MRI: Acquisition of Advanced Scientific GPS Receivers for Magnetospheric and Ionospheric Research

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(公法111-5)提供资金的。这是一个为期两年的项目，购买和部署10个先进的GPS接收器。成对的接收器将安装在加拿大北极磁强计阵列(MACCS)的三个地点和明尼苏达州两个较低纬度地点的明尼苏达州立大学穆尔黑德明尼阿波利斯奥格斯堡学院。与磁强计阵列同处一处可同时覆盖一个共同区域的磁层和电离层现象，这将产生关于电离层对流和闪烁等方面的重要新结果。这些仪器还位于SuperDARN、THEMIS等卫星和电离层探空仪覆盖的区域内，为开展广泛的多仪器研究提供了机会，事实证明，这些研究对于揭开太阳风-磁层-电离层耦合的复杂性至关重要。GPS接收器将填补高纬度GPS数据收集方面的关键空白。此次收购将提供已知的唯一连续运行的闪烁监测接收器网络，该网络将向公众提供数据，并从至少一个北极站点近乎实时地获取数据。该项目的更广泛影响包括显著扩展世界各地许多空间科学家使用的地面观测基础设施；建立在成熟的MACCS网络服务器基础上的广泛数据传播，并包括研究企业的本科生。与这个项目相关的数据简化和分析工作非常适合本科生的研究。因此，该项目将提供更多机会，让本科生接触空间物理、无线电科学、卫星导航科学和工程以及信号传播和处理，特别是通过纳入高级高级实验室课程。此外，该项目将加强奥格斯堡学院、明尼苏达州立大学穆尔黑德分校和遥感中心之间的合作关系，后者是一家专注于科学仪器的小企业。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). This is a 2 year project to purchase and deploy 10 advanced GPS receivers. Pairs of receivers will be installed at three sites of the Magnetometer Array for Cusp and Cleft studies (MACCS) in Arctic Canada and at two lower latitude sites in Minnesota at Augsburg College, Minneapolis, Minnesota State University Moorhead. Co-location with the magnetometer array provides simultaneous coverage of magnetic and ionospheric phenomena over a common region which will yield important new results on, for example, ionospheric convection and scintillation. The instruments are also located within the region covered by SuperDARN, satellites such as THEMIS, and ionosondes, providing opportunities for extensive, multi-instrument studies which are proving essential for unraveling the complexities of solar wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling. The GPS receivers will fill critical gaps in GPS data collection at high latitudes. The acquisition will provide the only known network of continuously operating scintillation monitoring receivers that will make data available to the public and available in near-real-time from at least one Arctic site.The broader impacts of this project include significant extension of the ground-based observational infrastructure used by many space scientists worldwide; broad data dissemination that builds on a well-developed MACCS web server, and including undergraduate students in the research enterprise. The data reduction and analysis efforts associated with this project are highly suitable for undergraduate student research. Thus, the project will provide additional opportunities to expose undergraduate students to space physics, radio science, satellite navigation science and engineering, and signal propagation and processing, in particular via incorporation into senior-level advanced laboratory courses. Further, the project will strengthen a collaborative relationship between Augsburg College, Minnesota State University-Moorhead, and the Center for Remote Sensing Inc, a small business focused on scientific instrumentation.