This project represents a five-year continuation of the Cooperative Agreement between the National Science Foundation and Cornell University that supports upper atmospheric research at the Jicamarca Radio Observatory. Operated by the Geophysical Institute of Peru. Jicamarca is the equatorial anchor of the Upper Atmospheric Facilities radar chain and is the scientific community's main source of information about the equatorial ionosphere and upper atmosphere. Multiple new lines of scientific inquiry will be pursued at Cornell and Jicamarca expressly under this award. The broad goal is to quantify chemistry, transport, energetics, and dynamics in the equatorial ionosphere with radar and optical observations and compare the results with prevailing and emerging theories and models. Our investigations are organized into two priority areas -understanding the stable ionosphere and understanding the unstable ionosphere. They are driven by specific, fundamental questions pertaining to 1) topside composition and thermal structure, 2) F region photoelectrons, 3) E region thermodynamics, 4) D region physics, 5) forecasting equatorial spread F, 6) understanding anomalous plasma irregularities found in the valley region during the day and at twilight, 7) understanding the anomalous "150-km echoes", and 8) investigating meteor-related phenomena. This research will be carried out with the implementation of novel radar remote sensing modes and the development of enabling technologies which exploit Jicamarca's unique capabilities.
In the course of this project, the main radar at Jicamarca and some of its peripheral systems are to undergo upgrades and modernization to facilitate the research outlined above. The new Integrated Plan for the NSF Upper Atmospheric Facilities identified ten experimental requirements for facilities, and our upgrade plans are organized along the lines of these requirements. Improvements to our transmitters, receivers, antennas, data acquisition system, cluster instruments, and databases will be made. Jicamarca's most important activity is providing service to the scientific community. This entails developing observing modes of general use or on demand for visiting or remote users, providing observing time and collecting and archiving the data that result, providing access to the data through an intuitive and accessible database, and allowing real-time access to the data to the greatest extent possible. Jicamarca is taking steps to improve community service with plans to 1) implement common programs for standard incoherent scatter data acquisition modes, 2) streamline the scheduling process, 3) unify the numerous databases used to distribute Jicamarca data, 4) improve and expand real-time analysis and diagnostic capabilities, and 5) improve facility visibility and transparency.
In terms of broader significance, the study of the Earth's ionosphere in general and the equatorial ionosphere in particular, aims to better understand the adverse effects it has on systems on which our technological society increasingly depends. The effects include the disruption of satellite-based communication and navigation systems like GPS, interference with terrestrial HF communication and over-the-horizon (OTH) radar systems, and the production of artifacts in synthetic aperture (SAR) and other kinds of radar imagery. Meteoroids of the size observed at Jicamarca could also pose a threat to space vehicles and habitats. Equatorial spread F (ESF) is nature's attempt to release free energy bound up in the ionospheric configuration near the equator, which becomes unstably stratified at twilight. The release involves plasma dynamics occurring over scale sizes ranging from centimeters to hundreds of kilometers, producing rapid flows and deep plasma depletions; these plasma irregularities function as a diffraction screen for radio signals passing through it.
Jicamarca's mission also complements the primary mission of Cornell University, which is education. Cornell and other undergraduate, graduate, and professional students benefit from research at the observatory through direct participation in advanced research projects as well as through additions to the engineering curriculum. Societal impact comes largely through education and career development in the strategic area of radar remote sensing and also through technological and mathematical contributions to other disciplines in aeronomy, space physics, radio science, and astronomy.
