ISR/UAFS Workshop: Panel and Audience Open Discussion of Goals and Priorities

Donald Farley, Cornell University, donf@ee.cornell.edu
NIST Auditorium, 4:00-6:00 PM
Wednesday, June 28, 2000

Summary: What do you think the Incoherent Scatter Radar/Upper Atmosphere Facilities chain should be concentrating on and why? If you have strong opinions on this question, here is your chance to express yourself! This workshop will be devoted almost entirely to an open question/answer/discussion period on assorted topics that might include
  1. What role do the facilities play in initiatives such as Space Weather, Global Change, CEDAR, GEM, Information Technology, etc, and what should their level of support be?
  2. What level of collaboration with NASA on programs like CEDAR/TIMED?
  3. What level of collaboration with non-US spacecraft missions?
  4. Funding issues and their possible relation to (2) and (3)
  5. What are present and new scientific and technical priorities and goals of the facilities?
    (e.g.) Scheduling issues (but no detailed scheduling)
  6. What is the motivation for operating facilities as chains and/or clusters? (e.g.) What are the scientific and technical goals of the facilities? (e.g.) The importance of non-chain experiments (e.g., irregularities)
  7. How do we increase the number of UAF users and the awareness of what the UAFs can (and cannot) do?
  8. How often do facilities operate and how are operating decisions made?
  9. What are the procedures for using facilities or facility data?
  10. How are data distributed? How soon and how often?
  11. Is there web access to archived or real-time data?
  12. How does one go about visiting the facilities? Is it encouraged?
  13. Are there educational programs for the use of facilities?
  14. What instruments are available at the facilities?
  15. How are new instruments at facilities deployed and operatedl?
  16. Describe the facility staff and its functions.
  17. Describe the scientific highlights of the facility.
  18. Is most of the science done with facility data done by facility staff or outside users?
  19. Describe any new or planned capabilities.
  20. How are facilities reviewed and how often?
  21. Anything else the audience is concerned about
The panel will include representatives from the four U.S. chain facilities plus EISCAT. We hope to emerge from the workshop with a useful picture of the contributions that the five facilities now make to our understanding of the near Earth space environment, plus constructive suggestions as to how the facilities might do better.

Back to CEDAR Agenda 2000