EAGER: Investigation of High Precision Spaced GPS Measurement of Ionospheric Drift at Polar Latitudes

该奖项由2009年《美国复苏和再投资法》(公法111-5)资助，该项目将调查使用全球定位系统(GPS)接收器测量极冠和极光区电离层高空漂移的可能性。四个高灵敏度和高数据速率的GPS接收器将放置在阿拉斯加费尔班克斯附近的扑克平坦火箭靶场，运行一年。选择这个地点是为了提供基础设施，并与扑克平坦非相干散射雷达的观测进行协调，这将允许测试和验证推断的漂移。该项目的主要目标是调查不同的接收器空间配置和操作模式。这将允许在每个接收器之间对测量信号中的小波动进行互相关，以便得出开销电离层流动矢量。将处理的科学问题是：1)主要存在于极光和极冠电离层的电离层结构和不规则现象的尺度和频率是什么；2)这种结构与GPS相位、幅度和总电子含量的测量有何关系；3)这些数据在多大程度上可用于间隔接收器配置，以不仅得出总电子含量和闪烁，而且还得出电离层等离子体漂移向量。该项目的一个更广泛的影响是，如果它成功，它将提供一种测量高纬度地区矢量电离层漂移的新方法，该方法易于部署，成本相对较低。电离层漂移是与磁层对流和磁层-电离层耦合直接相关的基本空间气象参数。第二个更广泛的影响是，在实验期间获得的GPS接收器数据将免费提供给社区，接收器将作为社区资源留在扑克平台。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).This project will investigate the possibility of using spaced Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers to measure overhead ionospheric drifts in the polar cap and auroral zone. Four high sensitivity and high data rate GPS receivers will be placed at the Poker Flat Rocket Range near Fairbanks, Alaska, and operated for one year. This site was selected for the availability of infrastructure and for coordination with observations from the Poker Flat Incoherent Scatter Radar, which will allow testing and validation of the inferred drifts. The primary goal of the project is to investigate different receiver spatial configurations and operating modes. This will allow cross-correlation of small fluctuations in the measured signal between each receiver in order to derive the overhead ionospheric flow vector. The scientific questions that will be addressed are: 1) At what scale sizes and frequencies are ionospheric structuring and irregularities primarily present in the auroral and polar cap ionosphere, 2) how does this structure relate to measurements of GPS phase, amplitude, and total electron content, and 3) to what extent can these data be used in a spaced receiver configuration to derive not only total electron content and scintillations but ionospheric plasma drift vectors. One broader impact of the project is that, if it's successful, it would provide a new method to measure vector ionospheric drifts at high latitudes that is easily deployable and relatively low cost. Ionospheric drifts are a fundamental space weather parameter directly related to magnetospheric convection and to magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling. A second broader impact is that the GPS receiver data obtained during the experiment will be made freely available to the community and the receivers will be left at Poker Flat as a community resource.