Contents of this message

1. Complete press conference schedule 
2. Attention PIOs: Sending press releases to Fall Meeting
3. Reminder: Gala Press Evening
4. Who’s coming
5. Press registration information
6. Press Registration Form

The following press conferences are planned, as of the date of this advisory. Please note that any press conference may be rescheduled to a different time or day or may be cancelled. Participants may change from those listed here. Other press conferences may be added. Any changes subsequent to this message will be announced in the Press Room at the meeting. All press conferences take place in Room 112 Moscone, with one exception, noted below.

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Day: Friday, December 6
Time: 8:00 a.m.
Topic: Overview of Fall Meeting
Description: With many hundreds of sessions and thousands of oral and poster presentations, Fall Meeting can be overwhelming. Press conferences highlight just a fraction of the exciting news emanating from the meeting. If any one person has a grasp on the meeting as a whole, it is Robert Wesson, chair of the committee that organized all of the sessions and special events. He will suggest some sessions worthy of your consideration for which there are no press conferences.

Participant:
• Robert Wesson, U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, Colorado; Chair, AGU Fall Meeting Program Committee.

Day: Friday, December 6
Time: 9:00 a.m.
Venue: Note: This press conference takes place in the Visualization Theater in Hall C.
Topic: New tools for visualizing and analyzing large data sets in the Earth sciences
Description: Recent advances in numerical simulation and data collection have produced an enormous need to analyze and visualize large data sets in such fields as atmospheric motions, earthquake clusters and numerical simulations of turbulent behavior. In the special Visualization Theater in Hall C, researchers will demonstrate some of the state-of-the-art techniques by which visualization assists comprehension of complex dynamics in the geosciences. These will include large data sets generated by the world's biggest computer , The Earth Simulator in Japan, which far outperforms the next 12 largest computers in the world.

Participants:
• Zack A.O. Garbow, Minnesota Supercomputing Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota;
• John R. Baumgardner, T-Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico;
• Hiroaki Matsui, Research Organization for Information Science and Technology, Tokyo, Japan;
• Gordon Erlebacher, School of Computational Science and Technology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida
• Geoffrey Fox, Institute of High Performance Computing, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.

Relates to Session: NG61A

Day: Friday, December 6
Time: 11:00 a.m.
Topic: Recent Changes in the Antarctic Ice Sheet, Natural Variability, and Global Warming
Description: The Antarctic Ice Sheet is changing rapidly. Some of the recent changes can be attributed to global warming and an increased surface melting (e.g. breakup of the Larsen B Ice Shelf). New satellite measurements have also shown that floating ice shelves and grounded glaciers may experience very rapid basal melting (tens of meters per year) when in contact with warm ocean water. Changes in the flow rate of large Antarctic ice streams appear to be controlled by internal processes rather than recent climate. They may, however, represent a delayed response to the large climatic warming that marked the beginning of the Holocene (around 10,000 years ago).

Participants:
• Slawek Tulaczyk, Department of Earth Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz, California;
• Christina L. Hulbe, Department of Geology, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon;
• Ian R. Joughin, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California; 91109
• Douglas R. MacAyeal, Department of Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois;
• Eric J. Rignot, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California.

Relates to Session: C51A

Day: Friday, December 6
Time: 12:15 p.m.
Topic: Atmospheric transport of manmade pollutants
Description: Rapid industrialization of the Asian continent is expected to be the primary driver for global change in atmospheric composition over the next decade, with implications for climate change and for air quality in downwind continents. Atmospheric observations from the ACE-Asia, ITCT-2K2, and TRACE-P aircraft missions over the Pacific are providing new constraints on the emissions of environmentally important gases and aerosols from the Asian continent. These missions are also providing new information on the radiative properties of the Asian aerosol, the chemical aging of the Asian outflow over the Pacific, the transpacific transport of pollutants to North America, and the impact on air quality in the United  States. Substantial evidence now indicates that the ozone levels in the air masses reaching the West Coast of the U.S. have increased by about 30 percent over the last two decades.

