This session provides the opportunity for contributions that fall within the broad spectrum of Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism, but are not directly appropriate to any of the other proposed sessions. We solicit contributions on theory and simulations, instrumentation, laboratory experiments and field measurements, data analysis and interpretation, as well as inversion and modelling techniques.

The Earth system responds to perturbations of solar origin with sudden and intense variations of the geomagnetic field observed, for instance, during geomagnetic storms and substorms. These variations can give origin to geomagnetically induced currents that can represent a hazard for ground-based critical infrastructures.
Geomagnetic measurements, both from ground-based observatories and satellites, have a twofold role in the space weather framework. One is in the quantification of ground effects due to space weather events. The other is in gaining a more and more accurate knowledge of the sources, both internal and external, of the geomagnetic field. Indeed, an accurate separation of the geomagnetic field contributions is of central importance for the development of tools and methods aimed at reliably monitoring and forecasting space weather effects. In this session, we encourage submissions from those involved in investigations that emphasize the role of satellite and ground-based geomagnetic field measurements as a tool to gain advances in space weather research.

This session covers all methods and scales used for registering, processing and interpretation of magnetic field data, from the core to the crustal anomalies and corresponding deep or shallow sources: from satellite missions to oceanic profiles and detailed ground based arrays, and from mathematical processing to petrophysical and geological ground evidence. Presentations on compilation and interpretation methods of heterogenous data sets, useful definitions of magnetic field changes, for scientific Earth's interior studies or natural resources exploration purposes, as well as studies of eventual temporal anomaly changes are also encouraged. New theories of magnetic data modelling and applications in exploration and geological interpretation of magnetic anomalies, jointly with other geodata are warmly welcome.

Many recent advances in aeronomy, space sciences, geomagnetism, and gravity arose from combining specific knowledge of these areas in interdisciplinary research. Current outstanding questions are, for example: What features of ionospheric currents do we discover when we understand the shape, strengths, and variation of the geomagnetic background field? What is the role of upward propagating atmospheric waves in energy and momentum transport into the ionosphere? Which ionospheric processes need to be better quantified to achieve complete knowledge of global core or crustal field variations? How does knowledge of the geometry of ionospheric and magnetospheric sources help in determining Earth’s conductivity in the geomagnetic field? How strongly do we need to consider Earth’s conductivity in quantifying ionospheric currents? How can we quantify and correct for ionospheric perturbations to achieve the best gravity field solutions? Finally, what can we learn about space sciences by studying ionospheric effects on geodetic measurements?

The session invites contributions on any of the subjects and in particular on results that benefit from interdisciplinary works in the areas of space science, geomagnetism, and gravity. Submissions are welcomed that contain analyses of global satellite or ground-based observations or modelling studies, including a combination of them.

Our understanding of Earth's inner and outer core is progressing at a rapid pace thanks to cross-fertilization between a number of observational, theoretical and experimental disciplines.

Improved seismic observations continue to provide better images of the core and prompt refinements in structural and geodynamic models. Mineral physics provides constraints for dynamic, structural, and thermodynamic models. The heat budget of the core, paleomagnetic observations, and models promote the exploration of new dynamo mechanisms. Geomagnetic observations from both ground and satellite, along with magneto-hydrodynamic experiments, provide additional insight to our ever expanding view of Earth's core.

This session welcomes contributions from all disciplines, as well as interdisciplinary efforts, on attempts to proceed towards an integrated, self-consistent picture of core structure, dynamics and history, and to understand its overwhelming complexity.

The session aims to collect original or review contributions on the use of data from Low-Earth-Orbiting (LEO) satellites making measurements in the thermosphere-ionosphere to investigate ionospheric anomalies related to space weather, geophysical and artificial sources. In fact, data from LEO satellites can provide a global view of near-Earth space variability and are complementary to ground-based observations, which have limited global coverage. The AMPERE project and integration of the Swarm data into ESA’s Space Weather program are current examples of this. The availability of thermosphere and ionosphere data from the DEMETER satellite and the new operative CSES mission demonstrates that also satellites that have not been specifically designed for space weather studies can provide important contributions to this field. On the other hand, there are evidences that earthquakes can generate electromagnetic anomalies into the near Earth space. A multi-instrumental approach, by using ground observations (magnetometers, magnetotelluric stations, GNSS receivers, etc.) and LEO satellites (DEMETER, Swarm, CSES, etc.) measurements can help in clarifying the missing scientific knowledge of the lithosphere-atmosphere-ionosphere coupling (LAIC) mechanisms before, during and after large earthquakes. We also solicit contributions on studies about other phenomena, such as tropospheric and anthropogenic electromagnetic emissions, that influence the near-Earth electromagnetic and plasma environment on all relevant topics including data processing, data-assimilation in models, space weather case studies, superimposed epoch analyses, etc.

