This award supports cooperative research on ionospheric disturbances between Robert Hunsucker of the University of Alaska Geophysical Institute and S.M. Radicella, of the Programa Nacional de Radiopropagacion (PRONARP) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. They will study the propagation of travelling ionospheric disturbances, generated in the northern and southern auroral regions, which travel for long distances toward the equator. Two ionosondes will be donated to Argentina and set up to increase the monitoring of disturbance propagation by the NSF-supported chain of incoherent scatter radars in Greenland, Massachusetts, Puerto Rico and Peru. The data will help our understanding of the relationship between energetic ionospheric events originating near the auroral ovals and the resulting disturbances propagating toward the equator. The U.S. PI brings to the collaboration considerable expertise in atmospheric gravity waves and travelling ionospheric disturbances. The Argentine personnel at PRONARP are familiar with the equipment and will acquire useful data for future research. A further benefit will derive from the enhanced ionospheric radio instrumentation chain in South America which will be available to other investigators for a variety of ionospheric studies.