Participants: 
• David D. Parrish, Research Chemist, Aeronomy Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Boulder, Colorado;
• Barry Joe Huebert, Department of Oceanography, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii;
• Daniel J. Jacob, Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts;
• James H. Crawford, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia.

Relates to Session: A51D

Day: Friday, December 6
Time: 2:00 p.m.
Topic: New insights into hotspots in the Hawaiian-Emperor Seamounts
Description: The bend in the Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain is portrayed in nearly all geology textbooks as an example of a change in plate motion. However, new observations question this basic interpretation. This press conference will highlight new results from Ocean Drilling Program Leg 197, as well as other modeling and experimental studies that are forcing a reconsideration of the nature of hotspots, mantle geodynamics, and plate tectonic interpretations based on the fixed hotspot hypothesis.

Participants: 
• John A. Tarduno, Professor, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York;
• Robert A. Duncan, Professor, College of Oceanic & Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon;
• David Scholl, Consulting Professor, Department of Geophysics, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

Relates to Session: T61C

Day: Friday, December 6
Time: 3:00 p.m.
Topic: Life in extreme environments on Earth – and where else in the solar system?
Description: Life is no more (and no less) than a special type of organic chemistry. Any chemical system having the capability to spontaneously combine and to self-replicate will undergo natural selection, evolving in structure to replicate faster through more efficient use of molecular resources and energy. Chemical transformations that might support energy and chemical metabolisms are known in environments as acidic as the aerosols in the atmosphere of Venus, or as basic as the atmosphere of Jupiter. Sparse microbial populations, relying on hydrogen and sulfur for "currency" in deep South African mines seem able to sustain themselves without the benefit of the surface world and its photosynthesis. It implies the possibility of life independent of surface processes, as in a Martian aquifer, for instance. Under the sea, the recent discovery of the Lost City Hydrothermal Field (LCHF) raises the possibility that such systems may have existed, or currently exist, elsewhere in the solar system. The LCHF is unlike any previously known hydrothermal field in that it, for example, hosts at least 30 active and inactive carbonate-brucite chimneys that tower up to 60 meters above the seafloor.

Participants: 
• Tullis C. Onstott, Department of Geosciences, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey;
• Deborah Kelley, School of Oceanography, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington;
• Steven Benner, Department of Chemistry, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.

Relates to Session: B62A

Day: Saturday, December 7
Time: 8:00 A.M.
Topic: Blowing in the Winds: New Applications for Scatterometer Research
Description: On the eve of the launch of NASA's newest SeaWinds scatterometer instrument this month, this press conference looks at the significant contributions QuikScat data is making to numerical weather prediction, helping to save lives and property, and also presents some of the ever-broadening applications of scatterometer data. Researchers will share their findings and offer a glimpse of future possibilities in such areas as flood detection, monitoring the growing season in northern forests, and the surprising effects typhoons have on creation of new marine life.

Participants:
• Son V. Nghiem, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California;
• W. Timothy Liu, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California;
• Kyle McDonald, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California;
• Bob Atlas, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland.

Relates to Session: OS62D

Day: Saturday, December 7
Time: 9:00 a.m.
Topic: Particle acceleration at heliospheric shocks
Description: Every hour, the Sun ejects a billion tons of its atmosphere toward Earth at a speed of 1-2 million miles per hour, driving shock waves. These shocks can cause large increases in radiation levels, affecting satellites, the space station, and data/voice communication. Scientists are convinced that shock acceleration is the cause of the strongest Solar Energetic Particle (SEP) event. Huge amounts of observational data are collected with the help of Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) and other spacecraft. Recent model calculations have revealed and confirmed some observed features of particle intensities and spectra, but fundamental questions remain unclear. For example, it is still not known exactly which particles are energized -- the relatively slow "solar wind" or the much rarer, but faster, particles called "suprathermals."