The analysis of potential fields, especially of the Earth's gravity and magnetic fields, is becoming increasingly important for the geosciences community. The modern satellite missions are continuing to provide data with ever improving accuracy and nearly global, time-dependent coverage. The gravitational field, respectively the geoid, plays an important role in climate research, as a record of and reference for the observation of mass transport. The study of the Earth's magnetic field and its temporal variations is yielding new insights into the behavior of its internal and external sources. Both gravity and magnetic data furthermore constitute primary sources of information also for the global characterization of other planets. With this vast quantity of data and the richness of research topics that can be addressed with it, there continues to be a need to develop new methods of analysis, at the global and local scales, and especially on their interface, where high- and low resolution data are to be jointly represented and interpreted, and where global/local contributions to noise/signal need to be differentiated. Global fields have traditionally been modeled in the spherical harmonics basis; local observations typically in a Cartesian space-based or Fourier framework. For over two decades now, methods that combine global with local sensitivity, often in a multiresolution setting, have been developed as alternatives: these include wavelets, radial basis functions, Slepian functions, splines, spherical cap harmonics, etc. With these, a growing range of problems can be addressed, but many further developments, including particular aspects of their algorithmic implementation, or the explicit search for sparsity in the modeling domain are awaiting further study. On the one hand side the purpose of this session is to provide a forum for exchange on the current state-of-the-art on these research topics, whether related to forward or inverse modeling, theoretical, computational, or observational studies. Especially studies on regional gravity field modeling from the combination of different input data sets as well as comparisons between different solutions are welcome.

On the other hand, besides monitoring the variations of the Earth's gravity and magnetic fields, space geodetic techniques deliver time series describing changes of the surface geometry, sea level change variations or fluctuations in the Earth's orientation. However, geodetic observation systems usually measure the integral effect of all effects. Thus, analysis methods have to be applied to the geodetic time series for a better understanding of the relations between and within the components of the system Earth. The combination of data from various space geodetic and remote sensing techniques may allow for separating the integral measurements into individual contributions of the Earth system components. Presentations to time frequency analysis, to the detection of features of the temporal or spatial variability of signals existing in geodetic data and in geophysical models, as well as to the investigations on signal separation techniques, e.g. EOF, are highly appreciated. We further solicit papers on different prediction techniques e.g. least-squares, neural networks, Kalman filter or uni- or multivariate autoregressive methods to forecast Earth Orientation Parameters, which are needed for real-time transformation between celestial and terrestrial reference frames.

Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) is a safe, advanced, non-destructive and non-invasive imaging technique that can be effectively used for inspecting the subsurface as well as natural and man-made structures. During GPR surveys, a source is used to send high-frequency electromagnetic waves into the ground or structure under test; at the boundaries where the electromagnetic properties of media change, the electromagnetic waves may undergo transmission, reflection, refraction and diffraction; the radar sensors measure the amplitudes and travel times of signals returning to the surface.

This session aims at bringing together scientists, engineers, industrial delegates and end-users working in all GPR areas, ranging from fundamental electromagnetics to the numerous fields of applications. With this session, we wish to provide a supportive framework for (1) the delivery of critical updates on the ongoing research activities, (2) fruitful discussions and development of new ideas, (3) community-building through the identification of skill sets and collaboration opportunities, (4) vital exposure of early-career scientists to the GPR research community.

We have identified a series of topics of interest for this session, listed below.

