Collaborative Research: Remote Sensing of the Lower Ionosphere during 2024 Solar Eclipse: Revealing the Spatial and Temporal Scales of Ionization and Recombination

合作研究：2024 年日食期间低电离层遥感：揭示电离和重组的时空尺度

• 批准号: 2320260
• 负责人: Oleksiy Agapitov
• 金额: $ 24.42万
• 依托单位: University of California-Berkeley
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-02-01 至 2026-01-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2320260&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Remote; Sensing; Lower

This award involves a collaboration between the University of Colorado Denver and University of California Berkeley to study the ionosphere during a solar eclipse. Very low frequency radio observations will be made during the 2024 solar eclipse in the eastern United States. A solar eclipse is a rare event in which the radiation from the sun is partially or totally obscured by the moon for a few minutes. A solar eclipse is not only spectacular to observe but also provides a rare opportunity to study the physical and chemical processes of the ionosphere. In particular, the lowest part of the ionosphere is significantly modified by the sun and is difficult to study. A solar eclipse offers the opportunity to observe a day-night-day change of the ionosphere on the scale of a few minutes. Observations made during an eclipse therefore provide a key insight into how the sun changes the lower ionosphere. Understanding the lower ionosphere is important to improving long distant communications and understanding space weather processes that affect an increasing number of technologies. A number of students from the diverse populations at both universities will support the effort and be trained to make low frequency radio wave observations and their interpretations. This collaborative project combines the resources of CU Denver and UC Berkeley to study the lower ionosphere during the solar eclipse of 2024 in the United States, using VLF and ELF remote sensing techniques. Three types of receiver hardware will be used to make synergistic observations during the solar eclipse events. The observations will be interpreted with numerical modeling efforts to answer outstanding questions on the dynamics of the lower ionosphere during an eclipse. The three science questions are 1) What is the lateral and vertical structure of the ionosphere in the totality zone of the solar eclipse? 2) What are the observed ionospheric perturbations when the region of totality is near a powerful VLF transmitter? and 3) What is the lower ionosphere characteristic reaction time to a point like perturbation from the eclipse? The specifics of the 2024 total solar eclipse bring the lunar shadow to the close vicinity of the most powerful VLF transmitter in the United States. This offers a unique opportunity to study a solar eclipse with higher resolution and in the presence of local heating effects.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该奖项涉及科罗拉多大学丹佛大学和加州大学伯克利分校之间的合作，以在日食期间研究电离层。在美国东部的2024年日食期间，将进行非常低的无线电观察结果。 日食是一个罕见的事件，其中，太阳的辐射被月球部分或完全遮盖了几分钟。日食不仅可以观察到壮观，而且还提供了一个难得的机会来研究电离层的物理和化学过程。特别是，电离层的最低部分被太阳显着改变，很难研究。日食提供了机会，可以在几分钟的时间表上观察电离层的昼夜变化。 因此，在日食期间进行的观察结果为太阳如何改变较低的电离层提供了重要的见解。了解较低的电离层对于改善远距离通信和理解影响越来越多技术的空间天气过程很重要。 两所大学中不同人群的许多学生都将支持这项工作，并接受培训以进行低频无线电波观察及其解释。这个协作项目结合了CU Denver和UC Berkeley的资源，以使用VLF和ELF遥感技术在2024年的日食期间研究下层层。在日食事件期间，将使用三种类型的接收器硬件来进行协同观察。这些观察结果将通过数值建模工作来解释，以回答日食中电离层动态的杰出问题。 三个科学问题是1）在日食的总体区域中电离层的横向和垂直结构是什么？ 2）当整体区域接近强大的VLF发射器时，观察到的电离层扰动是什么？ 3）较低的电离层特性反应时间是什么？ 2024年总太阳日食的细节使月球阴影使美国最强大的VLF发射器附近附近。 这提供了一个独特的机会，可以通过更高的分辨率研究日食，并在当地供暖效应的情况下。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响评估标准通过评估来支持的。