Magnetometer chains for IHY

1
Magnetometer chains for IHY

• The South American Meridional B-field Array
  (SAMBA) a low latitude magnetometer chain and
  the conjugate calculation of field line
  resonances during magnetic storms.

2
Existing magnetometer networks

• PI Eftyhia Zesta (UCLA)
• Dr Zesta has her own magnetometers along the
  coast of Chile in a meridional chain from near
  the equator all the way down to Antarctica to mid
  latitudes. The lowest latitude station is at -5
  degrees latitude.
• 10 magnetometers (1-sec sampling) along the coast
  of Chile and in Antarctica
• 4 magnetometers installed April 2002, 4 in May
  2003 and 2 in January 2004.
• 2 more Antarctica magnetometers funded Palmer
  and Patriot Hills

3
SAMBA Network
4
Near-equatorial science

• The near-equatorial region provides observations
  for the correlation of dayside transient
  signatures between low and high latitudes. It is
  also possible to study the statistics of ULF
  pulsations and sudden storm commencements (SSC),
  and show how the equatorial electrojet enhances
  their amplitude around the equator.

5
Overlap of magnetometers with other ionospheric
instruments

• Dr Zesta also installed a near-equatorial station
  at -10 degrees. This station is collocated with a
  variety of ionospheric instruments operated by
  the AFGL in Boston - a GPS receiver and
  fabry-perot interferometer and an ionosonde - to
  provide information on the ionospheric density
  overhead the magnetometer.
• The combination of magnetometers with GPS and
  other ionospheric instruments can provide
  overhead convection and electric field with focus
  on equatorial processes

6
Program Cost Estimates

• For magnetometer deployment the cost of building
  a magnetometer is relatively cheap, depending on
  the scope.
• The cheapest scenario is for the developing
  countries to deploy and run the magnetometer
  only. For example, the UCLA magnetometer is about
  8k for a full system. This does not include the
  cost of shipping/customs and the travel expenses
  of the person deploying the instrument.
• The Ukraine has an old military facility that is
  building high-quality and cheap magnetometers for
  all purposes. (Currently supplying to British
  Antarctic Survey)

7
Program Cost Estimates (2)

• The cost of developing the skills in a country to
  build its own magnetometers is a more difficult
  task.
• Brazils INPE center at San Jose Dos Campos and
  the center in Santa Maria would be excellent
  centers to be promoted because they have the
  necessary staff and their own designs, but not
  the money to deploy permanent magnetometers. Dr
  Zesta and Dr. Sibeck worked with Nalin Trivedi
  from INPE, who has operated magnetometers around
  the dip equator.
• The Universidad de Santiago, Chile, has been
  developing their own magnetometer and want to
  test it, so this would be another excellent place
  to support.

8
Program Cost Summary

• A country could purchase a magnetometer from
  UCLA or the Ukraine (a bit cheaper but then they
  need to be able to develop the system
  integration) and have an expert help with the
  installation. It will be their system and they
  would take care of the operations, maintenance
  and data collection/distribution.
• Alternatively, we could sponsor an existing
  center (for example in Brazil and Chile) with the
  necessary resources to develop an deploy their
  own system with an expert acting as a
  consultant.