Table of Contents

Science

SAEAC 45^th meeting

April 27 2010

Attendance:

Alain Berinstain	Louise Beauchamp	John Manuel	Sacha Koustov
Thomas Piekutowski	Ron Wilkinson	Jean-Pierre Bernard	T. Jayachandran
Marianna Shepherd	Godelieve Deblonde	Martin Bergeron	David Thompson
Stela Melo	Randall Martin	Jean-Pierre St-Maurice	Richard Marchand
Bruce McArthur	Louis-Philippe Beaudoin	Laryssa Trichtchenko	David Knudsen
Doug Degenstein	Norman O'Neil	Pierre Langlois

Introductions.

9:10 D. Knudsen: Adoption of the agenda. D. Knudsen presenting for Summers, Connors and Noel. S. Koustov doing the Saskatchewan updates. No other changes required. Minutes adopted unanimously.

Objectives of the meeting:

• Bruce: Atmospheric community expectations are towards understanding the new CSA and how we as SAEAC can support CSA to deliver in its mandate.
• Thomas: CSA expectations are:
  • Get feedback in how to re-structure the committee
  • Get feedback on how to provide opportunities and how to maintain focus while being swamped with opportunities
  • Get feedback on the best use of our grants and contributions programs. We may put a call for proposals in this summer.
• Review on expectations as per the minutes: will be more on action items and main points for recommendations.

9:25 T. Piekutowski: CSA Reorganization: No major change from a user standpoint. CSA will continue to be receptive to external ideas. Mission selection process will evolve. PAA (program activity architecture document) requires CSA activity to meet Canadian needs for scientific knowledge, innovation and information.

Three new business lines at CSA:

• Space Utilization (Space data, information, and services).
• Space Exploration ("Off world")
• Space Science and Technology (Future Canadian space capacity)

TP: "Mission selection will progress toward a transparent and open process."

JP St-Maurice: SAEAC scientists more related to SS&T than utilization.

TP: Science is required to achieve utilization results. In this sense, SAEAC advises CSA on how to improve the performance indicators (forecast accuracy, for example). SS&T more focused on health of the community (how many teachers, students, programs...)

T. Jayachandran: Request clarification between exploration and utilization. Exploration deals with outside of earth, astronomy, planets. Utilization deals with Earth-related.

10:00 A. Berinstain on SS&T

Bruce McArthur: Impact on Grants and Contributions on intellectual property. Alain Berinstain: IP mainly stays with the recipient of the G&C. Devil is in the details.

Q: Can university A contract university B following a grant?

Alain Berinstain: Splitting grant money is not allowed. Contribution can be split. NSERC can split grant money (special case). Can have multi party grant agreements.

Q: Are agreements grant-specific?

Alain Berinstain: Can work from a template, pretty flexible, University overhead is allowed (15-20%)

P. Langlois: G&C not specific to SS&T

Alain Berinstain: Correct, anyone in CSA can use Grant&Contribution mechanism.

Bruce: Question on clarification on capacity building.

Alain Berinstain: Any work related to a mission (pre-pre-pre phase 0) is utilization. If no mission is identified, it is capacity building.

T. Jayachandran: Mechanism of the grants & contributions program

Alain Berinstain: Will be 2-3 years to complete, but will have a program put in place.

11:10 Break

11:30 Marilyn Steinberg: Space learning activities.

CSA provides materials relating to Canada's space program for 1.85M students annually at levels K-12 and beyond. CSA training is available for presenters at "subject-matter workshops".

Grants & Contributions program is designed for not-for-profit programs; targets undergraduates. Need bridges from undergraduate to graduate-level training. See "Space Learning" and "Space Awareness" on CSA website; contact is Jason Clement.

11:55 Louise Beauchamp: Suborbital Workshop + university liaison report.

There were ~180 participants in CSA's sub-orbital/nanosat workshop held April 14-16. Objectives were to assess current usage and desirability of Canadian and/or international launch sites. A report is currently in preparation.

12:20 Thomas Piekutowski: Grants & Contributions

As of April 2010 CSA is authorized to use Grants and Contributions as a new tool to support research activities in Canada, as an alternative to contracts. The next step is to design programs that will utilize them. This will take some time.

13:35 Diner Invitation

13:40 Martin Bergeron: PHEMOS

PHEMOS winning teams are expected to be announced by the week of May 3.

14:00 Thomas on Space Utilization advisory committees

14:55 JP St-Maurice: NASA Explorer AO.

Currently no mechanism within CSA for Canadian scientists to propose to provide instruments to US-led teams responding to an upcoming NASA AO. CSA would like SAEAC's input regarding the role of such opportunities in CSA's overall program. (Later in the meeting the CSA president stated that collaborations with NASA remain an important part of CSA's program and that collaborative opportunities should be looked at on a case-by-case basis.)

