An Updated Magnetometer Array on the Greenland Ice Cap (MAGIC-II) to Investigate Multi-Scale Ionospheric Current Systems

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This proposal is directed toward the development of a new updated magnetometer array on the Greenland ice cap (MAGIC-II) and the analysis of the data in conjunction with other Greenland data and with conjugate Antarctic data. This project is a cooperative effort between the University of Michigan and the Danish Meteorological Institute. By way of background, in 1991, an array of magnetometers (MAGIC) was deployed in central Greenland providing valuable magnetometer measurements between the Greenland eastern and western coastal stations. This original MAGIC array of four stations is being closed in a phased withdrawal during the 1996 and 1997 summer field seasons. The data from the MAGIC stations in combination with the other Greenland magnetometers have been critical in resolving the spatial and evolutionary characteristics of various dynamic ionospheric current systems, including traveling convection vortices, poleward propagating DPY currents, and the spatial and temporal evolution of the large scale convection currents. Thus, it is proposed to deploy a new array of updated equipment in easily accessed locations. The three proposed sites are: Summit GISP, North GRIP (the new European ice drilling site), and a meteorological station at the most northern point of Greenland, Kap Morris Jessup. It is particularly important to continue the MAGIC data collection for coordinated investigations during the ISTP mission which includes the POLAR and CLUSTER spacecraft. Unique opportunities for coordinated science with a focus upon high latitude dynamics will be possible. Continued acquisition of the Greenland data will also benefit from upcoming missions, such as (RSTED and the new generation of DMSP spacecraft. The data will contribute as well to the other richly instrumented ground arrays in both the Arctic and Antarctic. Studies will focus upon various high latitude electrodynamics phenomena, including high latitude micropulsations, large scale plasma convection, and the high latitude io nospheric responses to the IMF and solar wind, as well as to substorms. Also, high latitude phenomena observed at Thule, Nord, and the proposed new station Kap Morris Jessup, will be related to nearly "conjugate" locations in the Antarctic to determine and understand the symmetries and asymmetries of the polar cap dynamics between the two hemispheres.