Collaborative Research: DASI Track 2: An Optical Network to Study the Vertical Propagation Resulting in Spatio-temporal Variability in the Thermosphere

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This Distributed Arrays of Small Instruments (DASI) project will support observations of the middle atmosphere. This collaboration between academic institutions and a private company will deploy instruments across the Southwestern US. These instruments will be used to measure the dynamics of a complex region of the middle atmosphere where the thermosphere and ionosphere are coupled to each other and to the neutral atmosphere. The data will ultimately help inform our understanding of the space weather events in the atmosphere and inform improvements to global whole atmosphere models. The project leverages a previous NSF-supported effort which successfully placed instruments at high schools across the nation. This project includes planned public seminars and supports undergraduate students.The purpose of this project is to investigate thermosphere-ionosphere coupling by deploying an array of Fabry-Perot interferometers (FPIs) and all-sky cameras across the Southwestern U.S to enable investigations of plasma-neutral dynamics caused both by lower atmospheric and magnetospheric forcing across a range of spatial and temporal scales in the mid-latitude region. Ten OI 557.7nm airglow imagers will form a contiguous field of view spanning 15-20 degrees in latitude/longitude and three FPIs with OI 630.0nm and 557.7nm capabilities. This augments an existing network of 630.0nm imagers that covers some portion of the US and Mexico. Data will be made publicly available through several websites and the NSF funded Madrigal database. Software products will be made available through GitHub.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.