Space Weather and Ionosphere Working Group

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Space Weather and Ionosphere Working Group
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Scientific Investigations

• Global distribution of the ionosphere
• response of the ionospheric response to quite and
  disturbed timemagnetic storms
• Global maps of irregularities
• Coupling with the lower atmosphere -- Relate
  formation of bubbles to the tropospheric
  information
• Magnetosphere-Plasmasphere-Ionosphere coupling
• Improved ionospheric modeling (by means of data
  assimilation)
• Improved specification of ionospheric drivers
• Mesosphere-thermosphere-ionosphere coupling

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Scientific Investigations (Cont.)

• Equatorial Ionosphere
• Study the formation and dissipation of bubbles
  and plumes
• Monitor bottom side steepening
• Better characterization of bubble profiles and
  statistics
• Gradient in the equator
• Mid-latitude Ionosphere
• Traveling ionospheric disturbances (TID)
• TID relation to gravity waves
• Localized troughs
• High latitude ionosphere
• Convecting irregularities
• High latitude troughs
• Auroral precipitation ionization
• Auroral E-layer
• Ionospheric Features
• E-region
• Sporadic Es
• D-Region absorption. Energetic precipitation

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Operational Applications

• Assimilation of data into models (GAIM)
• Specification and forecast
• Ionospheric delay calibration for arbitrary
  raypaths
• Remote sensing apps. at low freq. - event
  geolocation
• Ray tracing for HF Comm. (bounce off ionosphere)
• Over-the-horizon (OTH) radar
• Maps of irregularity statistics
• Possible use of diffraction tomography
• HF Comm. Failures (max. usable frequency
  prediction)
• Degraded GPS Navigation Accuracy (loss of lock)
• Radar clutter in polar regions
• Latency Requirements

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Latency Requirement

• 15 min is required for operation
• Possibility of downlink through the modulation of
  the beacon)
• lt 90 min

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Constellation Configuration

• Options
• Current configuration 6 satellites separated by
  24 deg. at 72 deg. inclination, 700 km. Reach
  final constellation in13 months
• More uniformly distributed (a plane every 30
  degree)
• Is there a possibility of coordinating with ACE?

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Issues for GPS

• Type of measurements
• L1 and L2 phase
• CA range
• L1 and L2 amplitude
• Scintillation indices
• Antenna Gain Pattern
• Careful evaluation of planned antenna patterns
  and their orientation
• Visibility into the ionosphere and plasmasphere
• Sampling Frequencies
• 50 Hz below 140 km
• Higher than 1 Hz above 140 km
• Possibility of active high rate triggering when
  scintillation is significant

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Issues for Tri-Frequency Beacon

• Possibility of using TBB for down link of iono.
  data
• Type of measurements
• 50 Hz phase and amplitude at VHF(150MHz),
  UHF(400MHz) and L(1GHz)
• Space-ground measurements
• Receiver chains
• South America
• East Coast US
• Greenland
• India
• Space-space measurements
• CITRIS instrument

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Issues for TIP

• 1-Hz measurements of vertical radiances
• 6 horizontal scan per day (night side)

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Data Products, Formats and Distribution

• Data Products
• Level 0 Raw data
• Level 1 Extra phase delay (advance), Amplitude,
  Biases and TEC changes, Calibrated Radiances
• Level 2 Ne profiles, S4, sf
• Level 3 Maps of electron density, irregularity
  structure functions, ionospheric drivers
• Coordination on data levels and formats
• Coordination between different data centers
  (CDAAC, GENESIS, AFRL, Taiwan, GFZ, Japan, ?)

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The COSMIC Space Science Working Group

• Its purpose
• Advise the COSMIC program office on implications
  of proposed system changes on space weather
  science
• Define priorities and requirements for ionosphere
  and space weather research and applications for
  COSMIC
• Consider various requests for specific scientific
  investigations on COSMIC and organize with other
  space weather campaigns
• Cultivate interest among various funding agencies
  for increased level of funding toward areas of
  research using COSMIC data
• Foster U.S.-Taiwan collaboration by identifying
  and promoting possibilities for joint research
  and exchange programs
• How do we function as a group?
• Communication via email
• Special meetings during workshops and other major
  conferences (AGU, URSI, IES)