2005 Incoherent Scatter Coordinated Observation Days
URSI-ISWG
In the following table, column 2 gives the start and end date of the
experiment, column 3 gives the day of the week of the start of the experiment,
column 4 is the length of the experiment and column 5 shows the date of the new
moon.
Incoherent Scatter Coordinated Observation Days should start at 1300 UT on the
first day indicated (to ensure that all radars are operating correctly by
1600 UT) and end at 0500 UT on the last day indicated to optimize coverage for
storm-time and other electro-magnetic events. (Note that 0500 UT is midnight
EST.) At the request of the
modeling community, runs should be a minimum of 3 days.
2005 Incoherent Scatter Coordinated Observation Days
|
| Observation Dates |
Starting
Day |
Observation
Length (days) |
New
Moon |
Notes |
| January |
|
|
10 |
|
| February |
|
|
8 |
|
March 7-12
or
March 28-April 2
or
April 18-23 |
Monday
Monday
Monday |
4-2/3
4-2/3
4-2/3 |
Mar 10
Apr 8 |
First choice M-I Coupling:
(One of the 5-day periods listed, selected one month in advance)
Second choice Synoptic: wide F-region coverage
Third choice GPS-Radar:
wide F-region coverage (with topside at AO and JRO)
Also CPEA |
| May |
|
|
8 |
|
| June 14-18 |
Monday |
4-2/3 |
6 |
LTCS -- MST |
| July |
|
|
6 |
|
August 10-13
|
Wednesday
|
3
|
5 |
Meteoric Ionization
|
| September 1-30 |
Thursday |
30
(best effort) |
3 |
LTCS -- MST: for long period waves
|
| October |
|
|
3 |
|
| November 8-12 |
Monday |
3-2/3 |
2 |
C/NOFS: wide F-region coverage |
| November 17-20 |
Thursday |
3 |
2 |
Meteoric Ionization |
| December |
|
|
1/31 |
|
| Total |
|
Up to 58-1/3 |
|
|
| Last updated: Friday, 2004 September 24
|
Send comments, questions and proposals for the World Day schedule to
Wes Swartz at
wes@ece.cornell.edu.
World Day Facts
Establishing "World Day" schedules is one of the activities of the URSI
Incoherent Scatter Working Group (ISWG) and the CEDAR meeting has provided a timely
forum for scheduling coordinated experiments at the Upper Atmospheric Facilities
(UAFs)
for the next calendar year. These schedules are then published as part
of the International Geophysical Calendar.
Here are some of the facts about world days:
- World Days (WD) provide for coordinated operations of two or more of the
incoherent scatter radars (ISRs) for some common scientific objective.
(Experiments that require only 1 should be set up separately and directly
with those in charge of that UAF.)
- World Days should be scattered throughout the calendar year.
- World Day data is to be promptly submitted to the CEDAR database and/or
made available through other online databases as appropriate.
- The number of World Days per year has been increased to 58 this year which
includes several normal runs of a few days plus one long run of 30 days.
Requests for World Day experiments should:
- Outline the science objectives.
- Describe the measurements required to meet the science objectives
(including a list of the parameters to be measured, the altitude, azimuth, and elevation ranges
over which the measurements are to be made, and time resolutions, with
the dates or seasons, number of days or hours, phase of the moon, etc.).
- List which UAFs and which instruments are to be included.
- Include the radar operating modes for each ISR.
- Name a point person for coordinating the details of the experiments.
Notes on World Day observations proposed for 2005
LTCS
(Lower Thermosphere Coupling Study):
Tidal Variability
After 17 years of collecting ISR data in the lower thermosphere
under the LTCS (Lower Thermosphere Coupling Study) program,
the basic structure of tides is relatively well understood with the most
striking single property of atmospheric tides being the very large
variability of tidal amplitudes. Possible sources for this
variability include non-migrating tides, planetary waves, and
geomagnetic influences. Now efforts must focus on the sources of this
tidal variability and are
conditioned on obtaining wind and temperature data from altitudes between 100
and ~130-140 km.
