Reporting from the 2014 Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union

In San Francisco, in an annual tradition, more than 20,000 geologists are descending on the Moscone Center, increasing the local force of gravity and tempting Poseidon Earth-Shaker to do away with the world's supply of seismologists with one conveniently timed earthquake. It's the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union, and there are lots of planetary science sessions on the schedule, as well as a number of press briefings. I will be in attendance tomorrow through Thursday to cover Curiosity and Rosetta news, and doing my best to blog about them as time allows. There are also several press briefings, which will be webstreamed for your viewing pleasure:

• Monday, 9:00 PST / 17:00 UTC: Early results from the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission
• Tuesday, 10:30 PST / 18:30 UTC: Recent findings from NASA’s Curiosity Rover about modern and ancient Mars
• Wednesday, 8:00 PST / 16:00 UTC: Rosetta comet science results
• Thursday, 9:00 PST / 17L00 UTC: First results from NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2)
• Thursday, 11:30 PST / 19:30 UTC: New Horizons on Pluto’s doorstep (workshop)

In addition, a number of AGU sessions will be available as Virtual Options, meaning that they can be viewed remotely. Only some of these Virtual Options are streamed real-time; others are on-demand, presumably after some delay. Here is a list of all planetary science Virtual Options. The ones in bold text should be live-streamed. Notably, the Rosetta ones are not going to be live-streamed.

• Monday, 08:00 PST / 16:00 UTC: MR11C Planetary Materials I Icy and Gas Giants
• Monday, 16:00 PST / Tuesday 00:00 UTC: P14A Shoemaker Lecture (Ellen Stofan)
• Monday, 17:00 PST / Tuesday 01:00 UTC: P14B Whipple Lecture (Larry Soderblom)
• Wednesday, 10:20 PST / 18:20 UTC: P32B Rosetta 2014 I
• Wednesday, 13:40 PST / 21:40 UTC: P33F Rosetta 2014 II
• Wednesday, 16:00 PST / Thursday 00:00 UTC: P34B Rosetta 2014 III
• Thursday, 16:00 PST / Friday 00:00 UTC: P44A Accretion, Differentiation, and Early Planetary Evolution I
• Friday, 8:00 PST / 16:00 UTC: P51G Planetary Atmospheres and Their Evolution I
• Friday, 13:40 PST / 21:40 UTC: U53A Upstairs Downstairs: Consequences of Internal Evolution for the Habitability of Planetary Surfaces

There will be a jillion people tweeting #AGU14, and I plan to be one of them. Following that hashtag will quickly drown you in Earth science, so I'm now working on a list of planetary science tweeters attending AGU. I personally plan to attend and tweet the following sessions:

• Tuesday, 13:40 PST / 21:40 UTC: P23E Volatiles in the Martian Crust I
• Wednesday, 10:20 PST / 18:20 UTC: P32B Rosetta 2014 I
• Wednesday, 13:40 PST / 21:40 UTC: P33F Rosetta 2014 II
• Wednesday, 16:00 PST / Thursday 00:00 UTC: P34B Rosetta 2014 III
• Thursday, 10:20 PST / 18:20 UTC: P42A Comet Siding Spring at Mars I --or-- P42C Mars Science Laboratory's Prime Mission: An Exploration of Fluvial and Lacustrine Environments on Gale Crater's Plains I

Stay tuned for the latest in planetary science news from AGU!