The proposed project is the continuation of a cooperative effort to operate and analyze data from four search coil magnetometers located at high latitude sites in the North American sector, two in Antarctica (South Pole and McMurdo) and two in the Arctic (Sondrestromfjord, Greenland, and Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada). South Pole and Iqaluit provide close magnetic conjugacy at near-cusp latitudes, while Iqaluit and Sondrestromfjord provide data at similar northern latitudes but with a local time separation of 1.5 hours. During daytime hours these locations provide a window to the magnetospheric boundary and the interactions of the magnetosheath with the magnetosphere, and during nighttime hours they provide an increasingly appreciated high-latitude perspective on the development of substorm activity. This project is a significant component of the U.S. space weather research effort, and is integrated with complementary Canadian and British efforts.
Since the beginning of the space age increasingly sophisticated efforts have been made to explore and understand Earth's space environment. Scientists now understand much about the configuration of the ionosphere and the region above it, the magnetosphere, but much remains to be done before we fully understand the dynamical processes involved in transferring energy and momentum from the rapidly changing solar wind (driven by both quiescent and explosive processes near the surface of the Sun) into Earth's magnetosphere, ionosphere, and upper atmosphere. It is increasingly understood that doing so requires the coordinated use of multiple data sets, including both a variety of individual spacecraft and strategically located ground observatories. Because those parts of Earth's field that reach farthest out into space intersect the ground at high latitudes, arrays of ground magnetometers have long been a valued means of monitoring processes in remote parts of the magnetosphere.
In the three years of this project, scientific efforts will focus on studies of several classes of waves, including so-called "mantle waves" observed poleward of the cusp; on the propagation of pulsations and the generation of quasiperiodic emissions, and studies of both short-period and long-period irregular ultra low-frequency (ULF) waves, especially during magnetic storm periods. Analysis and data processing efforts associated with obtaining these data sets are highly suitable for undergraduate as well as graduate research participation, and build on strong programs of faculty and undergraduate student research.