Participants: 
• Gary P. Zank, Director of Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Professor of Physics, University of California, Riverside, California;
• Glenn Mason, Professor of Physics, Department of Physics and I.P.S.T., University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland;
• Allan J. Tylka, Research Scientist, High Energy Solar Radiation Section, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington D.C.
• Mihir I. Desai, Assistant Research Scientist, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland.

Relates to Session: SH61A

Day: Saturday, December 7
Time: 11:00 a.m.
Topic: Recent changes in the polar latitudes: Evidence of global warming?
Description: Evidence of climate change is already becoming apparent in the higher latitudes of the globe. Snow, ice and frozen ground dominate the polar latitudes, and climatic warming yields dramatic changes and substantial impacts. There are many reasons why changes occur. For parts of the year, large areas of the Arctic and Antarctic have temperatures near zero Celsius. As temperatures become warmer or remain warmer for longer periods, glaciers melt, sea ice degrades, permafrost thaws, and the ecosystem responds to these changes in the physical environment. This Union session has drawn experts from many specialties and from around the world to present evidence of rapid change. Although any individual indication of change may not be proof of global warming, the conclusion from the combined evidence may be that the Arctic and Antarctic are entering a state not seen in recorded history.

Participants: 
• Larry Hinzman, Water and Environmental Research Center, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska;
• Jean O. Dickey, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California;
• Konrad Steffen, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado;
• James Morison, Applied Physics Laboratory, Polar Science Center, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington;
• F. Stuart Chapin, Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska;
• Mark C. Serreze, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado.

Relates to Session: U71A

Day: Saturday, December 7
Time: 2:00 p.m.
Topic: Measuring Earth's gravity precisely
Description: On March 17, 2002, the twin GRACE satellites were successfully launched from Plesetsk, Russia. GRACE is a joint NASA/DLR/GFZ mission, whose purpose is to provide pioneering observations of the Earth's gravity field and its changes over time, by precisely measuring the distance between the satellites at the micron level. These gravity field measurements will enable significant improvements in our understanding of ocean circulation and will provide first of a kind observations of mass variations associated with land surface hydrology and polar ice sheets. In the first six months of the mission, the project team activated the science instrumentation, performed initial calibrations, and generated the first prototype gravity fields, which significantly improve on pre-GRACE knowledge. Further improvements are expected. Current mission status and future science applications will be described at this press conference.

Participants: 
• Michael M. Watkins, GRACE Project Scientist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California;
• Byron D. Tapley, GRACE Principal Investigator, Center for Space Research, University of Texas, Austin, Texas;
• John M. Wahr, GRACE Science Team Member, University of Colorado and Cooperative Institute for Research in Enviromental Sciences, Boulder, Colorado.

Relates to Session: G72A

Day: Saturday, December 7
Time: 4:00 p.m.
Topic: Scientific targets for EarthScope
Description: EarthScope is a planned assemblage of geophysical instruments that will provide direct measurement of the current structure and motion of the continental United States at a scale that has never before been attempted. The EarthScope Instrument and its accompanying science program will allow examination of the connection between the long-term, large-scale, forces that have shaped North America, the structures in the continent that control the movement caused by these forces, and their interaction, which occasionally instigate the catastrophic expressions of the dynamic Earth: earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The AGU session will examine recent results of small-scale projects that follow similar approaches as EarthScope, including results from a recently drilled two kilometer deep hole near the San Andreas fault, and give a flavor of what can be expected as the EarthScope observatory is constructed and operated over the next decade.

Participants:
• David W. Simpson, President, The IRIS Consortium, Washington, D.C.;
• William L. Ellsworth, Chief Scientist, Earthquake Hazards Team, U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, California;
• Paul Segall, Department of Geophysics, Stanford University, Stanford, California;
• James H. Whitcomb, National Science Foundation, Arlington, Virginia.

