The Sondrestrom Upper Atmospheric Research Facility: A Vision for Science, Service, Education, and Leadership

调查人员将继续操作和维护位于格陵兰岛西海岸康克鲁斯瓦克附近的Sondrestrom高层大气研究设施。该设施的管理、操作和维护包括非相干散射（IS）雷达、瑞利和共振激光雷达以及全天成像仪的所有技术方面。调查人员还将为该设施的科学、服务、教育和领导提供愿景。该设施的运营计划包括进一步实施最先进的雷达数据采集和处理方案，该方案随着新技术的发展变得切实可行，激光雷达和全天成像仪能力的进一步发展，远程科学能力的升级，以及设施基础设施的改进，将使未来的关键仪器部署成为可能。为了提供一个促进教育和培训的环境，将设立一个教育咨询委员会，由一组多样化的教育研究专家组成，以确定和发展最有效的方式，向公共和教育机构拟订、执行、交流和传播信息和数据。此外，博士后项目将有助于培养未来电离层物理学的研究专业人员，现有的研究生研究体验项目将得到扩大，以提高学生的参与度。为了培养高层大气研究的新想法，研究人员将支持先进的仪器来促进科学发现，确保数据的高研究质量，并保持在该设施进行的相关科学方面的专业知识。具体的研究领域包括研究高纬度电离层从秒到太阳周期的响应和变异性，探索电离层在磁层-电离层耦合系统中的作用，以及破译发生在中间层/低层热层-电离层区域的无数过程。为了响应社区不断变化的需求，该设施将提供雷达操作的灵活性，以捕获空间天气事件，并提供更多数据用于回顾性分析。除了这些观测将对由IS雷达纵向链获得的数据作出贡献外，还将利用将现有和计划中的高纬度雷达分组的效用。因此，Sondrestrom设施将成为高纬度IS雷达联盟的一个组成部分，以优化协调操作，并鼓励IS雷达设施之间的科学和技术发展交流。研究人员将提供对实时数据产品的访问，对20年雷达数据的即时分析，并将雷达数据同化到基于物理的社区模型中。研究人员将开发一种数据处理和处理策略，通过IS雷达提供高纬度电离层的第一个综合统计视图。除了利用Sondrestrom设施进行科学研究外，调查人员还将安排和操作雷达；根据需要维护和升级雷达和激光雷达；规划和设计雷达、激光雷达和全天成像仪的实验；协调用户来访并提供后勤支持；作为用户实验的科学、技术和后勤联络人；维持高质量的数据产品；保存全面的资料库；向合格的研究人员提供数据；维护、增强和开发用于获取、减少和解释数据的软件；与科学家合作；担任格陵兰地方自治政府、丹麦格陵兰科学研究委员会和国家科学基金会的科学联络员，并雇用高素质的现场人员。

The investigators will continue operating and maintaining the Sondrestrom upper atmosphere research facility located near Kangerlussuaq, on the west coast of Greenland. The management, operation, and maintenance of the facility includes all technical aspects of the incoherent-scatter (IS) radar, the Rayleigh and resonance lidars, and the all-sky imager. The investigators will also provide the vision for science, service, education, and leadership of the facility. Plans for the operation of the facility include evolutionary development of the facility with further implementation of state-of-the-art radar data acquisition and processing schemes that are becoming practicable with new technology, further advancements in lidar and all-sky imager capabilities, upgrades in telescience capabilities, and improvements to the facility infrastructure that will enable key instrument deployments in the future. To provide an environment that promotes education and training, an education advisory board, consisting of a group of diversified, education research experts, will be established to determine and develop the most effective way of formulating, implementing, communicating and disseminating information and data to public and educational institutions. Also, a post-doctoral program will help train the future research professionals in ionospheric physics, and the existing graduate student research experience program will be augmented to increase student involvement. To foster new ideas in upper atmospheric research, the investigators will support advanced instrumentation to promote scientific discovery, ensure data are of high research quality, and maintain expertise in the related sciences conducted at the facility. The specific areas of research include efforts to investigate the response and variability of the high-latitude ionosphere from seconds to solar cycles, the exploration of the ionosphere's role in the coupled magnetosphere-ionosphere system, and the deciphering of the myriad processes occurring in the mesosphere/lower thermosphere-ionosphere region. To respond to the evolving needs of the community, the facility will provide flexibility in radar operations to capture space weather events, and make more data available for retrospective analysis. In addition to the contribution these observations will make to the data acquired by the longitudinal chain of IS radars, the utility of grouping the existing and planned high-latitude radars will be exploited. Thus, the Sondrestrom facility will be made an element of a high-latitude IS radar consortium to optimize coordinated operations and encourage the exchange of scientific and technical developments among the IS radar facilities. The investigators will provide ready access to real-time data products, immediate analysis of 20 years of radar data, and assimilation of radar data into physics-based community models. The investigators will develop a data handling and processing strategy that will provide the first comprehensive statistical view of the high-latitude ionosphere by IS radar. In addition to enabling scientific research with the Sondrestrom facility, the investigators will schedule and operate the radar; maintain and upgrade the radar and lidar as necessary; plan and design experiments for the radar, lidar, and all-sky imager; coordinate user visits and provide logistics support; act as scientific, technical, and logistic liaisons for user experiments; sustain high-quality data products; preserve a comprehensive data library; provide data to qualified researchers; maintain, enhance, and develop software for acquiring, reducing, and interpreting data; collaborate with scientists; serve as science liaison to the Greenland Home Rule Government, Danish Commission for Scientific Research in Greenland, and the National Science Foundation, and employ highly qualified site personnel.