High-Latitude Ionospheric Structures and Dynamics - Physics, Modeling, and Applications

加拿大作为一个北极国家和一个高度依赖现代技术的社会，从科学和经济的角度给我们带来了许多挑战。在现代依赖技术的社会中，可靠的通信和导航系统是经济发展和公民安全的最重要工具之一。电离层是地球上层大气的电离部分，可以以多种方式（反射、折射、衍射、法拉第旋转、振幅和相位波动）显著影响无线电波的传播（从而影响通信和导航系统）；因此，在规划和建立远程高频（HF）系统和通信链路以及导航系统时，了解电离层的状态和了解其特性变得至关重要。北极电离层与太阳风和磁层的直接相互作用（“空间天气”）造成的时空变化，使在这一偏远地区规划和操作高频和导航系统的任何尝试进一步复杂化，因为那里可能没有替代系统；因此，提高我们对北极电离层的认识对于这些系统的成功运行以及确保该地区具备通信和导航能力也至关重要。通过提出的研究，我们试图利用扩展的加拿大高纬度北极电离层网络（ECHAIN）和卫星测量来了解不同尺度（包括时间和空间）的极地帽电离结构的产生、动力学和衰减。这种理解将有助于模拟/减轻电离层对这些系统的影响，并使我们能够为高频和导航系统的应用开发可靠的电离层模型。

Canada, as an Arctic nation and a society heavily dependent on modern technology, presents us with many challenges from scientific and economic points of view. In the modern, technologically-dependent society, one of the most important tools for economic development and the safety and security of citizens is reliable communication and navigation systems. The ionosphere, the ionized part of Earth's upper atmosphere, can significantly affect radiowave propagation (thus communication and navigation systems) in many ways (reflection, refraction, diffraction, Faraday rotation, and amplitude and phase fluctuations); therefore, knowledge of the state of the ionosphere and understanding its properties becomes critical when planning and setting up long-range, high-frequency (HF) systems and communication links, as well as navigation systems. Temporal and spatial variations of the Arctic ionosphere, caused by its direct interaction with the solar wind and magnetosphere ("space weather"), further complicates any attempt to plan and operate HF and navigation systems in this remote region, where alternative systems may not be available; therefore, improving our knowledge of the Arctic ionosphere is also crucial for the successful operation of these systems and ensuring communications and navigation capacities are available in this region. Through the proposed research, we seek to understand the generation, dynamics, and decay of polar cap ionization structures of varying scale sizes (both temporal and spatial) using the Expanded Canadian High Arctic Ionospheric Network (ECHAIN) and satellite measurements. This understanding will help to model/mitigate ionospheric effects on these systems and enable us to develop a reliable ionospheric model for HF and navigation systems' application.