Creating Standards for Evaluating Ground Magnetometer Arrays

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The 2016 Geospace Portfolio Review of the Geospace Section of NSF's Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Science recommended changes to the way NSF supports ground magnetometer and other arrays for research in Aeronomy and Magnetospheric Physics. The Portfolio Review recommended the creation of a class system for facilities. Class 1 contains the large, single location ionospheric radars that the program was initially developed to support. Class 2 contains networks of instruments distributed across broad geographical locations. In response, the AGS Division funded a two-day workshop led by Mark Engebretson and Eftyhia Zesta on May 5-6, 2016 in Greenbelt, Maryland. Workshop participants accepted the Portfolio Review's recommendation that within 3-5 years these arrays should transition from being projects that are separately funded and managed within the science programs to being collectively supported as a Geospace Sciences Facility. Workshop participants discussed possible pathways for optimal, robust, and effective organization and scientific use of these ground arrays. The outcome was a set of recommendations for the ground magnetometer community to carry out which was published in "Ground Magnetometer Array Planning: Report of a Workshop" (Engebretson and Zesta, 2017). This award supports the initial implementation of these recommendations, namely to gather detailed information about operations and products of all magnetometer arrays supported by NSF-AGS, and to use this information to create a set of standards that can be used to prepare for transitioning these arrays to a Class 2 Facility.Ground-based magnetometers are one of the oldest and most effective types of observational tools used to study Earth's space environment. They continue to provide essential data for a variety of studies of Earth's ionosphere, upper atmosphere, and magnetosphere. Magnetometer arrays are supported and maintained by countries all over the world. The US arrays contribute valuable information for synthesizing an understanding of the global dynamics in Earth-space. They remotely measure currents that define the dynamics of the ionosphere and magnetosphere, including those associated with geomagnetic storms and substorms and those associated with global compressions of the magnetosphere from interplanetary shocks and bow shock-related instabilities. They also make it possible to track Alfven wave - borne energy propagation throughout the magnetosphere and wave-particle interactions that variously can intensify or deplete the fluxes of energetic particles, including ultrarelativistic electrons in the Van Allen radiation belts. This award will be used to fully document the current state of all NSF-AGS funded arrays and will lay the groundwork for moving toward management and support of this valuable national observing capability in a more cost-effective and scientifically productive manner.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.