2008 Workshop Summary
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The CEDAR (Coupling, Energetics and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions) Workshop for 2008 was held at the Zermatt Resort in Midway, Utah from Monday June 16 through Saturday June 21, with Sunday June 22 as the day for the NSF Community Models Workshop joint with CEDAR, GEM and SHINE. A total of 320 participants, 64 coming to CEDAR for the first time, came from 66 institutions, 9 outside the United States and Puerto Rico. There were 37 universities, 21 laboratories, and 8 small businesses. Of the 114 CEDAR students and post-docs, 25 were undergraduate students, and 8 came from universities or labs in Brazil (2), Taiwan (1), Japan (1), Peru (1), the UK (1), and Canada (2). About 20 more came this year compared to last year, although there were 10 fewer universities represented this year and about the same number of students came.
The theme of the Student Workshop on Sunday was “Space Weather Influences on the Ionosphere”, arranged by Jonathan Fentzke of the University of Colorado. The keynote talk was given by Tom Bogdan of the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center, Joe Huba of the Naval Research Lab gave a student tutorial, and Janet Kozyra of the University of Michigan and others gave mini-tutorials. These and other talks are available in .pdf form via the agenda on the wiki. After 4 PM, the students had free time for soccer at the Midway Elementary School. Other student sponsored social activities were Power Frisbee and salsa dancing taught by Ilgin Seker of Pennsylvania State University. The student social events were mostly arranged by Romina Nikoukar of the University of Illinois, who was the second year student on the CSSC (CEDAR Science Steering Committee). The new student representative joining Jonathan is Marco Milla of the University of Illinois.
The CEDAR Prize Lecture was given in the Tuesday plenary session Sharon Vadas of Colorado Research Associates (part of North West Research Associates) on “The coupling of the lower atmosphere to the thermosphere via gravity wave excitation, propagation and dissipation”. Three tutorials were presented on the following days by Han-Li Liu of the National Center for Atmospheric Research on “Atmospheric gravity waves: Applying classroom physics to research”, Thomas Immel of the University of California at Berkeley on “Imaging geospace: Providing critical understanding of Earth’s atmosphere-ionosphere system”, and by David Hysell of Cornell University on “Inverse Methods in Aeronomy”. The three morning talks at the Student Workshop, the CEDAR Prize Lecture, and the regular tutorials were video-taped and are available on DVDs as well as in pdf files on-line. Please contact Brian Day of Daylight Productions and Rentals if interested in obtaining DVDs.
The CEDAR Science Steering Committee chair, Jeff Thayer of the University of Colorado introduced the concept of “Integrative Aeronomy”. Science highlights were given by Dave Fritts of the Colorado Research Associates, by Janet Kozyra of the University of Michigan, and by Andy Christensen who retired from Aerospace Corporation, but is heading a NASA committee on strategic planning in geospace. Cassandra Fesen of the National Science Foundation updated the community about NSF issues. Susan Avery of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute discussed CAWSES II, and John Kelly of Stanford Research Institute gave the status of the Resolute Bay Incoherent Scatter Radar (ISR). Wayne Hocking of the University of Western Ontario in Canada talked about atmospheric networks, Daniel Morrison of the Applied Physics Lab of John Hopkins University talked about a virtual observatory, Eric Kihn of NOAA talked about the electronic Geophysical Year, and Alan Weatherwax discussed the International Heliophysics Year.
We heard five CEDAR Post-Doc reports. Final reports were given by Ningyu Liu of the Pennsylvania State University (now at Florida Institute of Technology) and by Mariangel Fedrizzi of the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center. Interim reports were given by Joseph Comberiate of the Applied Physics Lab, Carlos Martinis of Boston University, and Jonathan Snively from the Utah State University. Including the Student Worskhop and special Advanced Modular ISR (AMISR) Science Planning Meeting with six sessions, there were 25 workshops total, two less than last year.
There were 134 posters at the Tuesday and Thursday poster sessions, 15 more than last year. There were 82 student posters, 61 in the student poster competition. Prizes were a certificate and various cash prizes. Winners, and then others, could also choose from a selection of classic books, most donated by Alan Peterson of Whitworth College and by Barbara Emery of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The judges picked first place winners ($125 each) from each session - Sarah Broadley (MLTS-03) of the University of Leeds in the UK, and Nicholas Pedatella (EQIT-13) of the University of Colorado; and honorable mentions ($75 each) - Kathrin Haeusler (COUP-06) of the GeoForschungsZentrum in Germany, who is visiting NCAR this summer, and Tzu-Wei Fang (EQIT-08) of NCAR and the National Central University in Taiwan. Three undergraduate prizes ($50 each) were given to Allen Kummer (MLTS-01) of the Pennsylvania State University, Jonathan Sparks (METR-03) of the University of Colorado, and Katherine Roach of the University of Maryland and the Naval Research Lab. The judges also liked posters by Amal Chandran (U CO), Loren Chang (U CO), Jonathan Fentzke (U CO), and Sean Harrell (CSU) from the first session, and posters by Patrick Alken (U CO), Akshay Malhotra (PSU), Brady O’Hanlon (Cornell), and Marcin Pilinski (U CO) in the second session. Thanks to all the judges who spent so much of their time judging the posters, and thanks to all the students who participated in the student poster competition.
We took a 48-passenger bus from Boulder, Colorado to Midway and back with between 9 and 11 passengers. This bus was then used to take the students to their soccer field, for field trips, for lunch trips to Heber City and dinner trips to Park City. The field trips were to Heber City on Thursday to ride the Heber Valley Railroad and to Utah Olympic Park outside of Park City on Friday. Many participants were able to enjoy the free jazz in the streets of Park City Friday evening.
Sunday June 22 was the day in between the CEDAR and the joint GEM/SHINE Workshop which was also at the Zermatt Resort. This Sunday was the Student Workshop for GEM/SHINE and the joint CEDAR/GEM/SHINE NSF Community Models Workshop. Approximately 80 attended, about half from the CEDAR Workshop. One of the major goals of the workshop was to devise a plan to keep the $4,000,000/year Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling (CISM) money in the Atmospheric Sciences group when the 10-year grant runs out in 4 years. Another question was if a center is needed, should this organizing center be virtual or real, and what role should the Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) at NASA play. We heard ‘Lessons Learned from Current Modeling Activities” in the morning, and heard from “Modelers” and the “User Community” in the afternoon. The discussion was fruitful, and although opinions on a new “brick-and-mortar” or “virtual” center were mixed, most agreed that the CCMC is doing a good job and should be utilized more within the Space Weather Community.
The 2009 CEDAR Workshop will return to the Eldorado Hotel in Santa Fe, New Mexico from Sunday June 28 (Student Workshop) to Thursday July 2. The site of the 2010 CEDAR Workshop is the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado. We meet with GEM in 2011.