Mike Ruohoniemi, JHU/APL, mike_ruohoniemi@jhuapl.edu
John M. Holt, MIT/Haystack Observatory, jmh@haystack.mit.edu
NIST Auditorium, 4:00-6:00 PM
Monday, June 26, 2000
Recent advances in observational capabilities and telescience technology have greatly increased the scope and timeliness of studies of ionospheric plasma convection at high latitudes. It is well known that convection plays an important role in coupling the atmospheric regions through its association with field-aligned currents, large-scale electric fields, and neutral atmosphere dynamics. In this workshop we will discuss the significance of convection in coupling the atmospheric regions and highlight effects of particular interest to CEDAR (Joule heating, the ionospheric dynamo, atmospheric gravity waves, etc.). Following identification of the key scientific issues, we will discuss the design and implementation of experimental modes suitable for their study. The emphasis will be on the coordination of operations between the suite of Incoherent Scatter (IS) radars and the recently expanded northern chain of the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) of HF radars. The coverage of the HF radars now provides, at times, nearly definitive determination of the large-scale convection pattern over the European and North American sectors. The IS radar facilities can supplement the convection measurements and provide observations of related effects in the ionosphere and neutral atmosphere. We will define modes of operation for specific CEDAR and CEDAR/TIMED campaigns and describe how the community can request this support. We invite presentations on the critical issues in high-latitude convection and on the specification of radar operating modes that utilize the new capabilities.
The workshop will commence with a series of brief presentations. This will
be followed by a round-table discussion. A partial list of presenters and
topics is given below: