Advanced Modular Incoherent Scatter Radar (AMISR) Graduate Studies: Incoherent and Coherent Scatter Applications of the System

研究人员将在秘鲁的Jicamara和阿拉斯加的Poker Flat使用先进的模块化非相干散射雷达(AMICR)系统研究赤道电喷流和极地中层夏季回波(PMSE)。获得该奖项支持的研究生花了一年时间在Jicamara帮助校准和验证阿米西里受体系统。该原型系统安装和初步工程试验后，对赤道电喷流进行了观测。赤道电喷流是在地球磁赤道周围的电离层中流动的电流片。经过40年的火箭和雷达研究，赤道电喷流中的等离子体不稳定性仍然没有得到很好的理解。通过在Jicamara使用两种不同频率的雷达测量电喷流特性，调查人员将获得关于不规则现象的空间和时间行为的新信息。在获得这一经验后，研究人员将把这些知识应用到阿拉斯加Poker Flat使用完整的阿米西里系统观察到的PMSE。尽管PMSE已被许多雷达系统观测到，但利用具有前所未有的操纵能力的阿米西里-R的机会，将使人们对产生这些回波的中间层过程有新的了解。将得到支持的研究生来自一个代表性较低的少数群体，他的参与延续了康奈尔大学鼓励来自不同背景的年轻科学家的强大传统。

The investigators will study the equatorial electrojet and Polar Mesospheric Summer Echoes (PMSE) using the Advanced Modular Incoherent Scatter Radar (AMISR) systems at Jicamarca, Peru, and Poker Flat, Alaska. The graduate student to be supported under this award spent a year helping with the calibration and validation of the AMISR system at Jicamarca. After the installation and initial engineering tests of this prototype system, it was used to make observations of the equatorial electrojet. The equatorial electrojet is a sheet of current flowing in the ionosphere around the earth at the magnetic equator. The plasma instabilities in the equatorial electrojet are still not well understood even after forty years of study by rockets and radars. By measuring electrojet properties using radars at Jicamarca at two different frequencies, the investigators will obtain new information about the spatial and temporal behavior of the irregularities. After gaining this experience, the investigators will apply that knowledge to the observations of PMSE using the full AMISR system at Poker Flat, Alaska. Although PMSE have been observed by many radar systems, the opportunity to use AMISR, with its unprecedented steering ability, will shed new light on the processes in the mesosphere that give rise to these echoes. The graduate student to be supported is from an underrepresented minority group, and his involvement continues a strong tradition at Cornell in encouraging young scientists from diverse backgrounds.