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

Background.The Incoherent Scatter Radar/Upper Atmosphere Facilities (ISR/UAFs) form a chain of four NSF-supported observatories in the American longitude sector (Greenland, Massachusetts, Puerto Rico, and Peru) that extend in magnetic latitude from the auroral zone to the equator. The UAFs all have very powerful radars for probing the ionized component of the upper atmosphere and an assortment of optical instruments for studying both neutral and ionized components. There is a similar major facility in northern Norway (EISCAT), two radar observatories in the former Soviet Union, and one in Japan.

Goal of this workshop. We hope generate an active discussion on issues that are common to most or all of the UAFs. Panel members will include representatives from the four NSF facilities and also EISCAT. We are particularly interested, however, in questions and comments from the audience, especially users and would be users of the facilities and/or data from the facilities. We hope to deal with controversial issues, the more so the better! What do you think the facilities should be concentrating on and why? How can they be more useful to your research? If you have strong opinions, pro or con, about how any or all of the observatories operate, here is your chance to express yourself!

We hope to emerge from the workshop with a useful picture of the contributions that these facilities now make to our understanding of the near Earth space environment, plus constructive suggestions as to how the facilities might do better. The current plan is to have a completely open format, with no prepared presentations by the panel members. A few examples of questions/topics that might be raised, in no particular order, include:

• Collaboration issues and related funding questions. To what extent do/should the facilities support initiatives like space weather, global change, GEM, TIMED, and other spacecraft programs? How do we make choices between these and other CEDAR (say) initiatives? How do we fund support of NASA programs (e.g., TIMED)? What about collaborations with non-U.S. spacecraft programs like ROCSAT? Are we supporting them or are they supporting us? If the science is good, should we do it for free? If not, how do we determine charges?
• Chain aspects. How should the individual observatories divide their effort between "chain" experiments and "local" or regional (two observatory collaborations) projects? The observatories can only run a limited number of hours per year. Some radars can change their schedules on short notice and some cannot. Given those constraints, have you been happy/unhappy with the scheduling in recent years?
• User friendly? How can we increase the number of UAF users and the awareness of what the UAFs can (and cannot) do? Are the current web sites useful? If not, how can they be improved? Do they adequately describe the facilities, how to plan an experiment, who to contact, etc.? Do you know how to find the sites?
• Data access. Have you used or tried to use UAF data? If so, did you use the CEDAR database or get data directly from the UAF web sites or some related site? Any suggestions for changes that would make your life easier? Are you satisfied with the timeliness of the data output? Do you have a need for nearly real-time data, for example?
• Remote vs on-site observations. What is the current situation at each observatory? What are the plans and policies for the future for remote or near remote operation?
• Educational programs? Which UAFs have REU or similar programs?
• Upgrades. Describe any plans for significant facility upgrades?