Journal Article

Guide for Conducting “Community Challenges” in Space Physics

Garcia‐Sage, Katherine S., Redmon, Robert, Vines, Sarah K., Halford, Alexa J., Rastätter, Lutz, Liemohn, Michael W., Zheng, Yihua

2025

Overview

The Geospace Environment Modeling (GEM) program regularly issues “community challenges” in which researchers examine a particular space physics phenomenon or geomagnetic activity event, often running numerical models to assess dominant processes and understand the timing and relationship of observed signatures. The GEM Methods and Validation Resource Group helps those GEM focus group leaders running challenges to maximize participation and optimize scientific return from the significant time investment of these endeavors. This article gives a brief history of GEM community challenges and details those best practices that lead to an inclusive and valuable experience. Plain Language Summary Over 30 years ago, a group of space scientists set out to coordinate efforts toward the creation of a community‐wide numerical modeling resource. This led to the formation of the Geospace Environment Modeling program, and one of the regular activities of this program is the instigation of “community challenges.” These challenges typically select a particular geospace activity interval or a physical process and then rally the research community to participate in the analysis of this phenomenon. The practice has led to substantial new knowledge of Earth's space environment and significant advancements in numerical modeling capabilities of this region. Here, we describe the history of these community challenges, highlight the lessons learned, and collect the best practices that maximize participation and optimize scientific return. Key Points A history is presented of the “community challenges” conducted over the past 3 decades within the Geospace Environment Modeling Program Key recommendations and lessons learned from past challenge leaders, as well as suggestions from the research community, are presented Additional resources that might aid in the successful running of a community challenge are given, including a summary of metrics options

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc
• Subject: community organizing / data‐model comparisons / Earth system modeling and predictability / General circulation models / Leadership / Mathematical models / model evaluation / open science / Organizational structure / Physics / Radiation / space physics / Storms / Working groups / Workshops