The program will also continue the series of publications produced by
the UNBSSI, published in the six United Nations official languages:
Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.
Low-Cost Instrumentation in Developing Nations
| Announcement:
IHY/UNBSSI Small Instrument Array Deployment Opportunity
A major thrust of the International Heliophysical Year (IHY) is to deploy
arrays of small, inexpensive instruments such as magnetometers, radio
antennas, GPS receivers, all-sky cameras, etc. around the world to provide
global measurements of ionospheric and heliospheric phenomena. This program
is a collaboration between the IHY and the United Nations Basic Space
Science Initiative (UNBSSI), which has been dedicated to the IHY through 2009.
The small instrument program is envisioned as a partnership between
instrument providers, and instrument host countries. The lead scientist
will provide the instruments (or fabrication plans for instruments) in the
array; the host country will provide manpower, facilities, and operational
support to obtain data with the instrument typically at a local university.
Funds are not available through the IHY to build the instruments; these must
be obtained through the normal proposal channels. However all instrument
operational support for local scientists, facilities, data acquisition, etc
will be provided by the host nation. It is our hope that the IHY can
facilitate the deployment a number of these networks worldwide.
|
We are seeking Principle Investigators (PIs) for our collaborative program which
will facilitate partnerships between PIs and institutes in developing nations
in order to support the deployment of new ground-based instrumentation. If you
have an experiment or a plan for a ground-based instrument or observatory, and
you believe that new and exciting space science can be achieved by establishing
new international observing locations, you can
register your instrument concept using our online interface or
contact us at
ihy_unbss@ihy.gsfc.nasa.gov.
We are also seeking support and contributions to provide for the deployment of
these new observatories in several developing nations. If you or your
organization may be able to help us identify support for these vital
activities, please let us know.
Several initiatives have reached a mature stage of development for the joint
IHY/UNBSSI instrumentation activity, and we are seeking more instrument
concepts for consideration.
We will prioritize instrumentation which is ideally suited to accomplish the joint goals of the IHY and UNBSS programs:
A) The projects must produce scientifically significant and publishable results pertaining to the objectives of the IHY activities,
B) We must identify activities which can be performed in developing nations (many of which are near the equator), and
C) The costs and technical requirements must be compatible with the resources available in the participating nations.
Additionally, the following factors are desirable:
D) Legacy Potential: leading to a beneficial relationship for the
participants in developing nations
E) "Tiered" Technology: instruments with several designs corresponding
to increasing design complexity
F) Educational components (including university level)
Participating Instrument Programs
We are currently in the process of implementing several instrument concepts,
including the
following:
AGREES (African GPS Receivers for Equatorial Elecrodynamics Studies)
AMBER (African Meridian B-Field Education and Research)
The "AWESOME" Space Weather Monitor Program
PIs: Morris Cohen, Umran Inan and Deborah Scherrer of Stanford University
Program Home Page
Education-level SID monitors which are deployed at schools, and
research-grade AWESOME (Atmospheric Weather
Educational System for Observation and Modeling of Effects) monitors.
- Poster presentation on AWESOME and SID Monitors for the IHY by
Deborah Scherrer PPT (12.4 MB) | PDF (1.4 MB)
- AWESOME Overview Presentation
(Microsoft PPT 12.4 MB) by Morris Cohen
- Presentation on SDO, SID Monitors, and IHY
(Microsoft PPT 392 KB) by Dean Pesnell
CARISMA and IHY-MAG Magnetometer Arrays
PI: Ian Mann, University of Alberta Canada
CARISMA Program Home Page
CARSIMA (Canadian Array for Realtime Investigations of Magnetic Activity)
is the Magnetometer element of the Canadian Geospace Monitoring (CGSM) project. It is the continuation of the CANOPUS magnetometer array which ran from 1986 to 2005, upgrading to include higher time resolution and more complete time
coverage.
CALLISTO Frequency Agile Solar Spectrometers
CIDR (Coherent Ionospheric Doppler Radar)
PI: Gary Bust, (University of Texas at Austin, USA) with Trevor Garner, Tom Gaussiran and Roy Calfas
The Coherent Ionospheric Doppler Receiver (CIDR) are radio receivers developed at the Applied Research Lab at the University of Texas designed to measure the line-of-sight relative total electron content (TEC) using the 150 and 400 MHz radio beacons on board LEO satellites. The CIDR system is capable of tracking up to three different beacon satellites with different offsets in frequency at one time including the Navy Ionospheric Monitoring System (NIMS), RadCal, and GFO. In the near future, more radio beacons at these frequencies will be launched on the C/NOFS and COSMIC spacecraft.
