SGER: Equatorial Spread F Investigation with the Christmas Island Radar

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This SGER award will allow the PI to take advantage of the immediate availability of a 50 MHz radar on Christmas Island (CXI) (Republic of Kiribati) to conduct a two-radar experiment to explore whether the development and characteristics of irregularities in the nighttime equatorial F region (known as equatorial spread F, or ESF) are correlated in longitude and time. The other radar, located on the island of Pohnpei (Federated States of Micronesia), is already in continuous operation, and data from measurements taken by that radar will be made available at no cost to the proposed effort.Besides information about the timescales associated with the source process for ESF development, the database of backscatter plumes over two locations is expected to provide further insight into the source of ESF plume characteristics. Each data set will also provide, for the first time, descriptions of the seasonal and longitudinal dependences of ESF activity in those longitude sectors. The findings of this investigation are expected to pave the way toward developing a short-term forecasting capability for ESF development, a prime objective of the National Space Weather Program.