The CEDAR Post May 2002 http://cedarweb.hao.ucar.edu/commun/cedarcom.html Volume 45 From the Editor Inside This Issue I would like to give you a summary tour of the June workshop. It promises to be an exciting event beginning with a student workshop on Sunday, June 16th. Pamela Lough- The Gakona miller has organized a great day of presentation that ends with an evening social. Observatory..................2-3 Monday features plenary talks with Nestor Aponte on the electron temperature ratio problem with incoherent scatter radars and Sam Yee on the TIMED project. The afternoon workshop topics include the TIMED satellite mission and transient optical phenomena UA Facility Awards......... 4 such as sprites and jets. On Tuesday, Bob Strangeway will give a tutorial on auroral acceleration mechanisms. Program reports will include news on the RAO, NASA programs, Upper Atmosphere Facili- Aeronomy Awards........... 5 ties, CEDAR work on M-I Coupling and the CEDAR database. There will be workshops on CEDAR/TIMED, high latitude variability and equatorial aeronomy. Wednesday brings a science feature by Victor Pasko on the direct electrical connection 2002 CEDAR Workshop: between a thundercloud and the ionosphere and a tutorial on statistical inversion techniques Agenda .........................6-9 from Farzad Kamalabadi. Workshops on Wednesday afternoon include some of our well- known productive activities such as HLPS, GIFT and LTCS. On Thursday, we begin a two-day feature on the Whole Atmosphere Community Cir- PARS Summer School .. 10 culation Model (WACCM) with a tutorial from Rolando Garcia and an afternoon workshop expanding the theme. In addition, there will be news of the winners of the student poster competition, the ionospheric MURI program, the Gakona Observatory in Alaska and new CEDAR Meetings members of the CEDAR Steering Committee. Other afternoon workshop topics include Calendar ........................ 11 daytime optical aeronomy and equatorial ionospheric scintillations and bubbles. On Friday, Joan Alexander will round out our set of four tutorials with her presentation on gravity wave sources and propagation into the middle atmosphere. Afternoon workshops CSSC Members............. 12 feature meteors and the continuation of the WACCM meetings from the previous day. Take a good look at the full program in this issue that your steering committee, along with Barbara Emery and Louise Bierle, has put together. Come ready to enjoy it. Roger Smith, CSSC Chair CEDAR Phase Three Review The CEDAR Science Steering sign is that the number of ionosphere major stimuli to the CEDAR pro- Committee has noted that the CEDAR papers published in JGR Blue appears gram in the pipeline, with the launch program is well established and has ap- to have diminished. Another is a dis- of TIMED in December last year and proached greater maturity than most cernible reduction in proposal pressure the expected approval and funding of grass-roots programs at the National for our program at NSF. the RAO proposal. Science Foundation. This long life can On the other hand, it is clear that Please come to the workshop pre- only be sustained productively if there CEDAR science achievements are the pared to comment on the state of health is a continual process of renewal. stimulus for exciting new programs, of our phase three program and to offer The committee reviewed indica- for example the TIMED mission (Joint suggestions for improvements or new tors of decline. It was felt by many that NASA/NSF) and the planning for the directions for the steering committee there is some loss of momentum and ionospheric part of NASA’s Living to consider. that the program may be flagging. One With A Star. Undoubtedly there are Roger Smith, CSSC Chair THE CEDAR POST THE CEDAR POST The Gakona Observatory Introduction Being situated at about 62° mag- strumentation. The PARS ionospheric Gakona, Alaska is the location of netic latitude, the Gakona observa- summer schools and scientific cam- the High-frequency Active Auroral tory provides a variety of ionospheric paigns in 2000 and 2001 have pro- Research Program (HAARP) iono- conditions depending on the level of vided opportunities for coordinated spheric observatory that includes a geomagnetic activity. It is located operations of all three observatories 960 kW HF radio transmitter and below the ionospheric trough during directed to the same scientific goal. antenna array and a suite of diagnos- times of low geomagnetic activity; at tic instrumentation. The Air Force medium activity, it is under the auroral Relationship to CEDAR Research Laboratory and the Office electrojet; when activity is very high, CEDAR has a 17-year history of Naval Research jointly support the the observatory may be in the polar of scientific investigation of the high observatory. cap. It has proven to be an advantage to latitude ionosphere and ionospheric the observatory to experience heating. Many of the scientists and such a wide range of condi- students who participate in the PARS tions. Observation of the pro- campaigns are well known in the