SuperDARN Radar Investigations of Global Scale Processes in the High-Latitude Ionosphere: Science and Infrastructure Support

This award will support the operation and maintenance of an atmospheric radar facility in Goose Bay, Labrador. The radar was the first of a worldwide network of radars called SuperDARN located in northern and southern high latitude regions. The radars are sensitive to backscatter from ionospheric electron density irregularities. Their primary data products are the drift velocity of the irregularities and the magnitude and direction of the electric field producing the drift. SuperDARN is the only experimental technique that can provide continuous, large-scale, direct observations of the high latitude electric field. The SuperDARN network is the result of a collaboration with scientists from ten countries and this award supports some of the coordination effort within the SuperDARN community, including the preparation of data tapes from the northern hemisphere sites and the distribution of those tapes to the research community. The investigators will also conduct scientific research in two areas: 1) Global-scale structure and dynamics of high-latitude convection and 2) Atmospheric and ionospheric responses to high-latitude electric fields. Knowledge of the global structure and dynamic behavior of ionospheric electric fields is fundamental to understanding processes in the near-Earth space environment and in determining the importance of electromagnetic energy input to the high-latitude regions of Earth's upper atmosphere.