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: 1341918
• 负责人: J Michael Ruohoniemi
• 金额: $ 262.5万
• 依托单位: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State 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 2022-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1341918&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对地球的近空间环境产生了一系列干扰效应。这种空间天气的一些最引人注目和技术上最有害的方面发生在从中纬度到极冠的电离层中。超级双极光雷达网（SuperDARN）中采用的高频雷达技术已证明其在对电离层空间天气进行全球范围的不间断观测和增进我们对基本地球物理过程的了解方面的价值。国际SuperDARN合作的参与者在北方和南半球共同运营网络，现在共有35部雷达。在过去的五年中，SuperDARN的范围随着NSF赞助的横跨美国的中纬度雷达链的建设而大大增加。 该奖项的合作将弗吉尼亚理工大学作为牵头PI机构，达特茅斯学院、阿拉斯加大学费尔班克斯和约翰霍普金斯大学应用物理实验室作为合作PI机构。预计在这个联盟内共同努力和分享专业知识将带来重大利益，该联盟首次将所有NSF资助的SuperDARN小组聚集在一个组织结构内。 该合同将确保该集团共同负责的北美11部雷达的持续运行。 美国SuperDARN集团还领导着国际SuperDARN合作。 快速扩展的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，该项目还将支持对所有参与机构的学生和博士后以及空间科学的各种科学、工程和团队建设方面的许多其他人进行教育和培训。SuperDARN利用相干后向散射技术跟踪电离层等离子体的ExB漂移，在其标准操作模式下，每部雷达在75个距离处测量视线等离子体速度，这些距离沿着16个波束方向的每一个，覆盖范围约为3 500公里，方位角约为56度。这些雷达每周7天、每天24小时连续工作，以两分钟的时间分辨率提供高纬度对流模式的图像。SuperDARN雷达网络是一个独特的全球规模的仪器，用于观测和了解太阳风-磁层-电离层耦合的系统一级影响，并研究电离层空间气象。 通过直接测量大区域的对流速度，SuperDARN提供了确定电离层对流模式的最佳手段。 通过该合同，该系统的运营将在未来五年内得到保障，包括日常维护和一些必要的技术升级。 测量结果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进行研究并促进其研究，从而在电离层研究的前沿就广泛的科学问题取得重大进展。 计划的研究课题包括：磁层-电离层耦合、风暴时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。