Relates to Session:T71D

Day: Sunday, December 8
Time: 8:00 a.m.
Topic: The 2002 7.9 earthquake in Alaska
Description: Initial results will be presented from studies of the 3 November 2002 M 7.9 earthquake, and the 23 October M 6.7 foreshock. Haeussler will provide an overview of geologic studies, including the mapping of  urface faults that ruptured during the earthquake including discovery of a previously unknown thrust fault, the distribution of slip along the fault, and landslides and liquefaction features caused by the earthquake. Hansen will provide an overview of the earthquake seismology, including focal mechanism studies, analysis of slip along the fault trace, strong ground motions, and stress transfer before and  after the earthquakes. Freymueller will provide an overview of geodetic studies conducted before, during, and after the earthquakes. The  geodetic data should provide some of the best information to date on how the Earth's crust deforms between, during, and after earthquakes along strike-slip faults.

Participants:
• Peter Haeussler, Geologist, U.S. Geological Survey, Anchorage, Alaska;
• Roger Hansen, State Seismologist, University of Alaska Geophysical Institute, Fairbanks, Alaska;
• Jeff Freymueller, Geodesist, University of Alaska Geophysical Institute, Fairbanks, Alaska.

Relates to Session: S72F

Day: Sunday, December 8
Time: 10:00 a.m.
Topic: The North American Carbon Program
Description: The North American Carbon Program (NACP) is a multi-agency attack on questions relating to the sources and sinks of carbon in North America. The NACP is a major component of the U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Program and addresses important issues of the U.S. Climate Change Research Initiative. In particular, its primary goal is to reduce the uncertainty in the magnitude of the North American carbon sink and thus provide useful scientific information for future carbon management. The research focuses on the three most abundant atmospheric carbon gases: carbon dioxide, methane, and carbon monoxide. Integration among diverse disciplines, combinations of new research techniques and monitoring, and numerical modeling will be used to delineate the mechanisms controlling these gases. The press conference will present current plans for carbon observing systems, field campaigns, along with recent studies related to the North American carbon budget.

Participants: 
• Richard Feely, Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Seattle, Washington;
• Pieter Tans, Climate Monitoring & Diagnostics Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Boulder, Colorado;
• Steven Wofsy, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Relates to Session: A11E

Day: Sunday, December 8
Time: 11:00 a.m.
Topic: Forensic seismology: deciphering exotic seismic sources and man-made events
Description: The large number of seismic stations deployed globally to monitor earthquakes or underground testing of nuclear weapons also record an extraordinary variety of other natural and man-made phenomena. This information can be useful to investigative agencies, insurance companies, and governmental organizations, and the results are often scientifically interesting in their own right. Terry Wallace will provide a brief introduction to forensic seismology. Steve Taylor will talk about the challenges of monitoring underground testing, especially identifying small and potentially evasive tests, in the present environment of a defacto moratorium on testing. David McCormack is an expert on the seismic waves generated by impacts of objects on the Earth’s surface. Modeling of the seismic signals has been shown to provide information about the source process; examples include aircraft crashes. Keith Koper will describe how forensic seismology provided crucial evidence in a trial. following a natural gas pipeline explosion in southern New Mexico that killed 12 people.

Participants:
• Terry Wallace, Professor of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona;
• Steve Taylor, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico;
• David McCormack, Geophysics Division, Geological Survey Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada;
• Keith Koper, Saint Louis University; Saint Louis, Missouri.

Relates to Session: S11D

Day: Sunday, December 8
Time: 2:00 p.m.
Topic: New Results From Mars Odyssey
Description: The 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft has been collecting data in Mars orbit since February 2002. Odyssey scientists will be presenting exciting new results based on observations by the three instrument suites: the Gamma Ray Spectrometer, the Thermal Emission Imaging System and the Martian Radiation Environment Experiment. New data on the presence of water ice in the soils of the northern Martian hemisphere will be presented. New color images of Mars in both the thermal infrared and visible portions of the spectrum will be presented by the imaging system team. The radiation experiment team will report on the detection by Odyssey of solar flares that are not seen by detectors on Earth.

Participants:
• Jeffrey Plaut, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California;
• William Boynton, Department of Planetary Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona;
• Philip Christensen, Department of Geological Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona;
• Cary Zeitlin, National Space Biomedical Research Institute, Houston, Texas, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California.

Relates to Session: P11B

Day: Sunday, December 8
Time: 3:00 p.m.
Topic: Historic Earthquakes
Description: Historic earthquakes are those that occurred during historic times, but for which no instrumental data are available. Because modern seismology is scarcely a century old, the database of historic earthquakes represents an extremely important, and in many cases underused, resource. By developing increasingly sophisticated methods to analyze old earthquakes, scientists are able to learn not only about the earthquakes themselves, but also to address current issues at the forefront of both seismology and hazard assessment. Panelists will discuss recent results that shed important light on past earthquakes on the San Andreas Fault, including a magnitude ~8 earthquake in 1857, as well as studies that contribute to our understanding of hazards in two regions, India and Japan, that are now heavily urbanized and exposed to very high earthquake hazard. In both of these regions, ingenious "seismosleuthing" techniques have been developed to investigate earthquakes that occurred over 1,000 years ago.

Participants:
• Susan Hough, U.S. Geological Survey, Pasadena, California;
• Roger Bilham, Professor of Geological Sciences University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado; Tousson Toppozada , Senior Seismologist, California Geological Survey, Sacramento, California;
• Kenji Satake, Seismologist, Leader of Earthquake Hazard Assessment Team, Active Fault Research Center, Geological Survey of Japan, AIST, Tsukuba, Japan;
• Dawn Martindale, Natural Disaster Historian, Utah State University, Logan, Utah.

Relates to Session: S11B

Day: Monday, December 9
Time: 8:00 a.m.
Topic: What future for nuclear energy?
Description: Societies of the 21st century will increasingly use a more diverse mix of energy sources, possibly including nuclear power, as petroleum supplies diminish. Scientific understanding and vision will be needed if global society is to be able to assess objectively the future of nuclear energy. Topics to be addressed by panel members at this press conference and by additional presenters at the session include the status of, and potential future trends in, the use of nuclear energy; challenges associated with power plant security; the storage, disposal and transportation of nuclear waste; climate impacts associated with energy mix changes; and the role and responsibility of the geoscientist in influencing public opinion and debate about highly charged societal issues.

Participants:
• Shirley Ann Jackson, President, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York; former Chair, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C.;
• Ernest J. Moniz, Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts; former Undersecretary for Energy, Science, and Environment, U.S. Department of Energy, Washington, D.C.

Relates to Session: U11B

Day: Monday, December 9
Time: 9:00 a.m.
Topic: Outer planet satellite interiors
Description: Understanding the origin and internal evolution of outer planet satellites is key to understanding their geological and, in the case of Titan, atmospheric evolution. This session highlights observational, experimental, and theoretical progress in this field, incorporating the latest results of the Galileo mission to Jupiter and looking forward to the Cassini-Huygens encounter with Titan. Prof. Schubert will discuss the emerging evidence for internal liquid water oceans on all large icy satellites, as well as their overall internal structures. Dr. Canup will discuss new theories of satellite origin that both solve long-standing problems about the formation of satellite families and show how dynamical migration has created the resonances that lead to tidal heating in bodies like Io and Europa. Dr. Anderson will discuss the final satellite encounter of the Galileo mission, with Amalthea, which took place in November.

Participants:
• Gerald Schubert, Department of Earth and Space Sciences, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Los Angeles, California;
• Robin M. Canup, Department of Space Studies, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado;
• John D. Anderson, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California.

