For his presentation entitled "Statistical Signatures of Ionospheric Ion Outflow Obtained by IMAGE/LENA: Storm Phase Dependence," Takahiro Kunori of Kyoto University won a 2006 Fall AGU Student Paper Award. This award, which recognizes student excellence in geoscience research and presentation at the American Geophysical Union national meetings, is based on timing, clarity of expression, effective use of illustrations, organization, and logic.

Takahiro's presentation analyzed the behavior of ion outflow in the main and recovery phases of magnetic storms. He found that during the main phase, solar wind pressure enhancements accompany most of the low energy neutral atom emission from the Earth direction. However, during the recovery phase, the low energy neutral atom flux starts high and then gradually decreases as storm recovery phase progresses. These results suggest there may be two different mechanisms responsible for ion outflow during the main and recovery phases (click here for a pdf of Takahiro's AGU presentation). We all congratulate Takahiro on his accomplishment.