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Please find the list of 2008 American Geophysical Union press briefings below which include NASA scientists. All NASA AGU press briefings information and multimedia will be available online by the date of each briefing. You may access that information using the links tied to each press briefing title.

AGU now makes all multimedia content for media briefings available for online viewing live during each session. Instructions for accessing press conference materials online can be viewed at this link: > AGU Press Conference Materials

General information for news media provided by AGU can be viewed at this link: > AGU News web page

U.S. and Canadian reporters who cannot attend the AGU meeting may participate in all press briefings by calling 1-888-481-3032, passcode 115139. Media from OTHER countries should call 1-617-801-9600, passcode 115139. That call is NOT toll-free.

PLEASE NOTE: The following will be LINKED to their proper Web page JUST PRIOR to the media briefing time.

> Space Has Never Been Closer: NASA Instruments Document Contraction of the Boundary between the Earth’s Ionosphere and Space
TIME: Monday, Dec. 15, 11 a.m. EST (8 a.m. PST)

Latest News From Flybys of Saturn's Dynamic Moon Enceladus
TIME: Monday, Dec. 15, 3 p.m. EST (12 p.m. PST)

Close Look at a Martian Arctic Environment
TIME: Monday, Dec. 15, 4 p.m. EST (1 p.m. PST)

Titan's Chilly Volcanoes
TIME: Monday, Dec. 15, 7 p.m. EST (4 p.m. PST)

The Arctic in Flux: New Insights From the International Polar Year
TIME: Tuesday, Dec. 16, 12 p.m. EST (9 a.m. PST)

Biggest Breach of Earth's Solar Storm Shield Discovered
TIME: Tuesday, Dec. 16, 1 p.m. EST (10 a.m. PST)

Orbiting Carbon Observatory Workshop for Science Writers
TIME: Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2 p.m. EST (11 a.m. PST)

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Finds Clues to Watery Past
TIME: Thursday, Dec. 18, 2 p.m. EST (11 a.m. PST)

Press Briefing Summaries:

> Space Has Never Been Closer: NASA Instruments Document Contraction of the Boundary between the Earth’s Ionosphere and Space
TIME: Monday, Dec. 15, 11 a.m. EST (8 a.m. PST)
RELATED SESSION: SA08

A collaborative effort between NASA, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, and the University of Texas at Dallas has revealed the size and shape of Earth’s ionosphere for the first time. The ionosphere is a gaseous envelope of electrically charged particles that surrounds our planet and forms an essential part of Earth’s outer atmosphere. For the first time, space scientists have mapped an upper boundary to this layer, finding it currently stretches less distance into space than expected and showing how it varies between day and night. Researchers used NASA’s Coupled Ion-Neutral Dynamics Investigation (CINDI) instrument to make the measurements. CINDI launched in April 2008 onboard the Air Force’s space-weather satellite, the Communication/Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS). The new findings show a link between the extent of the ionosphere and solar activity levels observed at solar minimum.

Participants:

• Donald Hunton, chief, Space Weather Effects Section, Air Force Research Laboratory, Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass.
  
• Odile de La Beaujardiere, chief, Space Plasma Disturbance Specification and Forecast Section, Air Force Research Laboratory, Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass.
  
• Rod Heelis, CINDI principal investigator, University of Texas at Dallas Space Sciences Center, Dallas
  
• Robert Pfaff, principal investigator, C/NOFS Vector Electric Field Instrument, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Latest News From Flybys of Saturn's Dynamic Moon Enceladus
TIME: Monday, Dec. 15, 3 p.m. EST (12 p.m. PST)
RELATED SESSIONS: P13D, P14A, P23B

The closer scientists look at Saturn’s moon Enceladus, the more dynamic they find it to be. Panelists will discuss the Cassini spacecraft’s latest flybys of Enceladus and the evidence they see of change on and around this intriguing moon. They’ll talk about recent images and measurements that provide new information on the “tiger stripe” fractures, from which jets of ice and vapor erupt miles into space; unusual tectonics in the moon’s southern polar regions; and variations in the plume material and its effect on the magnetosphere.

Participants:

• Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team leader and director, Cassini Central Laboratory for Operations, Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
• Paul Helfenstein, Cassini imaging team associate and senior research associate, Department of Astronomy, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.
• Christopher Russell, Cassini magnetometer science team member and professor, Geophysics and Space Physics, University of California, Los Angeles

Close Look at a Martian Arctic Environment
TIME: Monday, Dec. 15, 4 p.m. EST (1 p.m. PST)
RELATED SESSIONS: P13F, U14A, U11B

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander spent more than five months this year examining a landing site on far northern Mars. Phoenix dug to water-ice beneath the surface and analyzed the soil just above the ice for clues about the habitability of this permafrost environment. Researchers have only begun to analyze the data from the mission, though the robotic spacecraft officially finished its work at the end of arctic summer on Mars. Members of the Phoenix science team will report the latest conclusions the team is drawing from the mission's data.