Relates to Session: P12C

Day: Monday, December 9
Time: 11:00 a.m.
Topic: Briefing on the upcoming launch of ICESat
Description: Are the ice sheets that still blanket the Earth's poles growing or shrinking? Will global sea level rise or fall? NASA's Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) mission will provide answers to these and other questions. ICESat's primary goal is to quantify ice sheet mass balance and understand how changes in the Earth's atmosphere and climate affect the polar ice masses and global sea level. The ICESat mission will provide multi-year elevation data needed to determine ice sheet mass balance as well as cloud property information, especially for stratospheric clouds common over polar areas. It will also provide topography and vegetation data around the globe, in addition to the polar-specific coverage over the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. ICESat is scheduled to launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California on December 19. 

Participants: 
• Waleed Abdalati, ICESat Program Scientist, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.;
• Jay Zwally, ICESat Project Scientist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland;
• Bob E. Schutz, Science Team Leader, University of Texas-Austin, Austin, Texas.

Relates to Session: None

Day: Monday, December 9
Time: 2:00 p.m.
Topic: The Mars Exploration Rover Mission: Setting Down on the Red Planet once again
Description: Participants will provide a status of the Mars Exploration Rover mission, which is scheduled to launch two rovers to Mars in 2003, landing on January 4 and 25, 2004. The discussion will include landing site characterization and selection, and the planned science investigations associated with the mission. The science team has learned valuable lessons about carrying out effective science operations, using a remote robotic vehicle on Earth, as a part of the training for operation of the Mars vehicles. Scientists have also learned about new aspects of the science and safety characteristics of the potential landing sites for the mission.

Participants:
• Professor Steven W. Squyres, Athena Principal Investigator for the Mars Exploration Rover Mission, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York;
• Dr. Mark Adler, Mars Exploration Rover Deputy Mission System Manager, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California;
• Dr. Matthew P. Golombek, Mars Program Landing Site Scientist and Athena Science Team Member, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.

Relates to Session: P21C

Day: Monday, December 9
Time: 3:00 p.m.
Topic: The future of global climate change research
Description: Dr. James Mahoney will discuss the results of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program Planning Workshop, held December 3-5, 2002 (i.e., immediately prior to Fall Meeting), in Washington, D.C. The Workshop has been developed to provide a comprehensive review of the discussion draft of the Strategic Plan for U.S. climate change and global change research. When finalized, it will guide U.S. climate and global change research during the next several years. The Workshop responds to the President’s directive that U.S. global change and climate change science programs must be objective, sensitive to uncertainties, and well documented for public debate. The Climate Change Science Program is jointly sponsored by 13 U.S. government agencies and includes representatives of each of the sponsoring agencies.

Participant: 
• James R. Mahoney, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere, U.S. Department of Commerce; Director U.S. Climate Change Science Program, Washington, D.C.

Relates to Session: U12B

2. Attention PIOs: Sending press releases to Fall Meeting

Public Information Officers are invited to take or send press releases and related materials relevant to sessions at Fall Meeting. If sending by USPS, FedEx, UPS, etc., please address them to:

Harvey Leifert
AGU Press Room 
Moscone Convention Center, Room 111
747 Howard Street
San Francisco, CA 94103

(Press Room phone: 415-905-1007)

Packages should be sent for delivery on Thursday, December 5. Press releases received later will, of course, be made available to reporters in the Press Room.

Day: Friday, December 6
Time: 5:00-10:00 p.m.

5:00 p.m.: Wine and cheese Reception (Room 111)
5:45 p.m.: Book and author program for science writers (Room 112)
7:00 p.m.: NCSWA holiday dinner (Jillian's, in the Sony Metreon)

Note: the deadline for signing up for the NCSWA dinner is December 1. For details of the Gala Press Evening, including cost of the NCSWA dinner, see: http://www.agu.org/sci_soc/prrl/prrl0236.html#3

4. Who’s coming

Following is the list of press registrants as of the date of this advisory. If you believe you have registered, but your name is not found below, please resubmit the form at the end of this advisory. Advance press registration closes on November 29.
 

