20 October 2017
Dear Colleague
We are writing to enlist your help in finding well qualified candidates for the Executive Committee of the Living with a Star Program Analysis Group (LPAG), formerly the LWS TR&T Steering Committee. As with its predecessor, the LPAG performs a vital role by providing an opportunity for the Heliophysics Community to comment on the LWS program. This includes, but is not limited to, discussions of future Focused Science Topics (FST), examining progress in meeting science goals and objectives, as well as how well results from the program are transferred into societal benefits. A description of the LPAG can be found on the LWS web site (https://lwstrt.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/pdf/LPAG_TOR_2017_Final_Signed.pdf).
We are currently seeking members from all areas of the Heliophysics community with a solid understanding of the scientific basis of Heliophysics system science. Highly qualified candidates from all career stages, including early career, will be considered. Membership in the LPAG will nominally be three years. This initial call for membership, however, will range from one to three years in order to establish a rotation whereby one third of the members will be replaced each year. Additional information can be found on the new LWS website at https://lwstrt.gsfc.nasa.gov/lpag
You can become a candidate for the LPAG by replying to the email addresses below. Please include in your submission a brief summary of the contributions you would make to the committee and your qualifications for doing so, as well as a single page vitae. This submission must be limited to a two page PDF file. Nominations will only be accepted for scientists who reside at a U.S. Institution for the period of service. There is no restriction on citizenship. We will accept submissions until the close of business on 11/22/17. Please feel free to share this letter with anyone you think would be interested.
Thank you for your consideration and assistance.
Jeff Morrill
LWS Program Scientist
jeff.s.morrill@nasa.gov
Janet Kozyra
LWS Science Lead
janet.kozyra@nasa.gov
ID | Comment Date | Comment |
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9 | July 18, 2016 | I would like to the thank the SC and the NASA program for their efforts in soliciting these topics, and making the process more amenable to community input than in the past. Although past SCs (in which I have participated) did request community input for topics, this SC has been much more successful in engaging the community in this process. I believe some of the topics could have benefited from more committee-wide critical review. When I was on the SC, topics would undergo review and be modified based on being "too broad", or being "too narrow" (e.g. very few members of the community could respond, etc.). I believe there are several topics that are too broad, as I've noted in the comments. Some of the sub-topics lack sufficient justification, and could have used more scrutiny (why did you mention "this" but not "that", etc.). Nevertheless, this is an excellent effort and I look forward to the community moving forward with excellent proposals. |
8 | July 17, 2016 | The solar wind is non-thermal and presents a wide variety of plasma conditions. Key to understanding these conditions is the ways in which the solar wind departs from a Maxwellian distribution. Two examples of this are its temperature anisotropy and ion drifts, which can play a major role in wave-particle interactions and the excitation of instabilities. Understanding these phenomena through modeling and in situ experimentation is fundamentally necessary to our ability to understand the solar wind, and in a broader context, effectively predict space weather. |
7 | July 12, 2016 | I fully agree with the comments made on July 7th concerning the omission of data mining/machine learning/big data techniques from the LWS final topics. These techniques are gaining traction very quickly across a broad range of geophysical communities and for good reason! They hold incredible potential for insight discovery into physical processes that we are simply not aware of at present, and also for specification and prediction of a host of quantities that can be used for space weather applications or as inputs driving physics-based models. But in order to extract this value, the available generic machine learning tools need to be adapted and developed to the specific needs of the space physics community, which will only happen is sufficient resources are allocated to this endeavor. |
6 | July 7, 2016 | Data mining techniques and tool development is extremely important for the Space Physics field and it is not represented in the final topics. It was actually mentioned many times and in many ways in the suggested topics by the community, but apparently it was not included in the draft of final suggested topics. With the new large datasets available, it is imperative that new methods/tools for data mining and visualization techniques are develop to help advance science understanding and for that to happen, support is needed. Also, nowadays forecasting has become a very important part of the research to operations transition and the efficiency of doing this accurately lays completely on the development of such data mining tools. It is time to take advantage of the computational capacity improvement and new sources available. |