15:25 Marianna Shepherd: SCOSTEP & CAWSES II

The international SCOSTEP secretariat is moving to York University in the near future, with M. Shepherd as its new Secretary General.

16:25 L.Trichtchenko on University of Waterloo, Université of Montreal, DRAO, NRCan updates

17:00 T. Jayachandran :University of New Brunswick update

17:05 D.Thompson: Queen's University update

17:15 A. Koustov U of Saskatchewan update

The Saskatoon SuperDARN group continues research with HF radars as the main instrument. In terms of scientific personal, Dr. M. Watanabe became an Associate Professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Science at Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan, starting from April 2010. Two MSc students (X. Yan and H. Liu) graduated and moved for PhD studies elsewhere. The SuperDARN network experiences currently fast expansion with two new radars started operation in the southern hemisphere (Falkland Islands and McMurdo) and two new radars in the northern hemisphere (Fort Hayes, Kansas, East and West). The Saskatoon team has identified a place for a new PolarDARN radar (funded through the Resolute Bay incoherent scatter radar CFI grant), Clyde River. The group is actively involved in CaNoRock project. Future is discussed with respect to the Canadian Balloon Research facility that is planned to be built in Saskatoon area as a joint venture of the CSA and U of Saskatchewan.

17:25 R. Marchand U of Alberta update

17:30 D.Knudsen updates on U of Calgary, Athabasca, Newfoundland, Royal Military College (N/A)

The Athabasca University Geophysical Observatory Upgrades of Research Infrastructure (AUGOURI) is now fully funded by CFI and the province of Alberta and construction is expected to be complete for the 2010-2011 winter observing season.

Memorial University of Newfoundland has proposed a Chapman conference on "Dynamics of the Earth's Radiation Belts and Inner Magnetosphere" to be held in St. John's in July 2011. Conveners are Professors Danny Summers (MUN), Ian Man (U of A), and Dan Baker (Colorado).

RMC is in the process of hiring two new faculty in space physics.

Actions:

All: advise on the composition and size of a science advisory committee for Atmospheric and ST, role of university, government, users, modellers.

All: Thomas requests guidance on % of budget, % missions of participation in foreign space opportunities, vs Canadian only given the CSA limited resources.

All: Advise CSA on a matrix/way of evaluating proposals from a scientific point of view.

April 28 2010 Morning: Solar Terrestrial sub-committee

T. Jayachandran mentioned a wiki will be available at the end of may 2010 to connect the Solar Terrestrial DASP community

KPI (key performance indicators) suggestions proposed last year (allow feedback in NSERC Form 100 format with one form per PI instead of project-based; add a way to identify contributions that include scientific data or theoretical work produced with CSA report). ) by SAEAC were not included in the CSA requests sent to PIs in early 2010. (not significant to the minister?)

(N.B. SAEAC/SE recommendations on KPI in response to CSA's request for feedback at meeting 44 were sent by the SAEAC/SE chair to PL 5-May-2010.)

9:30 John Manuel on CGSM

9:55 JP St-Maurice mentioned CGSM science meeting planned for June 7, 2010 does not allocate enough time for constructive scientific discussion (too much PR, not enough science).

SAEAC/SE recommended that John Manuel convey to the CGSM meeting chair, Emma Spanswick, that the workshop might focus on science relating to the large magnetic storm on ~5 April 2010.

10:00 Andrew Yaw: e-POP update

Spacecraft currently "sleep mode"; launch before June 2011 unlikely.

10:20 Andrew Yau: ISWEAT update
Concept study completed 2009/02; currently anticipating RFP from CSA via which to propose continuation of this project.

10:40 I. Mann: ORBITALS

Currently undergoing Phase A2 study ($2.6M) for risk reduction, with a final review in October 2010. Possibility for MORE team to seek funding for US instruments through an upcoming NASA Stand-Alone MissiON (SALMON) of Opportunity AO. The ORBITALS project team has requested that the CSA Executive formally approve continuation of the project through a Project Approval Document (PAD) for Phase B+.

11:10 E. Donovan: THEMIS

22 Ground-Based Observatories (GBOs) currently operating, 16 (17 including PGEO) in Canada.

Announcements:

1. CGSM Science Workshop with Swarm and ePOP, Monday June 7, U of Toronto (just prior to CAP). Meeting Chair: Emma Spanswick.
2. AGU Chapman Conference on "Relationship between Auroral Phenomenology and Magnetospheric Processes"

Fairbanks, Alaska, USA - February 27th through March 4th, 2011

Conveners
Andreas Keiling (UCLA) and Eric Donovan (U of C)

11:30 E. Donovan: Resolute Bay Incoherent Scatter Radar

The CFI award and matching funding will be finalized and the project will commence formally by July 2010 at the latest with radar shipment to Resolute in summer 2011. CSA is not a funding partner in this project however there are potential scientific synergies with many CSA-sponsored projects (THEMIS, Swarm, ePOP, PCW, PEARL, etc).

