Farzad Kamalabadi (farzadk@uiuc.edu) University of Illinois
Gary Bust (gbust@arlut.utexas.edu) University of Texas at Austin
Joshua Semeter (joshua.semeter@sri.com) Stanford Research Institute
Silverthorne, 4:00-6:00
Thursday, June 21, 2001
Remote sensing measurements of the ionosphere and thermosphere, regardless of the specific physical process under investigation, are often of a line-of-sight integrated nature (e.g., photometric brightness, and TEC). Theory and modeling, as well as monitoring systems, however, are generally concerned with intrinsic volumetric variables, such as wavelength-specific photon volume emission rate or ionospheric electron density. Tomography provides a framework for the estimation of such multi-dimensional parameters from their corresponding one-dimensional observables.
The impact of multidimensional tomographic imaging of atmospheric regions is becoming exceedingly evident in the community, as a number of scientific processes have been demonstrated to be most suitably investigated by tomographic methods, and the data products of this class of observational techniques are being assimilated into atmospheric models. Aeronomic phenomena that have been successfully imaged and studied using these techniques include: ionospheric mid-latitude trough, traveling ionospheric disturbances, and SAR arcs. Similar techniques have been employed at high latitudes for tomographic imaging of the polar-cap ionosphere, and for recovering two-dimensional distributions of auroral emission rates from tomographic photometer measurements. At low latitudes, reconstruction of non-stationary ionospheric plasma irregularities have been performed, and recent studies have demonstrated the tomographic imaging of equatorial anomaly. The results in each case point to the viability of the technique in providing experimental information that is not otherwise obtainable by conventional single point line-of-sight observations.
In the recent years, a number of initiatives aimed at tomographic studies of atmospheric phenomena have emerged, such as the deployment of new receiver arrays for improved radio tomography at various latitudes, ground-based optical tomographic experiments, as well as space-based spectroscopic limb-scanning sensors such as those onboard the ARGOS and the upcoming DMSP missions. This workshop provides a forum for the fusion of various approaches to tomographic remote sensing of the atmosphere. Recent resuls will be presented in the context of correlative studies with the more conventional methods such as ISRs, as well as theoretical models. Furthermore, technical challenges will be investigated, and future campaigns planned.