CEDAR email: CEDAR Strategic Plan community input and writing group

[Barbara Emery]

This is a generic mailing to the CEDAR community sent Mar 05, 2010.
Meetings and jobs are listed at http://cedarweb.hao.ucar.edu under
'Community' as 'Calendar of Meetings' and 'CEDAR related opportunities'.
CEDAR email messages are under 'Community' as 'CEDAR email Newsletters'.
All are in 'Quick Links' on the main page.
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(1) CEDAR Strategic Plan community input and writing group workshop (WHOI, 31 
Mar-02 Apr).
 From Jeff Thayer (jeffrey.thayer at colorado.edu).
See also http://cedarweb.hao.ucar.edu under Community/CEDAR Strategic Plan.
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To the CEDAR Community:

The CEDAR program has maintained its prominence and vitality for over
25 years by continuously reviewing, evaluating, assessing and
implementing strategic priorities that respond to the pressing
scientific and technical issues of the time.  In this scientific
progression there are certain moments where a major program shift is
warranted.  In the formative years, the CEDAR program evolved through
grass-root efforts by researchers within the upper atmosphere
community.  This grass-roots approach continues today and is essential
for the program to remain vibrant and current.  The NSF CEDAR program
has succeeded within the ionosphere, thermosphere, mesosphere (ITM)
community by vigorous science planning, assessment, and prioritizing.
However, as its influence expands so must the charter for CEDAR.
Presently the questions posed by the CEDAR Phase III document are
detailed and specific; however, the CEDAR community must complement
these detailed questions with broader, more encompassing questions
that recognize the linkages among different aspects of the Whole Earth
System and the vital role the upper atmosphere plays in maintaining a
habitable and sustainable planetary system and technology-reliant
society.  This is the basis for the next step of the program that adds
a new dimension to CEDAR.

Over the past few years, discussions about the strategic plan within
the CSSC and at CEDAR meetings have evolved.  In addition, broader
initiatives within the NSF science community are burgeoning and it is
appropriate that the CEDAR community become an integral part of those
activities.  Therefore, the CSSC and other members of the CEDAR
community are pressing forward to have a near final form of the strategic plan 
called “CEDAR: The New Dimension” by the CEDAR meeting
in Boulder this June 20-25.  To meet this timeline, a small
writing/working group has been formed and a 3-day writing workshop has
been organized for March 31-April 2 at Woods Hole Institute.  This
group will produce a draft document by May that will be posted on the
CEDAR wiki for community comment.  The 20-25 page document will be
iterated and revised based on community input through the middle of
June and then discussed at the CEDAR meeting in preparation for final
production and publication.  The document will (1) provide a community
document for the next decade of CEDAR research activities, (2) provide
a document to NSF that can be understood by other fields (oceans,
earth science, atmospheres, solar, engineering, etc…) enabling cross-
discipline activities and collaboration within existing and planned
initiatives, (3) provide a document that will transform CEDAR by being
bold and forward thinking such that new initiatives will be born at
all levels of scientific inquiry.

The writing group participants of the CEDAR strategic plan are:  Jeff
Thayer, Susan Avery, John Foster, Dave Hysell, Farzad Kamalabadi (Ex
Officio), Bob Kerr, Janet Kozyra, Larry Paxton, Aaron Ridley, Robert
Robinson (Ex Officio), Joshua Semeter, Jan Sojka , Tony van Eyken.  We
all welcome your input to this process and are excited about the
future of CEDAR.  A website and forum for the CEDAR strategic plan is
located at http://cedarweb.hao.ucar.edu under “Community” with a link
from the main page for community input, or you can give your input to
me or any member of the writing group.

Jeff Thayer (jeffrey.thayer at colorado.edu),
Chair of the CEDAR Science Steering Committee,
March 5, 2010