American Geophysical Union (AGU) Chapman Conference on Currents in Geospace and Beyond; Dubrovnik, Croatia; May 22-27, 2016

American Geophysical Union, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

This proposal requests travel funds for participants to attend the AGU Chapman Conference on Currents in Geospace and Beyond, which will be held 22-27 May 2016 in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Chapman Conferences are topical meetings sponsored by the American Geophysical Union that are designed to provide opportunities for detailed scientific discussion that is not possible at large meetings such as the Fall AGU meeting. This funding will be used mainly for U.S. students and young researchers but may be used for invited speakers if necessary. New knowledge has been accumulating over the sixteen years since the last Chapman conference on this topic due to progress in observations and global models. The timing is appropriate to bring together researchers to develop a clearer understanding of the state of the field, the open questions, the needed new observations and the capabilities in global models. This conference will enable U.S. students and early career scientists to meet and network with international experts. The conference monograph will provide an up-date look at the state of the research and at the outstanding unsolved questions, which is valuable for both research and education purposes. Electric currents in space, the focus of the conference, are key to the plasma and magnetic field structures that develop in near-Earth space, at the Sun, at other planets, and in astrophysical objects. The conference has three objectives, namely: (1) to deepen understanding of electric currents in space plasmas, (2) to leverage new multi-satellite data sets, new and expanded ground-based facilities and next-generation global models that were not available during the previous conference on this topic in 1999, and (3) to enrich the discussion by fostering an interaction between researchers who study currents in vastly different space environments (i.e., the Sun, planets and Earth). The observations, models and researchers are inherently international. Attendance is anticipated to be 120-140 scientists.