Rationale

Over the past seven years, the Space Physics and Aeronomy Research Collaboratory (SPARC) has built the capability to design, develop, deploy, and evaluate Internet-based collaborative technology to facilitate collaborative space/upper atmospheric science. Within the SPARC project, we (the SPARC team) have supported an international community of space scientists by combining the concepts and methods from both computer science and behavioral science with the deep involvement of "domain" experts in space sciences. Previously, SPARC (then known as UARC) focused on collaborative interactions surrounding real-time data acquisition, initially from a single site in Greenland (Sondre Stromfjord), then in the last few years, to a suite of ground-based and satellite data feeds spanning the globe. In this latter period we also added large-scale computational models of the upper atmospheric system that allowed researchers to "close the data/theory loop" as they compared real-time data and corresponding model predictions within collaborative sessions, carried out over the internet using standard and widely available browsers. With sponsorship from the National Science Foundation's Knowledge and Distributed Intelligence (KDI) program, we are now into our second phase and have broadened the approach which is reflected in the new name: Space Physics and Aeronomy Research Collaboratory (SPARC), and will be supporting the April World Day WLS experiment which is to run on April 20-22, 1999.

For the April, 1999 campaign, SPARC will integrate real-time data sets from six incoherent scatter facilities (Sondre Stromfjord, Millstone Hill, Arecibo, Jicamarca, and EISCAT Tromso and Svalbard), a suite of Digisondes, the SuperDarn HF radar network, magnetometers and imaging riometers, as well as theoretical predictions using a general circulation model to provide nowcasts and forecasts facilitated by IMF and solar wind data from the ACE satellite into an HTML format accessible by all internet browsers. Additional data sets integrated into the SPARC system will include real time and near real time displays from NASA POLAR (VIS, UVI, and PIXIE), WIND, and the JPL GPS global ionospheric network with associated model results. The user's browser will be able to manipulate data displays in any fashion that the user sees fit, as well as permitting chat dialogue between the user and the rest of the SPARC community. There is no restriction related to the choice of browser as the SPARC software is now wholly HTML driven.

Science Objectives

The April 1999 SPARC campaign core period (16UT, April 20 to 16UT, April 22) includes the Wide Latitude Substorm (WLS) effort led by Prof. John Foster of MIT. The principal goal of the WLS activity is to provide global coverage of ionosphere/thermosphere responses to high-latitude (substorm) disturbances to investigate fast penetration effects on a world-wide basis. Based on geophysical activity indices prior to and during the WLS campaign, an extension to the campaign's end time may be made. The SPARC objective is to follow the progress of an intense substorm event in real-time by employing the global incoherent scatter radar chain, associated other diagnostic tools, and real-time predictive models.

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If you have any suggestions, comments, or need more information, please contact Terry Weymouth via email at weymouth@umich.edu with a cc: to Peter Knoop at knoop@umich.edu.

Below are the general objectives for the final UARC campaign, held from April 27 to April 29, 1998.

Rationale

The NSF-supported Upper Atmospheric Research Collaboratory (UARC) is in its sixth year of operation, providing rapid prototyping testbed and software services designed to facilitate collaborative space/upper atmospheric science. Early versions of the UARC software system were focused on experiments conducted at the Sondre Stromfjord Incoherent Scatter Radar Facility in Greenland. Most recently, the UARC project has been extended to incorporate a more diversified variety of instrumental systems using the world-wide web and the Java language as elements of the testbed with Netscape as the standard browser.

This April 1998 Campaign is designed to integrate real-time data sets from five incoherent scatter facilities (Sondre Stromfjord, Millstone Hill, Arecibo, and EISCAT Tromso and Svalbard), the SuperDarn HF radar network, and magnetometers and imaging riometers, as well as theoretical predictions using Thermosphere-Ionosphere Nested Grid (TING) model nowcasts and forecasts facilitated by IMF and solar wind data from the ACE satellite. Additional data sets integrated into the UARC system include real time and near real time displays from NASA POLAR (VIS, UVI, and PIXIE), WIND, and the JPL GPS global ionospheric network with associated TING model results. This document describes the science objectives of this final UARC campaign to be held on April 27-29, 1998. It will end with a day-long presentation at NSF Headquarters on April 29, 1998.

Science Objectives

The final UARC campaign coincides with the WLS98 activity coordinated by John Foster of Millstone Hill. These two activities mutually benefit each other, as witnessed last year during the very successful WLS97 experiment held April 8-10, 1997. This year, the WLS effort runs April 27-29, and the UARC community will conduct a multi-data source, multi-model campaign that focuses on several specific science objectives directed at the dynamic behavior of the coupled solar wind - magnetosphere - ionosphere - thermosphere system. Scientists from Michigan, SRI, Millstone Hill, Applied Physics Lab, JPL, Arecibo, and NASA have volunteered to lead efforts during the campaign. The following table identifies each leader's general interest during the campaign.