1. Ground Penetrating Radar instrumentation
- Innovative GPR equipment
- Design, realization and optimization of GPR antennas
- Equipment testing and calibration procedures

2. Ground Penetrating Radar methodology
- Survey planning and data acquisition strategies
- Methods and tools for data analysis and interpretation
- Data processing algorithms, electromagnetic modelling, imaging and inversion techniques
- Studying the relationship between GPR sensed quantities and physical properties of inspected subsurface/structures useful for application needs
- Advanced data visualization methods to clearly and efficiently communicate the significance of GPR data

3. Ground Penetrating Radar applications and case studies
- Earth sciences
- Civil engineering
- Environmental engineering
- Archaeology and cultural heritage
- Management of water resources
- Humanitarian mine clearance
- Vital signs detection of trapped people in natural and man-made disasters
- Planetary exploration

4. Contributions on the combined use of Ground Penetrating Radar and other geoscience instrumentation, in all applications fields

5. Communication and education initiatives and methods

Additional information
This session is organized by Members of TU1208 GPR Association (www.gpradar.eu/tu1208); the association is a follow-up initiative of COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) Action TU1208 “Civil engineering applications of Ground Penetrating Radar”.

Many regions of the Earth, from crust to core, exhibit anisotropic fabrics which can reveal much about geodynamic processes in the subsurface. These fabrics can exist at a variety of scales, from crystallographic orientations to regional structure alignments. In the past few decades, a tremendous body of multidisciplinary research has been dedicated to characterizing anisotropy in the solid Earth and understanding its geodynamical implications. This has included work in fields such as: (1) geophysics, to make in situ observations and construct models of anisotropic properties at a range of depths; (2) mineral physics, to explain the cause of some of these observations; and (3) numerical modelling, to relate the inferred fabrics to regional stress and flow regimes and, thus, geodynamic processes in the Earth. The study of anisotropy in the Solid Earth encompasses topics so diverse that it often appears fragmented according to regions of interest, e.g., the upper or lower crust, oceanic lithosphere, continental lithosphere, cratons, subduction zones, D'', or the inner core. The aim of this session is to bring together scientists working on different aspects of anisotropy to provide a comprehensive overview of the field. We encourage contributions from all disciplines of the earth sciences (including mineral physics, seismology, magnetotellurics, geodynamic modelling) focused on anisotropy at all scales and depths within the Earth.

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without a human pilot aboard. Originating mostly from military applications, their use is rapidly expanding to commercial, recreational, agricultural, and scientific applications. Unlike manned aircraft, UAVs were initially used for missions too "dull, dirty, or dangerous" for humans. Nowadays however, many modern scientific experiments have begun to use UAVs as a tool to collect different types of data. Their flexibility and relatively simple usability now allow scientist to accomplish tasks that previously required expensive equipment like piloted aircrafts, gas, or hot air balloons. Even the industry has begun to adapt and offer extensive options in UAV characteristics and capabilities. At this session, we would like people to share their experience in using UAVs for scientific research. We are interested to hear about specific scientific tasks accomplished or attempted, types of UAVs used, and instruments deployed.

Non-destructive testing (NDT) methods have been increasingly used over the last decades in a wide range of engineering and geosciences applications. New theoretical developments, technological advances in both hardware and software resources as well as the progress achieved in surveying, data processing and interpretation have led to a tremendous growth of equipment reliability, allowing outstanding data quality and accuracy. To this effect, the potential of many optical, acoustic, electric and electromagnetic NDT methods for stand-alone use has been greatly investigated to date. Hence, these pieces of equipment have become popular for assessment and monitoring purposes in many fields of application.
Nevertheless, the requirements of a comprehensive site investigation may be complex and time-consuming and may involve multiple expertise and many pieces of equipment. The challenge is to step forward and provide effective integration between data outputs with different physical quantities, scale domains and resolutions. In this regard, enormous development opportunities relating to data fusion, integration and correlation between different NDT methods and theories are to be further investigated in the near future.
Within this framework, this Session primarily aims at disseminating contributions from state-of-the-art NDT methods and numerical developments, promoting the integration of existing equipment and the development of new algorithms, surveying techniques, methods and prototypes for effective monitoring and assessment of survey sites. Non-destructive testing techniques of interest are related – but not limited to – the application of acoustic emission (AE) testing, electromagnetic testing (ET), ground penetrating radar (GPR), geoelectric methods (GM), laser testing methods (LM), magnetic flux leakage (MFL), microwave testing, magnetic particle testing (MT), neutron radiographic testing (NR), radiographic testing (RT), thermal/infrared testing (IRT), ultrasonic testing (UT), seismic methods (SM), vibration analysis (VA), visual and optical testing (VT/OT).
The Session will focus on the application of different NDT methods and theories and will be related – but not limited to – the following investigation areas:
- advanced data fusion;
- advanced interpretation methods;
- design and development of new surveying equipment and prototypes;
- assessment and monitoring methods for site investigations;
- assessment and monitoring protocols and procedures for site investigations;
- comprehensive and inclusive information data systems for the monitoring and assessment of survey sites;
- numerical simulation and modelling of data outputs with different physical quantities, scale domains and resolutions;
- advances in NDT methods, numerical developments and applications (stand-alone use of existing and state-of-the-art NDTs).

