CEDAR: Investigating E Region Auroral Irregularities with Coherent and Incoherent Scatter Radar and Optics

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This project is to investigate the small scale structure and temporal evolution of plasma perturbations in the auroral ionosphere near 100 km (the E-region). This effort will utilize both theory and experimental data analysis in order to characterize the relationship between the plasma irregularities and the background ionospheric state as well as investigate their utility for diagnosing small-scale and short-lived features in the regional plasma convection pattern. Measurements of E-region irregularities will be acquired from a coherent scatter radar imager, which will be relocated near the Poker Flat Incoherent Scatter Radar (PFISR) in Alaska for coincident, common-volume estimates of electric fields, temperatures, densities, and neutral winds in the E-region ionosphere. Quantitative analysis of these state parameters in conjunction with theoretical modeling will target investigations on auroral-zone wave heating, irregularity aspect sensitivity, preferred irregularity altitude, Farley-Buneman wave phase speed saturation, auroral convection, neutral wind effects, thermal instabilities, and the relationship between the radio aurora and discrete optical auroral forms based on comparisons with simultaneous white-light imagery. This project will support an upcoming NSF-supported CubeSat mission as well as undergraduate and graduate student education and training in observational and theoretical aeronomy.