The First All-Sky Airglow Imaging Experiments Over Western Europe

这项工作旨在开发、安装和操作现代全天空成像仪器，以研究意大利北部一个地点（帕多瓦大学天文台）上空的气辉排放。这样做的主要科学原理是研究稳定极光红（SAR）弧、中尺度移动电离层扰动（MSTID）和中间层的重力波特征。 具体来说，新型全天相机将为SAR弧提供第一个地面多纵向覆盖。与现有的 Millstone Hill 全天相机相结合，新相机将能够检查 SAR 弧的纵向变化，这对于更好地了解 SAR 现象及其与磁层和环流动力学的关系至关重要。在中等规模的TID中，新的数据集将用于探索对欧洲源机制的影响，欧洲的地理和地磁纬度特征以及地磁子午线的方向与北美和南美地区的情况有很大不同，而北美和南美地区是当前正在进行的研究的主要焦点。同样，欧洲和其他大陆之间的地形差异将表现为中层重力波活动的纵向变化。新仪器位于白云石山脉，将使欧洲首次对源过程进行研究。这项研究基本上是国际范围的，建立在波士顿大学和帕多瓦大学科学家在行星大气领域长期牢固的合作基础上。此次合作将扩大到陆地大气科学领域，来自波士顿和帕多瓦的一批新学生和研究人员也将参与其中。由 GPS 接收器和电离探空仪组成的密集网络已在成像仪覆盖的视场内运行，将通过与佛罗伦萨（意大利）和巴斯（英国）的同事建立的合作为研究做出贡献。这些将与卫星飞越一起用于多国团队的多诊断研究。

This is an effort aimed at developing, installing, and operating a modern all-sky imaging instrument to study airglow emissions over a site in northern Italy (an astronomical observatory of the University of Padua). The primary science rationale of doing so is to study Stable Auroral Red (SAR) arcs, Medium Scale Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances (MSTIDs), and gravity-wave signatures in the mesosphere. Specifically, the new all sky camera will provide the first ground-based multi-longitudinal coverage for the SAR arc. In combination with the existing Millstone Hill all sky camera, the new camera will allow the examination of the longitudinal variations of the SAR arc, which is crucial for a better understanding of the SAR phenomenon and its relation to the dynamics of the magnetosphere and the ring current. On the medium scale TIDs, the new data sets will be used to explore the effects on source mechanisms in Europe, where the characteristics of geographic and geomagnetic latitudes, and the orientation of the geomagnetic meridians, are quite different from those found in the North and South American sectors that are the main focus of current on-going studies. Likewise, the orograhic differences between Europe and other continents will manifest into longitudinal variations in mesospheric gravity wave activities. The location of the new instrument in the Dolomite Mountain Range will enable the first study of source processes in Europe.The research is fundamentally international in scope, building on a long-established, strong collaboration between scientists at Boston University and the University of Padua in the area of Planetary Atmospheres. The collaboration will be expanded with this effort to terrestrial atmospheric science, with involvement of a new set of students and research staff members from Boston and Padua. A dense network of GPS receivers and ionosondes, already operational within the field-of-view spanned by the imager, will contribute to the studies via collaborations set up with colleagues in Florence (Italy) and Bath (UK). These will be used, together with satellite over-flights, in multi-diagnostic studies by a multi-national team.