The Geospace Environment Modeling (GEM) Program has a communications coordinator to ensure healthy information flows within the community and to maintain an archive of the program's activities. This project performs the tasks for the next GEM Communications Coordinator starting from 2009, following the guidelines described in the GEM bylaws. The tasks fall into the following four categories: (a) the electronic newsletter GEM Messenger, (b) the annual GEMstone reports (including special reports), (c) the GEM website GemWiki, and (d) the GEM Data Catalog.
GEM workshops have been considered by many of their participants as the best environment for discussing magnetospheric research and exchanging ideas. This project ensures the efficient communications and comprehensive archiving that GEM needs to continue its vital role in the magnetospheric community. The project provides the archives of GEM activities that are accessible by the scientists and students today and in the future. The project also builds a GEM Data Catalog for GEM students and the general public to know where to access and learn about space weather data products.
The major goal of the project is to perform tasks of the Global Environment Modeling (GEM) Communications Coordinator (CC). The GEM bylaws (see http://aten.igpp.ucla.edu/gemwiki/index.php/GEM_Bylaws) define the responsibilities of a CC, including publication of the electronic GEM Messenger and GEMstone Newsletter and maintenance of GEM web pages. These tasks are critical to maintaining the communication infrastructure of the GEM community. The major project outcomes for the period between 8/1/2013 and 7/31/2014 include: GEMstone: GEMstone represents the most detailed archive of GEM activities. We published two issues of the GEMstone Newsletter in 2013. GEMstone, Volume 23, Issue 1 consists of annual reports from GEM representatives and liaisons, and the Focus Group reports included are centered on the presentations at the 2013 GEM Summer Workshop. GEMstone, Volume 23, Issue 2 consists of the final reports from three recently concluded GEM Focus Groups, including the Dayside Field Aligned Current and Energy Deposition (FED) Focus Group, the Near-Earth Magnetosphere: Plasma, Fields, and Coupling Focus Group, and Plasma Entry and Transport (PET) into and within the Magnetotail Focus Group. GEM Messenger: The GEM Messenger is an electronic newsletter that distributes announcements related to the GEM Workshops and other activities of or related to the GEM Program. This electronic newsletter has approximately 1,000 subscribers, most of them are scientists and students in the geospace science community. We also distribute via the GEM Messenger announcements that benefit the magnetospheric physics community. During this reporting period, we distributed 44 issues of GEM Messenger. GemWiki: GemWiki (http://aten.igpp.ucla.edu/gemwiki/index.php/Main_Page) is an online resource for the activities and accomplishments of the NSF GEM Program. We created and updated web pages for the new materials associated with the 2014 Summer Workshop, newly selected GEM Focus Groups, GEM tutorials, GEM Steering Committee, and GEMstone. This project also plays a vital part of GEM’s efforts in training and professional development in the geospace community. The GEM Student Forum has an archive for the materials presented and discussed at GEM Student Workshops since 2010. These tutorials cover all GEM-related topics and are designed for first-year graduate students of geospace science. The GEM Tutorials section contains the tutorials presented at GEM Summer Workshops since 1999, and these archived presentation slides are not only useful for students but also for working scientists. The GEM Tutorials section has attracted most web traffic to the GemWiki site.