April 28 2010 Morning: Atmosphere Science sub-committee.

The meeting was open at 9:15 by Bruce McArthur

• Review of the last meeting minutes:
  • The last meeting was focus on the CSA Earth Surface Science and APOCC mission concepts Workshop that took place at the CSA on December 2009.
  • The report on this Workshop is not ready yet basically because of the transition period at the CSA and the resulting unclear view as per who the report would go to and what exactly would it be used for.
• Bruce set the focus of this meeting around the discussions on what would this committee be looking like from now on, under the new structure of the CSA: how do we best create an all inclusive committee engaging universities and government departments while merging basic research and applications interests.

Thomas:

Overview on current missions: basically all is moving well. Main discussion topic:

• How to move science data to general public knowledge on the missions achievements? How to show case what measurements are being made and why are they important?
  • Model: MOPITT is developing the 'MOPITT on the Sphere' as a visualization tool.
  • The committee finds it very positive and recommend to the CSA to look into ways to bring this experience to the other missions. A suggestions made was for the CSA to look into the possibility to enhance each mission contract to support the team to put the data in a format that can be used for initiatives like Google Earth or the 'Earth in a Sphere'.
  • ACTION: for the CSA to set up a demonstration product for sometime in the fall 2010 where the scientific community can be inspired and devise ways to effective use this same approach for outreach on other missions datasets.
• Discussion on enhance missions data exploitation For example, OSIRIS data now has a great potential to be used to generate Essential Climate Variables (ozone and sulphuric aerosols for example).
  • ACTION: for the CSA to lead the organization of a Community Workshop on Data Exploitation where:
    • Review major achievements on science and applications exploitation of each CSA mission;
    • Discuss initiatives like generation of climatology, harmonized datasets for several applications, production of ECVs, etc...
    • Discuss engagement of EC on those initiatives
    • Discuss and prioritize possibilities for enhancement of mission data exploitation for science and applications
    • Showcase 'MOPITT on the Sphere' as the demonstration project and discuss the way forward.
    • This Workshop could be combined with SCISAT I science meeting for the fall.

Stella Melo:

• CEOS-ACC initiative: review of status of activities and possible Canadian involvement.
  • Action: to circulate the Carbon Initiative Document and the ESA call for the Workshop in September among the SAEAC_EC members.

Stella Melo/Ron Wilkinson:

• The CASS mission:
  • Review of the international scenario around this mission and its linkeages with CEOS;
  • Review of the status and presentation on the proposed way forward.
  • The committee was receptive to the idea.
• Thomas Piekutowski/Martin Bergeron
  • Earth System Science Roadmap: presented the concept and discussed it. The discussions went around planned missions versus missions of opportunity. The general notion is that giving the size of the Agency we need to be open to opportunities but should also have a clear planning on mission development. Recognized that the balance is not easy to set.
  • Update on APOCC

Discussion as a group: What should this committee look like from now on?

• There is a limit on set a new committee imposed by the uncertainty on the Agency governance model. However, there is a clear view that Surface and Atmosphere science have commonalities that are much stronger than atmosphere and solar terrestrial communities have at this moment.
  • Action: a 'new committee' would encompass Earth Surface and Atmospheric sciences. It would no longer be together with Solar-Terrestrial community as a way to not grow so large that is impossible to achieve goals, but links have to be preserved.

ACTION: this committee will meet in telecom model within two weeks time frame to refine the discussion on the 'new shape' the committee would take.

April 28 2010 Afternoon: Plenary

CSA President Steve Maclean spoke to the committee for ~45 minutes. Highlights:

CSA would like a "scan" of instrumentation available in Canada, including technical readiness level (TRL). Requests a set of criteria against which to select instruments for flight.

Next priorities include 1) sub-orbital/nanosat program following the April workshop at CSA, 2) stabilization of university-based teams, 3) Space Chairs in collaboration with NSERC and CFI.

Goal of maintaining Canada's status as a member of the top five spare-faring nations.

Following the visit from Steve Maclean the two sub-committees met to discuss responses to CSA's request for feedback on committee structures and project selection.

There was general agreement that the advisory committees should continue as vehicles to facilitate communication between CSA and the community, though at least one member suggested that the combination of Space and Atmospheric Environment into one committee may not be optimal in the future.

There was considerable discussion along the lines that university-based researchers are well qualified recommend project selection criteria relating to scientific, technical and training merit, but are less able to comment on programmatic issues and government priorities. The NASA model was discussed in which proposals are first ranked by review committees solely on their scientific and technical merit, followed by application of programmatic factors by CSA. This model could be modified for use in the Canadian system by having review panels consider the proposal's training plan as well, and by having panels assess the scientific and training outcomes of past projects led by the same teams.

Further discussion will need to take place via email or at upcoming meetings.

Meeting adjourned at 15:15.