IGF::OT::IGF RESEARCH ENTITLED: ROCKET EXPERIMENT FOR NEUTRAL UPWELLING 2 (RENU2). THE REPORT SHALL BE A CO…

Public award description

IGF::OT::IGF RESEARCH ENTITLED: ROCKET EXPERIMENT FOR NEUTRAL UPWELLING 2 (RENU2). THE REPORT SHALL BE A COMPREHENSIVE SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS DURING THE DURATION OF THE CONTRACT, AND SHALL SUMMARIZE THE SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE YEAR AND CAN BE UP TO 3 PAGES IN LENGTH. FOR THE RENU-II, PROJECT, ASTRA WILL PROVIDE MODEL SIMULATIONS OF THE ATMOSPHERIC RESPONSE TO FORCING DURING THE RENU-II ROCKET LAUNCH. THE MODEL SIMULATIONS WILL INCORPORATE RELEVANT DATA MEASURED BY THE ROCKET, IN ADDITION TO A NUMBER OF OTHER SPACE-BASED AND GROUND-BASED DATA SETS. BECAUSE THE SIMULATIONS ARE GLOBAL IN NATURE, THEY PROVIDE A GLOBAL CONTEXT IN WHICH TO INTERPRET THE MEASUREMENTS FROM THE ROCKET. IN EFFECT, THE MODEL SIMULATIONS FORM A FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYSIS OF THE ROCKET MEASUREMENTS.. THE RENU PAYLOAD WILL MAKE DAYSIDE OBSERVATIONS UP TO APPROXIMATELY 500 KM ALTITUDE IN THE POLAR CUSP, IN CONJUNCTION WITH MEASUREMENTS BY THE EISCAT SVALBOARD RADARS(ESR). THE ESR RADAR WILL BE USED TO MONITOR ION FLOWS UNDER THE ROCKET APOGEE FOR COMPARISON WITH THE SOUNDING ROCKET DATA AND TO DETERMINE THE LAUNCH CONDITIONS. THE RENU SOUNDING ROCKET WILL MEASURE NEUTRAL THERMOSPHERIC DENSITY, ION DRIFTS AND DISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONS, ELECTRON TEMPERATURE AND DENSITY, ELECTRON PRECIPITATION AND ION CONIES, CONVECTION ELECTRIC FIELDS, MAGNETIC FIELDS FROM WHICH FAC CAN BE INFERRED, AND PLASMA WAVES. THE OBJECT OF THE EXPERIMENT IS TO ACQUIRE NEW DATA NECESSARY TO ADVANCE THE STATE OF THE KNOWLEDGE REGARDING NEUTRAL UPWELLING IN THE CUSP. ASTRA ROUTINELY RUN THE AMIE ALGORITHM TO DERIVE GLOVAL CONVECTION PATTERNS AND FIELD-ALIGNED CURRENTS. THE ROUTINELY AVAILABLE DATA INGESTED BY AMIE COMES FROM SEVERAL HUNDRED GROUND-BASED MAGNETOMETERS, THE SUPERDARN RADAR NETWORK, AND THE DMSP SATELLITES. ASTRA WILL ALSO UTILIZE AS INPUTS TO THE AMIE ASSIMILATIONS THE ION-DRIFTS FROM THE EISCAT RADAR, AND FROM RENU ROCKET DURING THE ROCKET FLIGHT. THE AMIE ASSIMILATION RESULTS WILL BE USED TO DRIVE THE TIMEGCM SIMULATIONS OF GLOBAL NETURAL DENSITIES.