Progressively stricter requirements in geophysical prospecting, in urban and inter-urban monitoring make it important to look continuously for innovative solutions to new and old complex problems. In particular, investigation and monitoring of pollution, hydrological resources, energy efficiency, cultural heritage, cities and transportation infrastructures nowadays require technological and methodological innovations of geophysical and sensing techniques in order to properly understand the limits of the current state of art and to identify where possible the most convenient strategies to overcome limitations of current approaches. This goal can be achieved either with more advanced solutions in a general sense or with dedicated solutions, particularly suitable for the specific problem at hand.
Integrated prospecting, refined data processing, new models, hardware innovations, new ICT information and telecommunications systems can and should cooperate with each other in this sense. It is important that the scientific community finds a moment for considering the connection between adjacent aspects of the same problem, e.g. to achieve improved geophysical data, safe and reliable environmental and structural monitoring, improved processing as much as possible.
The session “ Innovative instrumentations, techniques, geophysical methods and models for near surface geophysics, cities and transportation infrastructures aims to propose one such moment, where multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary competences can interact with each other, possibly finding possible new ways to cooperate and to exchange experiences reciprocally to reach sustainable solutions.

Integrated modelling of gravity, magnetic, seismological and petrological data contributes to a wide range of geo-scientific research, from imaging the structure of the Solid earth and geodynamic processes (e.g. GIA and the coupling between Solid Earth and Cryosphere) to near surface investigations. The session especially welcomes contributions related to spatial and temporal variations of the Earth gravity and magnetic field at all scales and their application in an integrated context.

The InSight mission to Mars landed in Elysium Planitia on November 26. InSight's scientific objective is the study of the Martian interior using two seismometers, a heat flow probe and geodetical measurements. Auxiliary instruments will collect meteorological and magnetic data for at least one Martian year.
This session provides initial results from Mars, status reports of instrument deployment and relevant pre-landing science.

From the real-time integration of multi-parametric observations is expected the major contribution to the development of operational t-DASH systems suitable for supporting decision makers with continuously updated seismic hazard scenarios. A very preliminary step in this direction is the identification of those parameters (seismological, chemical, physical, biological, etc.) whose space-time dynamics and/or anomalous variability can be, to some extent, associated with the complex process of preparation of major earthquakes.
This session wants then to encourage studies devoted to demonstrate the added value of the introduction of specific, observations and/or data analysis methods within the t-DASH and StEF perspectives. Therefore studies based on long-term data analyses, including different conditions of seismic activity, are particularly encouraged. Similarly welcome will be the presentation of infrastructures devoted to maintain and further develop our present observational capabilities of earthquake related phenomena also contributing in this way to build a global multi-parametric Earthquakes Observing System (EQuOS) to complement the existing GEOSS initiative.
To this aim this session is not addressed just to seismology and natural hazards scientists but also to geologist, atmospheric sciences and electromagnetism researchers, whose collaboration is particular important for fully understand mechanisms of earthquake preparation and their possible relation with other measurable quantities. For this reason all contributions devoted to the description of genetic models of earthquake’s precursory phenomena are equally welcome. Every 2 years selected papers presented in thsi session will be proposed for publication in a dedicated Special Issue of an international (ISI) scientific journal.

'Cosmic rays’ collectively describe particles that bombard the Earth from space. They carry information about space and, once near the Earth, interact with the magnetosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere. Secondary cosmic rays created within the atmosphere can provide information about our planet that is vital to science and society. Secondary neutron radiation plays an extraordinary role, as it not only carries information about solar activity, but also produces short and long living tracer isotopes, influences genetic information of living organisms, and is extraordinarily sensitive to hydrogen and therefore also to water. Given the vast spectrum of interactions of cosmic rays with matter in different parts of the Earth, cosmic-ray research ranges from studies of the solar system to the history of the Earth, and from health and security issues to hydrology and climate change.

