A Next Generation Geospace Facility at Millstone Hill

该奖项将资助麻省理工学院（MIT）磨石山天文台（MHO）的非相干散射雷达（ISR）的持续运行和科学发现。ISR测量电离层电子的反向散射，用于恢复地球表面100-1000公里以上的离子和电子温度、密度、风和成分丰度。MHO有一个非常强大的科学教育和社区外展组成部分，并且还策划和分发一个NSF社区数据库。该奖项下的研究活动包括亚极光磁层-电离层耦合；地球空间风暴过程中的电离层-热层耦合；电离层和热层的长期变化；全大气耦合；以及使用软件雷达方法进行流星体研究。ISR正在向一种新的低成本数字架构过渡，该架构将独特地提供电离层参数的连续、长期、垂直剖面。这种新能力将大大增加对电离层和热层扰动的观测，并将在合同执行期间进行展示。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。

This award will fund continued operation and discovery science with the incoherent scatter radar (ISR) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)'s Millstone Hill (MH) Observatory (MHO). The ISR measures backscatter from ionospheric electrons, that is used to recover ion and electron temperatures, densities, winds and constituent abundances 100-1000 km above earth's surface. MHO has a very strong science education and community outreach component, and also curates and distributes an NSF community database.Research activities under this award include sub-auroral magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling; ionosphere-thermosphere coupling during geospace storms; long-term change in the ionosphere and thermosphere; whole atmosphere coupling; and meteoroid studies using software radar methods.The ISR is in the process of transitioning to a new, low cost digital architecture that will uniquely provide continuous, long-term, vertical profiles of ionospheric parameters. This new capability will substantially increase observations of ionospheric and thermospheric disturbances, and will be showcased over the period of performance of the award.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.