The First All-Sky Airglow Imaging Experiments Over Western Europe

这是一项旨在开发、安装和操作现代化全天空成像仪器的努力，目的是研究北方意大利（帕多瓦大学的一个天文观测台）上空的气辉发射。这样做的主要科学原理是研究稳定的极光红（SAR）弧，中尺度电离层扰动（MSTID）和中间层的重力波特征。 具体而言，新的全天空照相机将为SAR弧提供第一个地面多纵向覆盖。与现有的Millstone Hill全天空照相机相结合，新照相机将能够检查合成孔径雷达弧的纵向变化，这对于更好地了解合成孔径雷达现象及其与磁层和环电流动态的关系至关重要。在中等规模的TID方面，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的特征以及地磁子午线的方向与目前正在进行的研究的主要重点-北美和南美地区的特征大不相同。同样，欧洲与其他大陆地形的差异也将表现为中层重力波活动的纵向变化。新仪器位于白云岩山脉，将使欧洲首次对源过程进行研究成为可能，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建立的强有力合作基础上。这项合作将扩大到陆地大气科学，来自波士顿和帕多瓦的一批新的学生和研究人员将参与其中。在成像仪所覆盖的视场内已经运行的全球定位系统接收器和电离层探测仪的密集网络将通过与佛罗伦萨（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小组的多诊断研究。

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.