Robert Adler, Freelance
Mario Aguilera, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Andrew Alden, About.com
Anatta, Univ. Corporation for Atmospheric Research
David Appell, Freelance
James Bela, Freelance
Molly Bentley, BBC Radio
Henry Bortman, Astrobiology Magazine
Andrew Bridges, Associated Press
Victoria Bruce, Freelance
Doug Brusa, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Alan Buis, Jet Propulsion Laboratory Media Relations
Alan Cameron, GPS World
Koren Capozza, UPI
Mike Carlowicz, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
David Chandler, Freelance
Glennda Chui, San Jose Mercury News
Tom Clarke, Nature News Service
Robert Cowen, Christian Science Monitor
John Cox, Freelance
Ann Marie Cunningham, Science & Technology News Network
Leonard David, SPACE.com/Space News
Shelley Dawicki, Wood Hole Oceanographic Institution
Kathy Ellins, University of Texas Institute for Geophysics
Britt Erickson, Environmental Science & Technology
Timothy Ferris, Clockdrive Productions
Helen Fields, University of California, Santa Cruz Science Writing Program
Matthew Fordahl, Associated Press
Kim Fulton-Bennett, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Ismael Gaona, Diario de Sevilla
Jeff Garberson, University of California Public Affairs
Virginia Gewin, Freelance
Helen Gillespie, Today's Chemist
Donald Goldsmith, Interstellar Media
Leslie Gordon, U.S. Geological Survey
Katie Greene, Earth and Sky Radio Series
Rob Gutro, NASA Earth Science News Team
Geoffrey Haines-Stiles, Passport to Knowledge
Carl Hall, San Francisco Chronicle
Stephanie Hanna, U.S. Geological Survey
Brooks Hanson, Science
Mary Hardin, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Bob Henson, UCAR Quarterly
Nigel Hey, Freelance
Tara Hicks, SOEST - University of Hawaii
Deborah Hill, Idaho National Engineering Laboratory
Jacqueline Hollister, Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst.
Matthew Horrigan, San Francisco Golden Gate Xpress
Roberta Hotinski, National Science Foundation
Robert Irion, ScienceNOW
Tom Johnson, Latinotek.com
Jyllian Kemsley, University of California, Santa Cruz Science Writing Program
Dick Kerr, Science
Jennie Kopelson, CORE
Heike Langenberg, Nature
Edie Lau, Sacramento Bee
Barbara Goss Levi, Physics Today
Dawn Levy, Stanford University
Bruce Lieberman, San Diego Union-Tribune
Emilie Lorditch, Discoveries & Breakthroughs
April Love, Library Hi-Tech News
Rick Lovett, Freelance
Naomi Lubick, Freelance
Betsy Mason, New Scientist
Barbara McConnell, National Geographic Magazine
Usha Lee McFarling, Los Angeles Times
Robin Mejia, Center for Investigative Journalism
Debbie Meyer, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Ryder Miller, Freelance
Richard Monastersky, Chronicle of Higher Education
Oliver Morton, Freelance
Elisabeth Nadin, University of California, Santa Cruz Science Writing Program
Robert Naeye, Mercury Magazine
Jan Null, San Jose Mercury News
Larry O'Hanlon, Discovery News
Roland Pease, BBC Radio
Sid Perkins, Science News
David Perlman, San Francisco Chronicle
Charles Petit, U.S. News & World Report
Lisa Pinsker, Geotimes
Ellen Prager, StormCenter Communications
Catherine Puckett, U.S. Geological Survey
Horst Rademacher, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Krishna Ramanujan, NASA Earth Science News Team
Ned Rozell, University of Alaska Geophysical Institute
Cristina Rumbaitis-del Rio, AGU Mass Media Fellow
Jorge Salazar, Earth & Sky Radio Series
Bob Sanders, University of California, Berkeley
Jim Scanlon, Freelance
Laurie Schmidt, NASA National Snow & Ice Data Center
Mark Shwartz, Stanford University
Emily Singer, University of California, Santa Cruz Science Writing Program
Craig Smith, American Institute of Physics
Alan Stahler, KVMR-FM
Bill Steigerwald, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Sally Stephens, Freelance
Rosemary Sullivant, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Kathy Svitil, Discover
Keli Tarp, NOAA
Elvia Thompson, NASA Headquarters
Ernie Tretkoff, Stanford University News Service
Marijke Unger, University of Colorado
John VanDecar, Nature
Annette Varani, CIRES, University of Colorado
Tom Vasich, University of California, Irvine
Jennifer Vaughn, The Planetary Report
Lydia Wasowicz, UPI
Krista West, Freelance
Kasey White, Joint Oceanographic Institutions
Potter Wickware, Freelance
Andrea Widener, Contra Costa Times
Shawna Williams, University of California, Santa Cruz Science Writing Program
Alexandra Witze, Dallas Morning News
David Wolman, Freelance
Kathleen Wong, California Wild
Byron Young, KVMR-FM
Robert Zimmerman, Freelance