Although research on cosmic-ray particles is connected to a variety of disciplines and applications, they all share similar questions and problems regarding the physics of detection, modeling, and environmental factors that influence the intensity. Questions that all disciplines have in common are, for example, “How does the cosmic-ray intensity and energy spectra change with time and location on Earth?”, “How to correct the signal for magnetospheric or atmospheric fluctuations?”, “What is the influence of local structures, water bodies, and surface conditions?”, “Which computer model for cosmic-ray propagation is correct?”, or “What can we learn from other types of cosmic-ray particles?”.

The session brings together scientists from all fields of research that are related to monitoring and modeling of cosmogenic radiation. It will allow sharing of expertise amongst international researchers as well as showcase recent advancements in their field. The session aims to stimulate discussions about how individual disciplines can share their knowledge and benefit from each other.

We solicit contributions related but not limited to:
- Health, security, and radiation protection: cosmic-ray dosimetry on Earth and its dependence on environmental and atmospheric factors
- Planetary space science: satellite and ground-based neutron and gamma-ray sensors to detect water and soil chemistry
- Neutron monitor research: detection of high-energy cosmic rays variations and its dependence on local and atmospheric factors
- Hydrology and climate change: low-energy neutron sensing to measure water in reservoirs at and near the land surface, such as soils, snow pack and vegetation
- Cosmogenic nuclides: as tracers of atmospheric circulation and mixing; as a tool in archaeology or glaciology for dating of ice and measuring ablation rates; and as a tool for surface exposure dating and measuring rates of surficial geological processes
- Detector design: technological advancements for the detection of cosmic rays
- Cosmic-ray modeling: advances in modeling of the cosmic-ray propagation through the magnetosphere and atmosphere, and their response to the Earth’s surface
- Impact modeling: How can cosmic-ray monitoring support environmental models, weather and climate forecasting, irrigation management, and the assessment of natural hazards

Research, especially for early career scientists, starts with the spark of an idea and is then often challenged by empirical or methodological road bumps and seemingly dead ends. A diverse range of challenges face those in earth science research, particularly for early career scientists (ECS). Challenges include (1) access difficulties, whether for field sites, equipment or data, (2) problems of scaling and extrapolation and (3) a lack of methodological understanding or knowledge. In this short course, we will raise engaging discussions, which aim to solve challenges, suggest new research approaches and methods, and encourage networks and possibilities for in-depth discussions amongst early career scientists at international conferences.

This short course will start with 2 minute ‘pop-up’ presentations outlining the questions or challenges submitted by attendees. These pop-ups are followed by chaired group discussions in which short course participants engage to crowd solve the presented challenges. To wrap up the session, solutions and suggestions from each topical group are presented to the whole session in a final discussion. A summary on last years’ crowd solving efforts can be found in the EGU GM blog post https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/gm/2018/04/25/diving-under-the-scientific-iceberg/.

This short course lives by your input: i) by stating a research idea or challenge you would like to share, and ii) by participating in the discussion during the short course. To organize and prepare the discussions, please send a short statement of your idea or challenge related to geomorphic research, and your motivation for solving it (3-4 sentences) to geomorph-problems@geographie.uni-bonn.de, by March 1, 2019. The contributions within the short course are free of charge. If you want to discuss a specific problem, but rather stay anonymous, please let us know. We are all early career scientists and expect a non-hierarchic, respectful and constructive environment for the discussions, which will hopefully go some way to identifying and engaging with problems which face ECS geomorphologists.

Session organizers: Anne Voigtländer, Johannes Buckel, Eleanore Heasley, Felix Nieberding, Liseth Perez, Anna Schoch, Harry Sanders, Richard Mason,...

Public information:
We encourage meeting up before the short course during the Networking Time ~18h - so grab another drink and join us near room -2.62!

This session will cover applied and theoretical aspects of geophysical imaging, modelling and inversion using both active- and passive-source seismic measurements as well as other geophysical techniques (e.g., gravimetry, magnetic and electromagnetic) to investigate the Earth’s crust and uppermost mantle. We invite contributions focused on methodological developments, theoretical aspects, and applications. Studies across the scales and disciplines are particularly welcome.

Among others, the session may cover the following topics:
- Active- and passive-source imaging using body- and surface-waves;
- Full waveform inversion developments and applications;
- Advancements and case studies in 2D and 3D active-source imaging;
- Interferometry and Marchenko imaging;
- Seismic attenuation and anisotropy;
- Developments and applications of multi-scale and multi-parameter inversion;
- Joint inversion of seismic and complementary geophysical data;
- Applications of new acquisition systems.