Collaborative Research: SuperDARN Space Weather Radar - Operations, Research, and Community Support

合作研究：SuperDARN 空间天气雷达 - 运营、研究和社区支持

• 批准号: 1341885
• 负责人: Alex Chartier
• 金额: $ 32.62万
• 依托单位: Johns Hopkins University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-02-01 至 2021-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1341885&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; SuperDARN; Space; Weather

The coupling of the solar wind with Earth's magnetic field gives rise to a range of disturbance effects in Earth's near-space environment. Some of the most dramatic and technologically harmful aspects of this space weather occur in the ionosphere from mid-latitudes to the polar cap. The HF radar technique as implemented in the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) has demonstrated its value for making always-on, global-scale observations of ionospheric space weather and for advancing our understanding of the underlying geophysical processes. The participants in the international SuperDARN collaboration jointly operate networks in both the northern and southern hemispheres that now total 35 radars. Over the past five years the scope of SuperDARN has greatly increased with the NSF-sponsored construction of a mid-latitude chain of radars that spans the United States. The collaboration on this award counts Virginia Tech as the lead-PI institution and Dartmouth College, University of Alaska Fairbanks, and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory as collaborating PI institutions. Significant benefits are expected from combining efforts and sharing expertise within this consortium that brings together, for the first time, all the NSF-funded SuperDARN groups within one organizational structure. The award will ensure the continued operation of the 11 radars in North America that this group collectively is responsible for. The US SuperDARN group also provides leadership of the international SuperDARN collaboration. The radar measurements of the rapidly expanding SuperDARN network constitute a unique dataset that will support many important science investigations within a wide range of Geospace research areas. In addition, the project will support the education and training of students and postdocs at all of the participating institutions as well as many others in a broad variety of scientific, engineering, and team-building aspects of space science. SuperDARN utilizes coherent backscatter techniques to track the ExB drift of ionospheric plasma, and in its standard mode of operation, each radar measures the line-of-sight plasma velocity at 75 ranges along each of 16 beam directions covering an area of about 3500 km in range and about 56 degrees in azimuth. The radars operate continuously, 24 hours per day and 7 days per week and deliver images of the high-latitude convection pattern with a two-minute time resolution. The network of SuperDARN radars constitutes a unique global-scale instrument to observe and understand the system-level effects of solar wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling and to study space weather in the ionosphere. By providing direct measurements of convection velocities over large regions, SuperDARN provides the best means available to determine ionospheric convection patterns. Through this award operations of the system will be secured for the next five years, including both routine maintenance as well as some necessary technical upgrades. The measurements will be provided together with advanced and improved analysis tools to enable and facilitate research by the broader community to make major advances on a broad range of science questions at the forefront of ionospheric research. Planned topics of investigations include: magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling, improved models of storm-time ionospheric plasma convection, ionosphere-thermosphere interactions, magnetic conjugacy studies, and ionospheric plasma instabilities and irregularities.

太阳风与地球磁场的耦合在地球近空间环境中产生了一系列扰动效应。从中纬度到极冠的电离层中，发生了这种空间天气中一些最戏剧性和技术上最有害的方面。在超级双极光雷达网(超级极光雷达网)中实施的高频雷达技术已经证明了其在对电离层空间天气进行持续的全球范围的观测和增进我们对潜在地球物理过程的理解方面的价值。SuperDARN国际合作的参与者共同运营着南北半球的网络，现在总共有35个雷达。在过去的五年里，随着美国国家科学基金会赞助建设横跨美国的中纬度雷达链，SuperDARN的范围大大增加。这一奖项的合作将弗吉尼亚理工学院作为主导PI机构，达特茅斯学院、阿拉斯加大学费尔班克斯大学和约翰霍普金斯大学应用物理实验室作为合作PI机构。预计在这个首次将NSF资助的所有SuperDARN小组聚集在一个组织结构内的联合体内，联合努力和分享专业知识将带来显著的好处。该合同将确保该集团在北美共同负责的11部雷达继续运作。美国SuperDARN集团还领导着SuperDARN的国际合作。迅速扩展的SuperDARN网络的雷达测量数据构成了一个独特的数据集，将支持广泛的地球空间研究领域内的许多重要科学调查。此外，该项目将支持所有参与机构的学生和博士后以及其他许多人在空间科学的各种科学、工程和团队建设方面的教育和培训。SuperDARN利用相干后向散射技术跟踪电离层等离子体的ExB漂移，在其标准工作模式下，每个雷达测量沿16个波束方向的75个射程的视线等离子体速度，覆盖范围约3500公里，方位约56度。雷达每天24小时、每周7天连续工作，以两分钟的时间分辨率提供高纬度对流模式的图像。SuperDARN雷达网络是观察和了解太阳风-磁层-电离层耦合的系统级影响和研究电离层空间天气的独特的全球尺度仪器。通过提供大区域对流速度的直接测量，SuperDARN提供了确定电离层对流模式的最佳手段。通过这项合同，该系统未来五年的运行将得到保障，包括例行维护和一些必要的技术升级。这些测量将与先进和改进的分析工具一起提供，以使更广泛的社区能够和便利进行研究，以便在电离层研究前沿的广泛科学问题上取得重大进展。计划的研究主题包括：磁层-电离层耦合、风暴时间电离层等离子体对流的改进模型、电离层-热层相互作用、磁共轭研究以及电离层等离子体不稳定性和不规则性。