Antarctic Super DARN Research Operations and System Enhancements

南极超级 DARN 研究运营和系统增强

• 批准号: 2035105
• 负责人: William Bristow
• 金额: $ 265.66万
• 依托单位: Pennsylvania State Univ University Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-10-01 至 2026-09-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2035105&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Antarctic; Super; DARN; Research; Operations

The Super Dual Auroral Radar Network, or SuperDARN, is an international collaborative experiment for observations of plasma motions in Earth’s upper atmosphere where, by observing ionospheric plasma convection, a multitude of geophysical processes can be studied. These processes range from the ionospheric E-layer plasma instabilities to the relationships between auroral luminosity and ionospheric electric fields, as well as from the global-scale ionospheric convective response to changes in the solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field. Each of these areas of study contributes to the overall goals of the space physics research - understanding of the coupling of solar wind energy into Earth's upper atmosphere and its effects on manmade, distributed systems such as communication networks, electrical grids, and pipelines build for various applications.This award will support operation of, and research using data from, the SuperDARN radars installed at McMurdo Station (MCM) and Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station (SPS), Antarctica. The latter radar will also be enhanced to enable polarimetric observations because no SuperDARN radars currently have this ability to characterize polarization of their received signals. Providing this capability to SuperDARN radars will open up entirely new research areas for SuperDARN. The physical location of the SPS radar atop the polar ice cap provides a unique opportunity for polarization observations at the frequencies of operation of the SuperDARN radars. While polarization measurements would be possible elsewhere, the absence of ground reflections at South Pole significantly simplifies the signal interpretation and enables investigations exploiting the magneto-ionic effect (known as Faraday rotation) to characterize the electron density along the high-frequency signal ray paths. As part of the global SuperDARN network, this cooperative scientific effort fosters broad societal impacts as training students and young researchers with "both hands" on the engineering projects and data analysis.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.

超级双极光雷达网络是一个国际合作实验，用于观测地球高层大气中的等离子体运动，通过观察电离层等离子体对流，可以研究大量的地球物理过程。这些过程的范围从电离层e层等离子体的不稳定性到极光亮度与电离层电场之间的关系，以及从全球尺度的电离层对流响应到太阳风和行星际磁场的变化。这些研究领域中的每一个都有助于实现空间物理研究的总体目标——了解太阳风与地球高层大气的耦合及其对人为的分布式系统的影响，如通信网络、电网和各种应用的管道。该合同将支持安装在南极洲麦克默多站（MCM）和阿蒙森-斯科特南极站（SPS）的超级雷达的运行和数据研究。后一种雷达也将得到增强，使极化观测成为可能，因为目前没有superdam雷达具有这种能力来表征其接收信号的极化。为超级雷达提供这种能力将为超级雷达开辟全新的研究领域。SPS雷达在极地冰盖上的物理位置为superdam雷达工作频率下的极化观测提供了独特的机会。虽然极化测量在其他地方是可能的，但南极没有地面反射大大简化了信号解释，并使研究能够利用磁离子效应（称为法拉第旋转）来表征高频信号射线路径上的电子密度。作为全球superdam网络的一部分，这种合作的科学努力培养了学生和年轻的研究人员在工程项目和数据分析方面的“双手”，从而产生了广泛的社会影响。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

High‐Latitude Plasma Convection Based on SuperDARN Observations and the Locally Divergence Free Criterion

基于 SuperDARN 观测和局部无发散准则的高纬度等离子体对流

• DOI: 10.1029/2022ja030883
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics
• 作者: Bristow, W. A.;Lyons, L. R.;Nishimura, Y.;Shepherd, S. G.;Donovan, E. F.
• 通讯作者: Donovan, E. F.