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Science effort Leaders

WLS (Wide-Latitude Substorms) effort John Foster

low latitude study Sixto Gonzalez and XiaoQing Pi

convection and Joule heating study Kile Baker and Ennio Sanchez

global circulation modeling Timothy Killeen

ISTP global views Nicky Fox

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In an effort to focus efforts, the April campaign will have the following key time periods in which science leaders will be online to answer questions and to comment on real-time conditions and activity

• April 27, 20UT to local midnight

• April 28, 10UT to 18UT to discuss dayside convection

• April 29, A.M. Eastern time until 16UT, at NSF to share campaign with program

managers followed by an afternoon discussion and demonstration

The participating ground instruments span a wide longitudinal range which will enable -- when coupled with satellite observations of the solar wind, global models, and the POLAR auroral images -- investigations of the global dynamics of the coupled solar wind - magnetosphere - ionosphere - thermosphere system. As the Earth rotates, the ground instrument arrays will span different local time portions of the system, thus enabling a variety of scientific investigations. The instrument modes can provide data suitable to support the multiple goals of various investigations.

The principal goal for global circulation modeling:

• to determine global-scale magnetosphere/ionosphere/thermosphere structure for

moderate to quiescent levels of geomagnetic activity, and to determine the ability of

coupled models to predict global-scale structure and morphology accurately for such

conditions.

The principal goal of the WLS effort:

• to provide global coverage of ionosphere/thermosphere response to high-latitude

(substorm) disturbances to investigate fast penetration effects on a world-wide basis.

The principal goals of the low latitude study:

• to study middle and low latitude ionospheric response to global disturbances of

electrodynamics and thermospheric circulation,

• to investigate the effects of disturbances on the development of ionospheric

irregularities, and

• to determine the fraction of TEC that is contributed by the plasmasphere at these

latitudes.

The principal goal of the convection and Joule heating study:

• to study the relationship between thermosphere/ionosphere plasma structure,

convection, and electrical currents obtained from radar measurements from arrays of

ground-based instruments and global patterns of aurora obtained from the POLAR

UVI imaging instrument.

The principal goal of the ISTP global views:

• to study the global electrodynamic response of the mangetosphere and ionosphere to

changing solar wind conditions.

The approach to the experiment will be to operate the incoherent scatter radars in modes which permit the best combined spatial and temporal resolution of plasma flow and ionospheric density structure. Coordinated discussion among the various instrument PIs will enable each instrument PI to select the mode that he or she deems best for his or her particular instrument in coordination with the other instruments. Responding to changing geophysical conditions and to different magnetospheric/ionospheric/ thermospheric regions may require changes in operating modes by individual radar and instrument PIs. It is likely, however, that modes will not be altered much or often in order to preserve the continuity/reliability of the data set.

As with all multi-investigator campaigns such as this, we anticipate that the rich nature of the experimental and theoretical data sets will lead to the identification of other productive studies. The UARC program will provide continued support to enable post-campaign collaborations, up to and including interactions involving publications.

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Below are the general objectives for the previous major UARC campaign, held from October 15 to October 29, 1997.

Overview

This campaign is scheduled to cover a two week period, from October 15th through the 29th. Falling within this period is a WLS World Day, which covers from 1600UT on October 21st to 1600UT on October 23rd.

Scientific Objectives

There are currently two main scientific objectives for the UARC October campaign that are closely linked. The first objective is to undertake validation studies of the TEC data and general circulation models' calculations of electron densities. Such validation will be undertaken with several comparisons. First, the models and the TEC data will be compared and differences between the two will be noted. While it is recognized that two different fields are being compared, changes in these fields should occur in similar ways. The second set of validations will involve comparisons of the changes in the radar data with TEC data and with model results. As well as providing a partial "ground truthing" for the models and the TEC data, this should also enable a greater understanding to be gained of the changes seen in the radar data in terms of a global perspective. The third set of comparisons will be made in a post-campaign mode. These comparisons will be between the data from the global ionosonde network, TEC data and model results.

The second scientific objective of the campaign is closely linked with the first. Because the campaign is to be a low key one, spread over two weeks, there is an opportunity to try to categorize the global response to changing external inputs in this time frame. For example, one such concern is the way that the low latitude ionosphere responds to high latitude changes. This concept is closely allied with the studies aimed at validating the TEC data and the models, as those validations are best done with reference to the ability of the models and data sources to provide information about the changing ionosphere.