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，它为地球提供了保护，使地球免受电磁性质的现象，如太阳耀斑、日冕物质抛射等；其中一些事件可能非常危险，会影响甚至损坏卫星、它们的仪器以及它们与地面中心的通信。然而，地球磁场有一些特定的区域，在那里它会受到来自外太空的所有这些影响。极帽是地磁两极周围的特定区域，在那里地磁力线是开放的，并直接与行星际磁场（这是太阳磁场的延伸）相互作用。在强烈的地磁干扰期间，极帽的大小会增加，有时会急剧增加。监测地球极地、地磁扰动、流过这些区域的电流、极帽边界动力学等是空间天气研究的重要问题。数百个磁力计定期观测北半球极帽和极光带。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空间天气相关事件及其对环境的影响至关重要，因为地球空间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很难到达该地区并留在那里。这个因素使得任何科学项目都极其昂贵。因此，自动地球物理观测站（AGO）的发展为解决这一问题提供了一个独特的机会，它可以在最小的人为干预和维护下自主运行。仪器的安排产生的数据具有很高的潜力，可以提供该领域的关键进展，并且是科学界高度要求的。本研究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形态的影响；(3) GPS闪烁的天气结构与OCB动力学的关系；(4)铱星短突发数据系统能否用于传输滞后1小时的磁通门磁强计数据。这项研究是一项具有成本效益的投资，将提高地球空间领域的知识水平，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.