Scientific Studies from a Network of Sustainable, Robotic Observatories Across the Antarctic Ice-shelf: A New Approach to Polar Research

近地环境(地球空间)主要由地球磁场控制，它为地球提供保护，使其免受太阳耀斑、日冕物质抛射等电磁自然现象的影响；其中一些事件可能非常危险，影响甚至破坏卫星、卫星仪器及其与地面中心的通信。然而，地球的磁场有一些特定的区域，在那里它会受到来自外层空间的所有这些影响。极帽是地磁两极周围的特定区域，在那里地磁线是开放的，并直接与行星际磁场(即太阳的延伸磁场)相互作用。在强烈的地磁扰动期间，极冠的大小会增大--有时会急剧增大。监测地球两极地区、地磁扰动、流经这些地区的电流、极冠边界动力学等是空间气象研究的重要问题。数以百计的磁力仪定期观测北半球极冠和极光区。然而，南半球的天文台要少得多。拥有一个监测地磁环境的大型磁力计网络对于了解与空间天气有关的事件及其对环境的影响至关重要，因为地球空间中的卫星数量继续快速增长。在南极洲发展观测基础设施的主要问题之一是人们到达并停留在该地区的巨大困难。这一因素使任何科学项目都变得极其昂贵。因此，自动化地球物理观测站(AGO)的发展提供了一个独特的机会，可以解决这一问题。仪器设备的安排产生了极有潜力提供该领域关键进展的数据，科学界对此有很高的要求。这项研究中需要解决的科学问题是：(1)天气磁通门磁强计确定开闭磁场边界(OCB)是否有效；(2)太阳风结构对OCB形态有什么影响；(3)GPS闪烁的天气结构如何与OCB动力学有关，以及(4)是否可以使用Iridium的短爆发数据系统在1小时的滞后时间内传输磁通门磁强计数据。这项研究是一项具有成本效益的投资，将促进地球航天领域的知识状况，并为科学界提供重要的观测结果。

The near-Earth environment (Geospace) is mostly controlled by the Earth's magnetic field, which provides the Earth with protection from phenomena of electromagnetic nature, such as solar flares, coronal mass ejection, etc.; some of these events could be very dangerous and affect and even damage satellites, their instrumentation, and their communication with ground centers. However, the Earth's magnetic field has some specific regions where it is exposed to all these impacts from outer space. The polar caps are specific areas around the geomagnetic poles where geomagnetic field lines are open and directly interact with the interplanetary magnetic field (that is an extended magnetic field of the Sun). During strong geomagnetic disturbances, the polar caps increase their size - sometimes dramatically. Monitoring the Earth's polar regions, geomagnetic disturbances, currents that flow over these regions, polar cap boundary dynamics, etc., are important issues of space weather studies. Hundreds of magnetometers observe the Northern hemisphere polar cap and auroral zone on a regular basis. However, the Southern hemisphere has many fewer observatories. Having a large network of magnetometers for monitoring the geomagnetic environment is vital for understanding space weather-related events and their impact on environments, since the number of satellites in Geospace continues to grow very fast.One of the major problems in developing an observational infrastructure in Antarctica is the enormous difficulty for people to reach the region and to stay there. This factor makes any scientific project extremely expensive. Therefore, the development of Automatic Geophysical Observatories (AGO) that can function autonomously with minimal human interaction and maintenance provides a unique opportunity that can solve the problem. The arrangement of instrumentation produces data with a high potential to provide key advances in the field and that are highly demanded by scientific community. The science questions to be addressed in this research effort are: (1) Is the synoptic fluxgate magnetometer determination of the open-closed magnetic field boundary (OCB) valid; (2) What are impacts of solar wind structures on the OCB morphology; (3) How synoptic structures of GPS scintillations are relevant to OCB dynamics, and (4) Could the Iridium's Short Burst Data system be used to transmit fluxgate magnetometer data at a 1-hour time lag. The research is a cost-effective investment that will advance the state of knowledge of the Geospace domain and provide scientific community with vital observations.