Nancy Crooker:  Potential Submission to EOS

Space Weather Quarterly as a Jewel in AGU’s Crown

The Space Weather Quarterly is an attractive, slick, hands-on magazine unlike anything else AGU publishes.  It is beginning to be recognized as a showcase publication for promoting the goals of one of the four pillars of AGU’s strategic plan, namely, Science and Society.  It reaches across the divide between science and society to inform readers ranging from users to policy makers.

The Quarterly got a head start by being one of the very few instruments for reaching out to society well before Science and Society was part of the strategic plan.  Among the many AGU members involved in creating the current strategic plan, there was an outcry of support for the then languishing efforts to communicate science to society.  With the new strategic plan, and with enthusiastic and expert guidance from Executive Director Chris McEntee, these efforts have blossomed.  For example, at Fall Meeting there is now an abundance of lectures, sessions, and movies addressing societal issues, and this spring brings us the third annual science policy conference.  The new electronic newsletter, AGUniverse, lists the many AGU articles that have been covered by the news media and frequently urges members to contact their Congressmen on relevant issues.  AGU press releases are notably more frequent, and more channels for communication between AGU and Congressional staffers have been opened.

In this initial rush of outreach, apparently the Space Weather Quarterly was overlooked; but this jewel of a magazine will soon be seen by other sections of AGU as a model to emulate.  An interested group of space physicists is regularly meeting with AGU’s Brooks Hanson to streamline production and develop a viable business model.