5 | July 7, 2016 | I hope the committee will reconsider the topic on "big data" and machine learning techniques and their applications to Heliophysics studies. I really do believe that with the growing number of high data volume models and large data sets from more and more observatories in the system, this topic should identify and produce new tools and techniques that have the potential to prove themselves highly valuable to our progression in the field. New data mining and machine learning techniques are already being rapidly developed in other fields to great benefit, and I hope that Heliophysics will be given direct support to learn more about those techniques and apply what we can to better understanding the science of our complex systems. |
4 | June 21, 2016 | In response to the May 31 question above: The committee's job is to write up a report, which will be presented to the NAC Heliophysics Subcommittee, and via that subcommittee to NASA Headquarters. As currently planned, these 15 topics (finalized at our third meeting) will be in that report. How NASA Headquarters uses that report to develop a 2017 ROSES call for TR&T proposals is up to NASA Headquarters, and is independent of this committee. In prior years, only a subset of topics in the committee report have been used by NASA Headquarters to develop the ROSES call, and it is reasonable to expect the same for the 2017 call. - Mark Linton |
3 | May 31, 2016 | Assuming that the final number of topics to be issued in the 2017 ROSES will be fewer than 13, will there be further consolidation of draft topics? Or will some of the draft topics be simply removed dropped? |
Draft Topic Title | Comments | View | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Round: 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Mid-latitude and Equatorial Dynamics of the Ionosphere-Thermosphere System | Comments 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Origins, Acceleration and Evolution of the Solar Wind | Comments 5 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Ion Circulation and Effects on the Magnetosphere and Magnetosphere - Ionosphere Coupling | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Toward a Systems Approach to Energetic Particle Acceleration and Transport on the Sun and in the Heliosphere | Comments 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Coupling Between Different Plasma Populations by Means of Waves | Comments 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Probabilistic Forecasting and Physical Understanding of Extreme Events | Comments 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Understanding Physical Processes in the Magnetosphere--Ionosphere / Thermosphere / Mesosphere System During Extreme Events | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Understanding the Impact of Thermospheric Structure and Dynamics on Orbital Drag | Comments 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Solar Magnetic Inputs to Coronal and Heliospheric Models | Comments 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Understanding the Response of Magnetospheric Plasma Populations to Solar Wind Structures | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Heliospheric and Magnetospheric Energetic Precipitation to the Atmosphere and Its Consequences | Comments 3 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Understanding The Onset of Major Solar Eruptions | Comments 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Understanding Ionosphere-Thermosphere (IT) responses to high-latitude processes and Magnetospheric energy input | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Round: 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Enabling Geospace System Science Through Imaging and Distributed Arrays | Comments 6 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Understanding Global-scale Solar Processes and their Implications for the Solar Interior | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Mid-latitude and Equatorial Dynamics of the Ionosphere-Thermosphere System | Comments 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Origins, Acceleration and Evolution of the Solar Wind | Comments 4 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Ion Circulation and Effects on the Magnetosphere and Magnetosphere - Ionosphere Coupling | Comments 9 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Toward a Systems Approach to Energetic Particle Acceleration and Transport on the Sun and in the Heliosphere | Comments 9 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Coupling Between Different Plasma Populations by Means of Waves | Comments 6 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Probabilistic Forecasting and Physical Understanding of Extreme Events | Comments 3 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Understanding Physical Processes in the Magnetosphere--Ionosphere / Thermosphere / Mesosphere System During Extreme Events | Comments 4 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Understanding the Impact of Thermospheric Structure and Dynamics on Orbital Drag | Comments 7 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Solar Magnetic Inputs to Coronal and Heliospheric Models | Comments 4 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Understanding the Response of Magnetospheric Plasma Populations to Solar Wind Structures | Comments 5 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Heliospheric and Magnetospheric Energetic Precipitation to the Atmosphere and Its Consequences | Comments 5 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Understanding The Onset of Major Solar Eruptions | Comments 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Understanding Ionosphere-Thermosphere (IT) responses to high-latitude processes and Magnetospheric energy input | Comments 4 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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