Collaborative Research: CEDAR--Development and Application of a Multi-site Observing Network to Study Mid-latitude Thermospheric Dynamics

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This is a 3-year experimental project to be undertaken as part of the Coupling, Energetics and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions (CEDAR) program. The main objective is to install and operate a small network of Fabry-Perot interferometers (FPI) in the central eastern United States. The network will consist of four stations with a site-to-site separation between 350 and 700 km allowing common volume measurements of winds and temperatures in the thermosphere that together provide a regional view of the thermospheric wind structure and dynamics. This includes quantifying the latitudinal and longitudinal extents, propagation direction, and speed of wave events, source regions, and other dynamical quantities that are not possible with current available instrument deployments. Supporting data from available ground-based magnetometers and radars as well as space-based measurements of magnetic fields, ion drifts and auroral precipitation will be used together with a global thermosphere/ionosphere general circulation model to provide a global context for the measurements. In this way, the observations will facilitate breakthrough insights about the dynamics of the thermosphere including the propagation of large-scale disturbances away from the auroral zone and the response of the mid-latitude thermosphere to geomagnetic disturbances. Strategies and algorithms will be developed as part of this project to change the observing strategy in real-time based, for example, upon the local cloud conditions. The operational experience gained from this network will serve as a proof of concept for a much larger-scale network required for a more complete investigation of thermospheric dynamics. The pilot network will make technological advances in regard to issues such as understanding how to operate the chain as a unit, how to consistently process data in real time, and how to visualize and interpret results from multiple stations. The project is a collaboration between a team of professors at Clemson University, the University of Michigan, and University of Illinois. Deployment and operation of the instruments and the network will provide hands on training opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students at each of the universities.