CIDR is unique in its ability to monitor three simultaneous satellite passes at data rates up to 1 kHz with an instrument error of less than 0.1 radians of phase. CIDR system chains currently are in operation in Alaska, the eastern United States and Greenland. These chains are all oriented latitudinally. In the next year, a new CIDR system chain will be placed in South America in a longitudinal orientation near the magnetic equator to study equatorial phenomena in association with the C/NOFS satellite.
A CIDR system installation consists of the CIDR receiver, a control computer (which is provided with the system, typically a laptop) and two antennas (one for CIDR, one GPS). The antenna installation requires a good all-sky view with minimal or no obstructions. 100-meter cables are provided as well. An internet connection allows each individual CIDR system to be accessed by the science team remotely. The internet connection will also be used to download satellite track information (so that the system may plan which satellite passes it can observe and record) and the collected data is uploaded to archives for use by the science team. If there is a broadband connection, individual satellite passes can be remotely monitored via a web interface.
The data produced by a chain of CIDR systems is used to tomographically reconstruct the ionosphere along the satellite track. Depending on the number of ground installations (no less than 4) and baseline, the tomography can reveal the large scale structure of the ionosphere, medium sized structures such as plumes, patches, etc., and very fine structures using a short baseline configuration. In addition, the CIDR data can be used as an input to Data Assimilation models for reconstructing the ionosphere on a global or local scale.
GPS In Africa
PIs: Christine Amory-Mazaudier, Olivier Bock and Monique Petitdidier
The overarching plan is to increase the number of real-time dual-frequency GPS stations worldwide for the study of ionospheric variability. Of particular interest is the response of the ionospheric total electron content (TEC) during geomagnetic storms over the African sector. This program is particularly compatible with magnetometry.
Low-Frequency Radio Antenna Arrays
PI: Justin Kasper of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Low frequency radio arrays which can be deployed at two levels:
Option (1) low-frequency monitoring of solar radio bursts with single dipoles
Option (2) 8-16 element arrays for all sky monitoring
An IHY/UNBSS "Sample" Instrumentation Proposal (Microsoft PPT 3.6 MB) by
Justin Kasper
MAGDAS: Magnetic Data Acquisition System Project
PI: Kiyohumi Yumoto of Space Environment Research Center, Kyushu University, Japan
The MAGDAS is being deployed for space weather studies during 2005-2008, overlapping heavily with the IHY/UNBSS program. The project will aid the study of dynamics of geospace plasma changes during magnetic storms and auroral substorms, the electro-magnetic response of iono-magnetosphere to various solar wind changes, and the penetration and propagation mechanisms of DP2-ULF range disturbances from the solar wind region into the equatorial ionosphere. With the help of MAGDAS data, one can conduct real-time monitoring and modeling of (1) the global 3-dimensional current system and (2) the ambient plasma density for understanding the electromagnetic and plasma environment changes in the geospace:
Global 3-D current system: The MAGDAS data will be used to map the ionospheric equivalent current pattern every day. The current and electric fields at all latitudes are coupled, although those at high, and middle and low latitudes are often considered separately. By using the MAGDAS ionospheric current pattern, the global electromagnetic coupling processes at all latitudes will be clarified.
Ambient plasma density: New MAGDAS magnetometers will be deployed at several pairs of stations along the 210 magnetic meridian to observe the magnetic field line resonance (FLR) pulsations. Each pair will be separated in latitude by ~100 km. The FLR oscillations are useful for monitoring temporal and spatial variations in the magnetospheric plasma density. The MAGDAS data will be analyzed by the amplitude-ratio and cross-phase methods to identify the FLR events and measure their eigen-frequencies, providing the plasma density varying with time. These measurements will be highly valuable in understanding the variations of the ambient plasma density and the location of the plasmapause during magnetic storms and auroral substorms.
More information is available from the MAGDAS Home Page.
Muon Detector Network
PI: Kazuoki Munakata, Shinshu University, Japan
The Muon detector network collaboration consists of nine institutes from seven countries (Armenia, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Japan, Kuwait and the United States). Many of the countries are already operating muon detectors and some have recently installed them. The muon detector network can identify the precursory decrease of cosmic ray intensity that takes place more than one day prior to the Earth-arrival of shock driven by an interplanetary coronal mass ejection. This is an important forecasting tool for predicting space weather attributed to energetic solar eruptions.
RENOIR: (Remote Equatorial Nighttime Observatory for Ionospheric Regions)
PI: Jonathan Makela of the University of Illinois
A suite of instruments dedicated to studying the equatorial/low-latitude ionosphere/thermosphere system, its response to storms, and the irregularities that can be present on a daily basis.
