Project Details
Description
The research will use the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) facilities to artificially perturb the ionosphere using high-frequency radiation. This technique, known as ionospheric modification, stimulates responses in the ionosphere that can be investigated in the absence of the 'clutter' accompanying natural excitation of the ionosphere by aurorae and high-energy solar events. The proposed efforts would re-open the HAARP observatory following its transition from military to civilian management at the University of Alaska. The planned work is also very well coordinated with measurements from an NSF-funded network of high-latitude radars. This proposal therefore represents a substantial opportunity to build infrastructure. The HAARP facility hosts an atmospheric radiation and radio science summer school, and so has the potential to draw in new graduate students.
The ionospheric modification technique allows properties such as temperature and density to be measured under highly controlled conditions. This information will used to study phenomena such as turbulence, diffusion, conductance, and polar mesosphere cloud physics. These processes all facilitate the transfer of energy from the solar wind through the magnetosphere, thermosphere and ionosphere (MTI) to the neutral atmosphere. Further understanding of this coupling is required in order to model and predict the response of the MTI system to explosive solar events, and the impact of this so-called ?space weather? on communication and navigation systems.
Status | Finished |
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Effective start/end date | 12/1/16 → 11/30/21 |
Funding
- National Science Foundation: $375,286.00