You must enter payment information and use the 'Submit' button near the bottom of the form to successfully submit your abstract.
2. 'Saved' abstracts may not be reloaded after they are successfully submitted with payment information. Revisions to submitted abstracts, when necessary, must be sent to AGU via regular mail.

LaTeX Commands

The information submitted in the Web form is automatically translated into a LaTeX document for subsequent data extraction and printing. Each individual item given in the Web form is identified by its own command in the LaTeX language. You do not have to be a LaTeX user in order to prepare and submit an abstract using this Web form.

If you are familiar with LaTeX, however, it is important that you do not include any commands (such as \vspace) in your abstract that might change typesetting parameters such as paragraph indentation or type size. These extra commands may not translate properly when processed through the LaTeX software used at AGU, and may cause formatting errors or truncation.

Greek letters, some punctuation, and most mathematical and planetary symbols must be identified in a descriptive format. This format MUST be spelled out and given between dollar signs ($)(e.g., $\alpha$). Failure to do so may result in the deleting of the character.

List of Commonly Used Symbols/Special Characters

1. Lower-case Greek letters

   Note that omicron is simply keyed as lower-case "o" without the backslash "\".

   
        \alpha    \eta      \nu       \tau   
        \beta     \theta    \xi       \upsilon
        \gamma    \iota      o        \phi   
        \delta    \kappa    \pi       \chi   
        \epsilon  \lambda   \rho      \psi   
        \zeta     \mu       \sigma    \omega   
      
   

2. Upper-case Greek letters

   
        \Gamma    \Lambda   \Sigma    \Psi   
        \Delta    \Xi       \Upsilon  \Omega   
        \Theta    \Pi       \Phi   
      

3. Other commonly used characters and symbols include:

     Description                 Command
   
     plus/minus sign (±)         \pm
     minus/plus sign             \mp
     times symbol    (×)         \times
     division symbol (÷)         \div
     tilde sign      (~)         \sim 
     per mil                     Not available in LaTeX. Type 'per mil'.
   

4. Accents - To get the following accents, add the command indicated in the example. 'x' represents the letter to which the accent will apply.

      Description                 Command       Example
   
      Backwards (grave) accent    \`{x}         tout \`{a} vous = tout à vous
      Forward (acute) accent      \'{x}         Gonzal\'{e}z = Gonzaléz
      Caret symbol                \^{x}         \`{a} bient\^{o} = à bientô
      Dieresis (umlaut)           \"{x}         f\"{u}r = für
      Tilde                       \~{x}         se\~{n}or = señor
   

5. Superscripts

   Superscripts are indicated by a caret (^):

   ^{SCRIPT}

   (i.e.,: $\pi r^{2}$ represents the formula for the area of a circle)

6. Subscripts

   Subscripts are indicated by an underscore(_):

   _{SCRIPT}

   (i.e.: $H_{2}O$ represents the chemical formula of water)

7. Angstrom

   The symbol for Angstrom is indicated by

   \AA

8. Sun and Earth

   Sun and Earth symbols are indicated by

   \sun

   and

   \earth

   (i.e.: $M_{\sun}$ will indicate solar mass)

9. Degrees

   Circular degrees can be specified with

   \deg

   (e.g., $45\deg$ indicates 45 degrees)

10. Refer to the GAP LaTeX Help File and GIF images of symbols and codes for additional codes. You may wish to print these files for reference while you compose your abstract.
11. For additional characters, symbols, or accents, please send a message to abs-help@agu.org

Here is a list of some of the problems that are often found in abstract submissions. Avoiding these problems may prevent errors in your abstract submission.

1. To avoid truncated abstracts, limit the body of your abstract to 60 characters per line and use 2 hard returns to separate paragraphs.
2. If you use Word, WordPerfect, or some other word processing software and are pasting text into the boxes in the Web form, be sure to save the file as an ASCII file (plain text, DOS text, etc.).
3. The following punctuation marks are also used as special characters in the LaTeX system; therefore you must put a backslash (\) in front of any that are used in your text, like so:

          \&     \$     \%     \#     \_    \{     \}
   
   

4. Please use upper and lower case letters in the title
   (i.e.: "Status of Geodetic Measurements"; do not enter "STATUS of GEODETIC MEASUREMENTS)".
5. Line breaks, which should ONLY be used in corresponding author's address lines, must be indicated as a double backslash (\\). Please note that these are not the same as forward slashes (//), which don't indicate anything.
6. Any accepted abstract submission will be processed and published as received. AGU does not proofread or edit any abstract submission. We suggest that you review your submission to be sure that all REQUIRED information has been input.

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