The program requires synoptic lower thermospheric
observations during two intervals of 4-5 days each per year. The 30-day
run (the "World Month") planned for 2005
will particularly address longer period waves, e.g., the 5 to 16-day waves.
(See special note on this long run below.)
We plan to coordinate the analysis of this data with SABER temperature
data, TIDI mesospheric winds, and MF/meteor radar winds.
Examples and further information.
Contact: Larisa P. Goncharenko
M-I Coupling (Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Coupling):
Storm and Substorm Effects on the
Middle- and Low-Latitude Ionosphere
Magnetic storms and substorms are fundamental disturbances in the
magnetosphere and can significantly increase, or decrease ionopheric
electron densities (termed positive or negative storms, repectively).
Electric fields originating in the magnetosphere can penetrate to
the low-latitude ionosphere resulting in vertical motions that
restructure the F-region density profiles due to the height
dependence of the recombination rate. Substorm electric fields
can change F-peak densities by 20-30% within one hour and
correspondingly large changes also occur in TEC at low latitudes.
There are a number of outstanding problems with the effects of
storms and substorms on the middle- and low-latitude ionosphere
that remain unsolved.
- How much do magnetic storms affect the low-latitude ionosphere?
- How significant are the changes in TEC and F-region densities
that result from penetrating magnetospheric substorm electric fields?
- How are changes in the low-latitude ionosphere coupled with the
variations in the magnetosphere and solar wind?
- What process are responsible for the ionospheric electron density
disturbances?
- How do the disturbances in the electron density profiles and TEC
vary with longitude and latitude?
- What are the atmospheric and dynamic processes at low latitudes
during magnetic storms?
Radar chain measurements of the ionospheric plasma parameters (velocity,
density, and temperature) are needed to solve, or partially solve, these
problems. A magnetic storm generally lasts for 2-3 days. Periodic
substorms often occur over a time interval of 10-30 hours during
storms. Substorms evolve over 2-3 hours while penetration elecric
fields occur with times scales on the order of 30 minutes. The radar
chain experiments should therefore last 5-7 days to include some
quiet times before and after the storm, and have a reasonably high
time resolution of 5-15 minutes.
Millstone Hill data from the M-I Coupling World Day of 2004 April 4
show factors of 2 to 3 increases in F-region electron densites. Unfortunately
the SSC began just at the end of the regular World Day period and the
other observatories missed the event, except for the Jicamarca Digisonde
which did observe similar increases.
Examples and further information.
Contact: Chaosong Huang
GPS-Radar:
(Global Plasma Structuring-Radar Experiment):
Thermal plasma coupling between low, mid, and high latitudes.
Recent multi-technique observations have shown that the equatorial ionosphere
and inner plasmashpere are coupled from low to auroral latitudes by
electric fields and plumes of storm enhanced electron densities
which feed tongues of ionization into the polar caps. This global
mechanism carries low-latitude dayside plasma into the nightside
auroral ionosphere. These events cause significant space weather effects
during major magnetic storms, but also occur during less-disturbed
conditions.
Wide latitude coverage is needed to study such events and should include
- Measurements of plasma purturbations due to inner magnetospheric
electric fields (Sonderstrom, EISCAT, Millstone Hill, SuperDARN)
- Topside observations (Arecibo and Jicamarca)
- Mid-latitude profiles (Kharkov and Irkutsk)
- Global GPS TEC imagery
- Partile precipitation and electric fields (DMSP)
- Plasmasperic imagery (IMAGE)
Experiments should be conducted during the Spring and Fall Equinoxes
for 2 full days with the moon down.
Contact: John Foster
Meteoric Ions:
(Global observations of ionization created by the Perseids and Leonids)
During the 2002 Leonids, the EISCAT UHF radar detected enhanced
ionization between 90 and 180 km with densities up to 3.3 x 10^11 m-3.
No systematic study of such enhancements has yet been performed.
Three day runs for the Perseids (starting on August 10 at 0900 UT)
and for the Leonids (starting on November 17 at 1600 UT) are suggested.
