Collaborative Research: FACTs: Forcing of the upper Atmosphere from Coupling of Troposphere during extreme weather Systems

了解地球大气层及其电离部分（电离层）作为一个集成的耦合系统仍然是一个巨大的挑战。该系统受到太阳耀斑等各种空间天气驱动因素的强烈影响，并且这种控制（从上方）已得到相对充分的探索。相比之下，气象驱动因素（来自下方的强迫）的持续影响在很大程度上仍未得到探索。该项目重点关注极端天气系统或EWS，例如热带风暴和飓风，它们是大气波的重要对流层源，尤其是重力波（GW），已知重力波向上传播并将对流层与中层和高层大气耦合。该项目将使用波多黎各阿雷西博天文台（AO）及其库莱布拉岛远程光学设施（ROF）的各种仪器工具来监测中层和高层大气对前往加勒比海和美国的EWS的响应。它将覆盖大约 60 公里到大约 450 公里之间的广泛高度范围，并将包括无线电接收器、流星雷达、激光雷达、光度计、全天成像仪 (ASI)、法布里-珀罗干涉仪 (FPI) 和电离探空仪。拟议的工作将侧重于（1）分析D区电离层（海拔60-90公里）对EWS活动的响应，（2）研究EWS对中尺度行进电离层扰动（MSTID）的影响，中等尺度行进电离层扰动（MSTID）是F区电离层（海拔150公里以上）中引力波的表现，以及（3）MSTID期间中性和电子密度的比较分析，目的是区分当前的电离层扰动。关于其起源的相互竞争的理论。库莱布拉岛的远程光学设施将改造成一个天文台，提供重要的科学观测，并通过向学生和教师提供世界一流的研究成果来影响波多黎各 STEM 教育和文化的进步。库莱布拉将安装一个气象站，为库莱布拉唯一公立学校的学生和教师提供实践经验，并与代表性不足的学生互动。此外，还将为当地库莱布拉公立高中举办两场研讨会，以促进科学参与，并容纳约 40 名学生和 10 名教师，并邀请来自 AO 附属科学家和当地大学的演讲者。该项目还将支持一名女科学家（首席研究员）、一名博士后学者以及研究生和本科生。它将支持大气科学与工程领域的研究生和本科生教育、多种地面仪器的现场部署、数据收集、分析和解释。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Understanding the Earth's atmosphere and its ionized portion, the ionosphere, as an integrated, coupled system remains a great challenge. This system is strongly influenced by various space weather drivers such as solar flares, and this control (from above) is comparatively well explored. In contrast, the continuous influence of meteorological drivers (forcing from below) remains largely unexplored. This project focuses on extreme weather systems or EWS such as tropical storms and hurricanes which serve as an important tropospheric source of atmospheric waves especially gravity waves (GW) which are known to propagate upward and couple the troposphere to the middle and upper atmosphere. The project will employ a wide range of instrumental tools at the Arecibo Observatory (AO) in Puerto Rico and its Remote Optical Facility (ROF) in the island of Culebra to monitor the middle and upper atmosphere response to the EWS traveling towards the Caribbean and the US. It will cover a broad range of altitudes between ~60 km and ~ 450 km and will include radio receivers, a meteor radar, lidars, photometers, all-sky imagers (ASIs), Fabry-Perot interferometers (FPIs), and ionosondes. The proposed work will focus on (1) analysis of the response of the D-region ionosphere (60-90 km in altitude) to EWS activity, (2) investigation of EWS effects on the medium-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances (MSTIDs), a manifestation of GWs in the F-region ionosphere (above 150 km in altitude), and (3) comparative analysis of the neutral and electron densities during MSTIDs with the aim of distinguishing between current competing theories on their origin. The Remote Optical Facility on the island of Culebra will be transformed into an observatory that will provide important scientific observations and impact the advance of Puerto Rico’s STEM education and culture by making world-class research accessible to students and teachers. A weather station will be installed in Culebra to provide hands-on experience to students and teachers from the Culebra’s sole public school, engaging with underrepresented students. Further, two workshops will be organized for the local Culebra public high school to promote scientific engagement and to accommodate ~40 students and 10 teachers, with invited speakers from AO-affiliated scientists as well as local universities. This project will also support a female scientist (Principal Investigator), a postdoctoral scholar, and graduate and undergraduate students. It will support graduate and undergraduate education in atmospheric sciences and engineering, field deployment of several ground-based instruments, data collection, analysis, and interpretation.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.