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

来自横跨南极冰架的可持续机器人观测站网络的科学研究：极地研究的新方法

• 批准号: 1716192
• 负责人: Allan Weatherwax
• 金额: $ 26.97万
• 依托单位: Merrimack College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-03-04 至 2021-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1716192&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Scientific; Studies; Network; Sustainable; Robotic

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.

近地环境（地形）主要由地球的磁场控制，该磁场可保护地球免受电磁性现象的保护，例如太阳耀斑，冠状质量弹出等。其中一些事件可能非常危险和影响，甚至损坏了卫星，它们的工具以及与地面中心的沟通。但是，地球的磁场具有一些特定区域，使其暴露于外太空的所有这些影响。极盖是在地磁杆周围的特定区域，在地磁杆周围开放地磁场线并直接与星际磁场（这是太阳的扩展磁场）直接相互作用。在强烈的地磁干扰期间，极性盖有时会大大增加。监测地球的极区域，地磁干扰，流过这些区域的电流，极性盖边界动力学等是太空天气研究的重要问题。数百个磁力仪定期观察北半球极性盖和极光区。但是，南半球的观测值较少。具有用于监测地磁环境的巨大磁力仪网络对于理解与太空相关的事件及其对环境的影响至关重要，因为地球平方的卫星数量持续增长非常快。开发Antarctica的观察性基础设施的主要问题之一是人们难以到达该地区和留在该地区和留在该地区。这个因素使任何科学项目都非常昂贵。因此，可以自动的地球物理观测值（AGO）的开发可以通过最小的人类互动和维护自主起作用，从而提供了一个可以解决该问题的独特机会。仪器的布置产生的数据具有很高的潜力，可以在该领域提供重要的进步，并且科学界高度要求。在这项研究工作中要解决的科学问题是：（1）是概要通量磁力计确定开放式磁场边界（OCB）有效的； （2）太阳风结构对OCB形态的影响； （3）GPS闪烁的概要结构与OCB动力学相关，（4）虹膜的短爆发数据系统可用于以1小时的时间滞后传输Fluxgate磁力计数据。这项研究是一项具有成本效益的投资，它将推动地球上领域的知识状态，并为科学界提供重要的观察。