cesses resulting from the use CEDAR program. These scientists of the high power HF array and students can help to enrich CE- in a controlled manner pro- DAR science by taking advantage of vides scientists with a means opportunities provided by PARS and to study processes that occur the Gakona Observatory. Likewise, continuously under the natural PARS needs to work in concert with stimulation of the sun. the CEDAR program to optimize the Scientific instruments effectiveness of its activities. The Gakona Observatory and HAARP site at Gakona, Alaska. installed at the Gakona Ob- As stated above, the Air Force Research at HAARP began with servatory (see Table 1) are also and the Navy fund PARS. It has the commissioning of the 960 kW useful for a variety of investigations an important scientific mission, but transmitter in March 1999 and has that may not require the use of the not the level of funding or breadth gained momentum since then. There high-power HF array. These studies of community to match CEDAR. have been 18 scientific campaigns car- include ionospheric characterization Active coordination and sharing of ried out at HAARP since the commis- using an ionosonde or satellite bea- opportunities, however, will enhance sioning. The most recent campaign, cons, telescopic observation of which was organized by Stanford the fine structure in the aurora, graduate student Elizabeth Gerken, and documentation of long-term centered around observations of air variations in the ozone layer. glow generated in the RF-heated iono- Neighboring observatories sphere. A new activity associated with SuperDARN, the High Power the observatory is the Polar Aeronomy Auroral Stimulation observatory and Radio Science (PARS) program, (HIPAS) and Poker Flat Research which includes the PARS Ionospheric Range observe regions farther Summer School. north and facilitate important HAARP is a scientific endeavor collaborative programs. HIPAS aimed at studying the properties and and Poker Flat have similar sets behavior of the ionosphere, with par- of basic ionospheric and auroral ticular emphasis on understanding its diagnostics, however HIPAS is response to high-power radio waves, equipped with a heater transmit- and their use to enhance communica- ter of similar power to HAARP tions and surveillance systems for and Poker Flat has a rocket range Map showing the location of the HAARP site in relation to both civilian and defense purposes. and a wider range of optical in- other sites of interest in Alaska and Canada. 2 3 THE CEDAR POST THE CEDAR POST The Gakona Observatory continued the prospects for scientific success for both groups. The NSF, the Air Force and the Navy have a good record of working together. PARS/CEDAR is one more example where the scien- tific community will benefit from their joint efforts. The Gakona Observatory is already providing data for our use through its website http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/ haarp/data.fcgi. The ionosonde, mag- netometer, riometer and all-sky cam- era are of general use to all interested in high latitude auroral and aeronomic studies. ELF and VLF receivers pro- vide additional observations of inter- est to those working in ionospheric propagation. A new plan with funds Figure 2 provided by the Air Force and Navy ter Radar (AMISR) but interestingly ing a conical beam-scanning pattern, is designed to provide a modular compatible with it. The initial aim will heating was applied to the ionosphere incoherent-scatter radar diagnostic be to receive plasma line echoes from making a circular pattern. At one at Gakona for the study of plasma the heated ionosphere. azimuth in the circle, the wave vector phenomena stimulated by the heater. was parallel to the field. The experi- Working with the Stanford Research The Recent Optical Campaign ment demonstrated that, over a very Institute, the Gakona Observatory In Spring 2002, the high power small angular range close to parallel, expects to purchase panels similar HF array was used in a novel experi- electron heating or acceleration was to those being manufactured for the ment to investigate the efficiency of greatly increased as demonstrated Relocatable Atmospheric Observatory electron heating dependent on the by the appearance of 630nm red line to build a facility smaller than the NSF angle between the transmitted wave- emission of atomic oxygen. Figure 2 Advanced Modular Incoherent Scat- vector and the geomagnetic field. Us- shows an example of the images ob- Table 1. tained at 630nm. At high transmitter power, 558nm green line emission Instrument Details was also observed. On a few occa- Receiver for SEE from the electrojet generated by the sions, 777 and 846nm emissions of HF Stimulated Emissions Receiver high power HF array. oxygen were seen. These new results HF Broadband Receiving Antenna 2.8-30 MHz High Angle; 5.6-30 MHz Low Angle. are of intense interest to aeronomers and provide a new and important rea- Imaging Riometer 16 element line array son for CEDAR and PARS programs Digisonde HF Vertical Incidence Sounder to work together closely.