Participants:

• Peter Smith, NASA Phoenix Mars Lander principal investigator, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz.
• Aaron Zent, lead scientist for Phoenix Thermal and Electrical Conductivity Probe, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
• Raymond Arvidson, lead scientist for Phoenix Robotic Arm, Washington University, St. Louis

Titan's Chilly Volcanoes
TIME: Monday, Dec. 15, 7 p.m. EST (4 p.m. PST)
RELATED SESSIONS: P11D, P21A, P52A

Are ice volcanoes oozing from Titan and replenishing its atmosphere with methane? Or are the flow-like features on the surface icy debris that has been lubricated by rain and collapsed into piles like mudflows? New observations of Titan have given Cassini scientists some hot leads on the subject.

Participants:

• Jonathan Lunine, Cassini-Huygens interdisciplinary scientist, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson
• Robert M. Nelson, Cassini-Huygens Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer investigation scientist, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
• Jeffrey Moore, planetary geologist, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
• Rosaly Lopes, Cassini-Huygens Radar team investigation scientist, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

The Arctic in Flux: New Insights From the International Polar Year
TIME: Tuesday, Dec. 16, 12 p.m. EST (9 a.m. PST)
RELATED SESSIONS: C41B, U23F

Continuing climate changes in the Arctic received renewed scientific attention during the International Polar Year, which began in February 2007. This briefing presents early results from IPY studies using climate models and new observations taken from sea, land, and space. Findings include the discovery of new seeps of methane along the East Siberian Arctic Shelf; the greening of the tundra along North America's Arctic coasts; a lengthening snowmelt season and a second year of mass loss on the Greenland ice sheet; and evidence that the predicted amplification of Arctic warming by decreasing sea ice has already begun.

Participants:

• Igor Semiletov, research associate professor, University Alaska at Fairbanks, Alaska
• Julienne Stroeve, research scientist, National Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colo.
• Marco Tedesco, director, Cryospheric Processes and Remote Sensing Laboratory, City College of New York, New York, N.Y.
• D. A. (Skip) Walker, Greening of the Arctic principal investigator, Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska at Fairbanks, Alaska

Biggest Breach of Earth's Solar Storm Shield Discovered
TIME: Tuesday, Dec. 16, 1 p.m. EST (10 a.m. PST)
RELATED SESSIONS: SM23A, SM24A, SM31B, SM31C, SM51B, SM54A

Earth's magnetic field, which shields our planet from severe space weather, often develops holes that allow large leaks, according to researchers sponsored by NASA and the National Science Foundation. The discovery overturns a long-standing belief about how most solar particles penetrate Earth's magnetic field, and could be used to better predict when solar storms will be severe.

Participants:

• David Sibeck, THEMIS project scientist, Space Weather Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; Greenbelt, Md.
• Wenhui Li, research scientist, Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space, University of New Hampshire, Durham
• Marit Oieroset, associate research physicist, Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California-Berkeley
• Joachim (Jimmy) Raeder, associate professor, Department of Physics & Space Science, Center, University of New Hampshire, Durham

Orbiting Carbon Observatory Workshop for Science Writers: A Crash Course in Carbon Cycle Science
TIME: Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2 p.m. EST (11 a.m. PST)
RELATED SESSIONS: A32B, A41D, A43F, U41B

Scheduled for launch in early 2009, the Orbiting Carbon Observatory is NASA's first spacecraft dedicated to studying carbon dioxide, the principal human-produced driver of climate change. Scientists will use mission data to improve our understanding of Earth's carbon cycle and global carbon cycle models, to reduce uncertainties in forecasts of the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide, and to make more accurate predictions of global climate change. Reporters will learn about carbon dioxide "sources" and "sinks," the processes that control variations in atmospheric carbon dioxide, and how carbon dioxide and climate are linked.

Participants:

• David Crisp, OCO principal investigator, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
• Scott Denning, OCO science team associate, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colo.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Finds Clues to Watery Past
TIME: Thursday, Dec. 18, 2 p.m. EST (11 a.m. PST) RELATED SESSIONS: P43D, P31D, P32B, P41B

Researchers using a powerful spectrometer on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have found a mineral that offers new clues to the planet's watery past. The new findings add to a series of signs detected during the orbiter's first two years that point to a complex history – and present -- of climate change and environmental diversity on Mars.

Participants:

• Bethany Ehlmann, Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars collaborator, Brown University, Providence, R.I.
• Scott Murchie, Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars principal investigator, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md.
• Richard Zurek, NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter project scientist, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.