Examples and further information.
Contact: Ingemar Haggstrom
These synoptic experiments are intended to emphasize wide coverage of
the F-region, with some augmented coverage of the topside or E-region
to fill in areas of the data bases that have relatively
little data. The emphasis should be on broad latitudinal coverage of the F
region.
Contact: Wes Swartz
C/NOFS:
Communications / Navigation Outage Forecasting System
The primary purpose of C/NOFS is to forecast the presence of ionospheric
irregularities that adversely impact communication and navigation systems through
(1) improved understanding of the physical processes active in the
background ionosphere and thermosphere in which plasma instabilities grow;
(2) the identification of those mechanisms that trigger or quench the plasma
irregularities responsible for signal degradation; and
(3) determining how the plasma irregularities affect the propagation of
electro-magnetic waves.
A satellite, now scheduled for launch in December 2004 into a low inclination
(13°), elliptical (~ 400 x 700 km) orbit will be solely dedicated to the
C/NOFS objectives. It will be equipped
with sensors that measure ambient and fluctuating
electron densities, ion and electron temperatures, AC and DC electric fields,
magnetic fields, neutral winds, ionospheric scintillations, and electron
content along the lines of sight between C/NOFS and the Global Positioning
System (GPS) satellite constellation. The orbit will have a 45-day repeating
precession. Complementary ground-based measurements including the Jicamarca
and Altair radars are also critical to the success of the mission. Calibration
comparisons will be scheduled for local noon in Northern Spring/Summer 2005 and
validation comparisons will be during local nighttime in Fall 2005 and Winter
2006. Requests for additional UAF
radar time beyond the currently scheduled World Days are to be made directly
to the respective observatory staffs once orbital characteristics are known.
Contacts: Odile de La Bedaujardiere,
David Hysell,
Wes Swartz
CPEA:
Coupling Processes in the Equatorial Atmosphere
This is an initiative for studing the coupling of dynamical coupling processes
in the equatorial atmosphere from the troposphere up through the theromosphere
and ionosphere centered around the Indonesian Equatorial Atmospheric Radar (EAR).
Oportunities for collaborations initally focused on the successful March-April 2004
campain period. See highlights.
Contacts:Shoichiro Fukao, Project Leader,
Sunanda Basu,
Janet Kozyra
MST:
Studies of the Mesosphere, Stratosphere, and Troposphere
Coordinated D- and E-region campaigns are proposed
where the ISR's and supporting instruments focus
on their lower altitude capabilities.
JRO would use their high resolution MST mode, while Arecibo would use
a dual mode of D- and E-region drifts (with accompanying
lidar & imaging measurements).
The main interest would be in obtaining gravity wave momentum fluxes.
Minimum requirements would be winds with a time resolution of
one or two minutes and a height resolution 450 meters or better.
It may be possible to collect the lower atmospheric winds at
Jicamarca with little or no adverse impact to the upper
atmospheric/ionospheric measurements and may tie nicely in
with the LTCS World Day periods.
Contacts: Gerald Lehmacher,
Erhan Kudeki,
Jorge L. Chau.
World Week:
Searching for Long Period Effects
Studies of long period waves and tides require measurements over many
sequential days. This 30-day run should provide an unprecedented data
set for such studies. Experimental modes should emphasize the lower
thermosphere as for the LTCS campaigns. It is anticipated that not all
of the UAFs will be able to run for the full 30-day period, in which
case only a "best effort" is ask for. For example, Sixto Gonzales of the Arecibo
Observatory suggested that they could only run for about 10 of the
30 days, and these 10 may need to be in two groups of 5 days each.
Labor or power saving modes may be adapted at some sites. For example,
John Foster of Millston Hill suggested that they would probably
limit their runs to just the daytime hours. Further specific
details are yet to be worked out.
Examples and further information.
Contacts: Larisa P. Goncharenko , and
Wes Swartz.
Updated
Friday, 2004 September 24 by
Wes Swartz,
Chairman of the URSI Incoherent Scatter Working Group.