US-Africa Workshop on Expanding the Africa Array Network to Support Multidisciplinary Science in Africa, Washington, DC

学术价值：2010年6月将在华盛顿特区举办一次研讨会，聚集在非洲从事地球科学研究的美国科学家和他们的非洲合作者，以审查和编纂将非洲阵列(AA)地震网络扩展为多学科科学网络的科学基础。随着AA地震网络在最近几年的发展，许多来自相关领域的科学家表示有兴趣扩大网络的地理范围，并在网络中增加更多的传感器，以进行一系列现场测量，包括大气科学(包括气候)、大地测量、地理、水文学、地震学和空间天气。讲习班的主要目标是：(1)获得社区对关键科学问题(多学科和特定学科)的投入，如果没有来自非洲的新观测，就无法解决这些问题；(2)确定为解决科学问题提供共同数据集所需的观测基础设施；(3)确定为解决科学问题提供特定学科数据集所需的观测基础设施；(4)探索(2)和(3)中确定的观测基础设施与AA网络内现有基础设施之间的交叉和重叠；(5)调查更广泛的影响，包括向政府和非政府组织(NGO)决策者传达和传播科学信息的最佳选择，以及支持非洲和美国的教育活动。这些目标与研讨会的三个具体成果有关；(A)描述扩大AA网络的科学理由的科学计划；(B)概述每个科学领域的观测需求并指出如何调整现有的非洲阵列网络以满足这些需求的后勤计划；以及(C)讨论如何支持非洲科学教育的更广泛的影响计划。广泛的影响：这次研讨会的更广泛的影响包括为扩大非洲许多科学领域的研究和教育活动奠定基础，以造福于许多非洲教职员工和学生以及在非洲进行研究的美国教职员工和学生。此外，讲习班将为制定向国内和国际广大受众交流数据和研究的计划提供一个论坛。早期职业科学家和研究生都将参加研讨会。

Intellectual Merit: A workshop will be held in Washington, DC in June, 2010, bringing together U.S. scientists engaged in geoscience research in Africa and their African collaborators in order to examine and codify the scientific rationale for expanding the AfricaArray (AA) seismic network into a multidisciplinary science network. As the AA seismic network has been developed over recent years, many scientists from allied fields have expressed interest in expanding the geographic extent of the network and adding additional sensors to the network for making a range of in-situ measurements, including for atmospheric science (including climate), geodesy, geography, hydrology, seismology, and space weather.The primary objectives for the workshop are: (1) To obtain community input on key science questions (multidisciplinary and discipline-specific) that cannot be addressed without new observations from Africa; (2) To determine the observational infrastructure needed to provide common data sets for addressing the science questions; (3) To determine the observational infrastructure needed to provide discipline-specific data sets for addressing the science questions;(4) To explore the intersection and overlap between the observational infrastructure identified in (2) and (3) and existing infrastructure within the AA network;(5) To investigate broader impacts, including best options for communicating and disseminating science information to government and non-government organization (NGO) decision-makers and supporting educational activities in Africa and the U.S. These objectives are linked to three specific outcomes for the workshop; (a) a science plan that will describe the scientific rationale for expanding the AA network, (b) a logistics plan that will outline the observational needs for each science field and indicate how the existing AfricaArray network can be adapted to meet those needs, and (c) a broader impacts plan that will discuss ways to support science education in Africa.Broader Impacts: The broader impacts of this workshop include laying the foundation to expand research and education activities in many science fields in Africa for the benefit of many African faculty and students and for the U.S. faculty and students who are conducting research in Africa. In addition, the workshop will provide a forum for developing plans for communicating data and research to a broad audience, both domestic and international. Both early career scientists and graduate students will participate in the workshop.