Travel Grant: Increasing Visibility, Impact and Participation of U.S. Scientists to Discuss Emerging Research Trends in Geospace Science

This project seeks funding to enable participation of U.S. scientists at the International Symposium on Equatorial Aeronomy (ISEA) meeting, which offers a unique platform for dissemination of scientific knowledge and promotes innovative discussions on emerging research trends. This symposium represents an opportunity for researchers to share and discuss the most recent results and scientific advances in theoretical and experimental areas relevant to geospace research. Studies by US investigators often require collaborations with scientists from countries at various locations to obtain a global context. Therefore, this meeting provides an excellent opportunity for discussions about new observational capabilities, observational campaigns and experiments. This funding enables participation of early-careers scientists at the ISEA. Early career participants will benefit from discussions relevant to new geospace research topics and it will facilitate new connections, collaborations, which is crucial for their professional growth and promotes workforce development. The topics of research to be covered by the ISEA-17 are aligned with the current NSF priorities: space traffic and sustainability, global- and large-scale variability in the upper atmosphere, equatorial E- and F-region irregularities that enables accurate forecasting of space-weather impacts, their causes and effects, atmosphere-ionosphere-magnetosphere coupling, recent advances in instrumentation and observation, future trends, opportunities, and challenges. The support will enhance US visibility, enable new collaborations with leading scientists, and strengthen US global leadership. The effort will allow the participation of talented scientists, particularly early-career investigators, that often do not have opportunities to attend such meetings. In addition to benefiting the advancement of fundamental scientific knowledge, the meeting will contribute to areas related to effects of the geospace environment on technological systems (e.g., GPS) that are relevant to society. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.