A SGER Proposal to Study the Sunlit Cusp at Sondre Stromfjord, Greenland During Winter 2000-2001

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This SGER award for $30,000 supports a campaign by Boston University scientists designed to obtain daytime observations at Sondre Stromfjord, Greenland. This effort would be based upon the application of two sophisticated imaging spectrographs designed to make measurements of auroral emissions in the presence of the large Rayleigh-scattered continuum of the daytime sky. These measurements would be conducted simultaneously with the Sonderstrom radar observations of electron density profiles to obtain a determination of the ionospheric conductances in the E-region. The radar measurements of this quantity would be compared with the calculated conductance based upon a model that relates E-region electron densities to the energy of precipitating particles in aurora that would be inferred from the optical measurements. This effort would establish the feasibility of the daytime application of both optical instruments and would also take advantage of the current period of solar maximum activity.