5. Press Registration
(This information is repeated from previous advisories.)

Press registrants receive a badge that provides access to any of the scientific sessions of the meeting, as well as to the Press Room and Briefing Room. No one will be admitted without a valid badge. A press registration form will be found at the end of this message.

Eligibility for press registration is limited to the following persons: 

* Working press employed by bona fide news media: must present a press card, business card, or letter of introduction from an editor of the publication. 
* Freelance science writers: must present a current membership card from NASW, NCSWA (or other regional affiliate of NASW), CSWA, ISWA, or SEJ, evidence of by-lined work pertaining to science intended for the general public and published in 2001 or 2002, or a letter of introduction from an editor of a recognized publication. 
* Public information officers of scientific societies, educational institutions, and government agencies: must present a business card.

Note: Representatives of publishing houses, for-profit corporations, and the business side of news media must pre-register through the AGU web site or register at the main registration desk at the meeting and pay the appropriate fees.

The last day for advance press registration is November 29. You may also register onsite in Room 111.

6. Press Registration Form

An online version of this form is available at http://www.agu.org/sci_soc/fm02pressreg_cgi.html

The version below may be copied and returned (please, do not send back this entire media advisory!) to Harvey Leifert by email <hleifert@agu.org> or by fax (202-328-0566).

Once the Abstracts are available in CD-ROM and/or book form, and while supplies last, they
will be sent to registrants, upon request, below. (Others will receive a copy in the Press Room.)

The press pre-registration deadline is Friday, November 29, 2002. The form must be received at AGU by that date for your badge to be available upon arrival, avoiding delay. You may, of course, also register in the Press Room.

Fax to:
   Harvey Leifert +1 (202) 328-0566 

Mail to:
   Harvey Leifert
   AGU 
   2000 Florida Avenue N.W.
   Washington, DC 20009, USA

Or, take the completed form to Fall Meeting Press Room.
 
 

  ***  2002 Fall Meeting Press Registration Form ***

Name (to be printed on badge): 

Mailing Address:
 
 
 

Telephone: 

Fax: 

Email Address: 

Media or organizational affiliation: 

If freelance: Check below one basis of your eligibility below and bring relevant proof to meeting.
        _____ Member of NASW
        _____ Regional affiliate of NASW
        _____ CSWA
        _____ ISWA
        _____ Letter from recognized publication assigning you to cover this meeting
        _____ Evidence of bylined science story published in 2001 or 2002

Abstracts:
Indicate preference for book or CD-ROM version (Check one box below)
        ____ I prefer a CD-ROM in advance of the meeting.
        ____ I prefer a bound volume in advance of the meeting.
How shall we send the abstracts?
        ____ Send Abstracts to me at the above address by USPS First Class mail.
        ____ Send Abstracts to me at the above address (no P.O. Boxes!) via express service
                    Name of express service (e.g. FedEx, UPS, etc.):
                    Class of service (e.g. next day, 2nd day, etc.):
                    My Account Number:
        ____ Do not send Abstracts in advance; hold for me in the Press Room. 

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