A RENOIR station can involve:
1) an array of single frequency GPS scintillation monitors. These provide measurements of the irregularities present, their size, orientation, and speed.
2) a dual-frequency GPS receiver. This provides measurements of the total electron content of the ionosphere. If a site could be located that already fields a dual-frequency GPS receiver, this would not be needed.
3) an all-sky imaging system (PICASSO). This measures two different thermosphere/ionosphere emissions from which the two-dimensional structure/motion of irregularities can be observed. The data can also be used to calculate the density and height of the ionosphere.
4) two miniaturized Fabry-Perot interferometers (MiniME). These provide measurements of the thermospheric neutral winds and temperatures. The two FPIs are separated by approximately 300km or so, allowing bistatic, common-volume measurements. The measurements will be useful for studying the response of the thermosphere to storms as well as looking for a possible connection of gravity waves to the seeding of equatorial instabilities.
RENOIR Home Page
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory Low-Cost Ionosonde
PI: Chris J. Davis, Rutherford
appleton Laboratory, United Kingdom
During the IGY in 1957, a number of ionosonde stations were opened, but in subsequent years, most of these have ceased operation and the remaining stations are largely at mid and high latitudes. There are scientific and operational reasons for studying the equatorial ionosphere and the IHY provides an opportunity to do this; the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) is proposing to develop a new ionosonde for this purpose as part of UNBSS.
An important design driver is cost and it is anticipated that this can be an order of magnitude lower than that of commercially available ionosondes. This will be achieved by using commercial components wherever possible; for example by using standard PCs rather than dedicated DSP devices and RF components originally designed for ham radio applications.
The instrument design will be based on meteorological radars recently designed by RAL; these are now operational instruments and a good deal of the signal processing system design and software will be directly applicable to the proposed ionosonde.
The design will be upgradeable by, for example, adding receiver channels to provide directional information or by using GPS time and frequency references to operate a pair of ionosondes in a bistatic mode.
It is proposed that when the design and prototyping have been completed, the construction and installation of the instruments would to a large extent be carried out by the host organizations themselves.
SAVNET (South Atlantic Very Low Frequency NETwork) VLF Array
PI: Jean-Pierre Raulin of Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, Brazil
This VLF network will be deployed in a region where the coverage at similar
frequencies is currently very poor. This will allow the study of the SAMA
region at low ionospheric altitudes and its structure and dynamics during
geomagnetic perturbations. The monitoring of transient solar phenomena will
improve our knowledge of the low ionosphere and of the chemical processes
occurring there. On longer time scales we will be able to define a
ionospheric index of the solar activity characteristic of the ionizing
agent of the low ionosphere (EUV and Ly-alpha). Currently these are poorly
monitored and only accessible through models. The proposed instrument will
also permit the study of the VLF counterpart of newly discovered atmospheric
phenomena related to lightning and thunderclouds. The proposed science is
relevant to IHY themes: Impact of Space Weather phenomena on the Earth
Climate; Ionosphere/Magnetosphere.
Five network sites will be chosen with respect to the South Atlantic Magnetic
Anomaly region.
SCINDA: (Scintillation Network Decision Aid)
PI: Keith Groves of Hanscom Air Force Research Lab
SCINDA is a real-time, data driven, communication outage forecast and alert
system.
Its purpose is to aid in the specification and prediction of communications
degradation due to ionospheric scintillation in the earth's equatorial region.
UHF and L-band scintillation parameters are measured, modeled, and
propagated in time to provide a regional specification of the scintillation
environment in an effort to mitigate the impacts on the satellite
communications (SATCOM) community.
Equipment at the remote sites record scintillation parameters from available
UHF Fleet Satellite Communication System and L-band (Geostationary Operational
Environmental Satellite, GPS) satellite links and measure ionospheric drift
velocities. The data drives a semi-empirical model that produces simple three-color graphical representations of large-scale equatorial scintillation structures and associated communication impact regions.
SCINDA Home Page
SEVAN: Space Environment Viewing and Analysis Network
PI: Ashot Chilingarian, Aragats Space Environmental Center, Alikhanian Physics Institute, Armenia
A network of middle to low latitude particle detectors called SEVAN aims to improve fundamental research of space weather conditions and to provide possibilities to perform short and long-term forecasts of dangerous consequences of space storms. The network will detect changing fluxes of most species of secondary cosmic rays at different altitudes and latitudes, thus turning into a powerful integrated device for exploring solar modulation effects.
SEVAN Program Information
Program Partners:
