2008 Workshop:Jicamarca and C/NOFS Amigos

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Jicamarca and C/NOFS Amigos

Contents 1 Jicamarca and C/NOFS Amigos 1.1 Location 1.2 Date/Time 1.3 Conveners 1.4 Format of the Workshop 1.5 Duration 1.6 Estimated attendance 1.7 Conflicts with other workshops 1.8 Special technology requests 1.9 Forum 1.10 Brief Initial Description 1.11 Presentation Resources 1.12 Workshop Description

Location

Grindelwald

Date/Time

0800-1000 and 1030-1230 Saturday 21 June 2008

Conveners

• Odile De La Beaujardiere
• Koki Chau
• Dave Hysell
• Doug Rowland

Format of the Workshop

scheduled short-presentations

Duration

4 hours

Estimated attendance

60+

Conflicts with other workshops

World Day Scheduling

Special technology requests

none

Forum

Comments, Questions, Discussion Forum

Brief Initial Description

Users and friends of the Jicamarca Radio Observatory will hold a workshop to review activities from the past year and to prepare for the next one. Important, new opportunities for research at Jicamarca and elsewhere are afforded by the recent launch of the C/NOFS satellite. Launched in April, the C/NOFS satellite occupies a 13 degrees inclination, 400 x 800 km orbit. The mission of the satellite is to forecast ionospheric densities, irregularities and scintillation. Its instruments measure plasma parameters, electric & magnetic fields (AC and DC), density fluctuations, and neutral winds in situ. It also has a GPS receiver and an RF beacon. Ground-based instruments and models, as well as space weather products are integral parts of the mission. Full utilization of this instrumentation for CEDAR science will require close integration with activities at Jicamarca and other field sites.

Forecasting the properties of the equatorial ionosphere and the irregularities within are objectives shared by C/NOFS and Jicamarca. This workshop will address the forecast problem and the challenges it entails. The launch of the satellite poses logistical as well as scientific challenges. C/NOFS joins other long-term projects including COSMIC and LISN requiring Jicamarca support, and the integration of the various, related science goals and observing activities needs to be discussed and planned. Support from Jicamarca will involve a number of new observing modes and some relatively new hardware like the AMISR-7, the SOUSY radar, the bistatic Jicamarca-Paracas link, and SOFDI. Status reports regarding new radar modes and new ground-based instrumentation at Jicamarca and other equatorial stations will therefore accompany reports on C/NOFS satellite status.

The status of educational activities like the visiting scientist program and the intern program at Jicamarca will also be reviewed. Finally, science highlights in equatorial aeronomy from the past year will be presented.

Individuals interested in making a short presentation should email the session organizers.

Presentation Resources

Upload presentation and link to it here. Links to other resources.

Chau and Calle -> Jicamarca Activities 2007-2008

Chau and Woodman -> Oblique vs. Perp 150-km echoes

Upload Files Here

Workshop Description

The first half of the workshop was decicated to the C/NOFS mission, and the second half to new experiments, programs, and developments at Jicamarca. There was naturally considerable overlap. The following presentations were made to the worhshop attendees, which numbered about 60.

• Odile de la Beaujardiere - C/NOFS mission and status
• John Retterer - C/NOFS models and forecasting effort
• Don Hunton - PLP instrument status
• Rob Pfaff - VEFI instrument status
• Rod Heelis - CINDI / IVM instrument status
• Greg Earle - CINDI / NWM instrument status
• Paul Straus - CORISS instrument status
• Paul Bernhardt - CERTO instrument status

All the satellite instruments appear to be functioning normally, and calibration/ validation efforts are underway.

• Jorge Chau: Facility update, 150-km echoes
• John Meriwether: Recent results from Arequipa
• Marco Milla: ISR spectrum perpendicular to B: Magnetoionic effects
• Gerald Lehmacher: Radar cross-section, meteor radar, and HF radar at Jicamarca
• Meers Oppenheim: Large-scale simulations of FB turbulence
• Joe Huba: Three-dimensional modeling of ESF
• Dave Hysell: 2D simulations of collisional shear instability
• Fabiano Rodrigues: HF Doppler radar probing of ionospehric structure

Attention was drawn to the fact that the geomagnetic topology over Jicamarca is changing rapidly and that it should be possible for the immediate future to make highly accurate ISR drift measurements up to very high altitudes. New experimental features of the 150-km echoes suggesting the importance of velocity-space vs. configuration-space instabilities were also highlighted. Three efforts aimed at simulating gradient-driven plasma instabilities in the E and F regions in three dimensions were described. A number of new experimental efforts targeting mesospheric flows and irregularities including MST, MF, and meteor radar techniques were discussed. Finally, a very detailed investigation of magnetoionic effects on ISR spectral observations near perpendicular to B was presented.

The workshop concluded with an appeal from Jicamarca for proposals for observing time and experiments to support the C/NOFS satellite. This is the first satellite with plasma experiments and open data availability to fly over Jicamarca in a generation, and it can be exploited to advance any number of scientific objectives in equatorial aeronomy. Proposals can be formal or informal. Proposal pressure from the community will be helpful in securing more observing hours in upcoming years.