Thus far, LTCS has concentrated largely on analysis of individual campaigns: LTCS 1, LTCS 2 and 6, and LTCS 9. LTCS 1 and LTCS 2 and 6 were subjects of special sessions at the fall AGU meetings in 1991 and 1993. Publications concerning LTCS 1 were presented in a special section of the Journal of Geophysical Research in 1990. The most recent group effort was on LTCS 9; 20 papers were published in two special sections of the Journal of Geophysical Research in 1997.
Current activities are the following:
I. TIMED/CEDAR collaborative studies
The group briefly discussed issues of assimilation of ground-based and TIMED satellite data for collaborative studies of tides, waves, etc. Jeff Forbes' group is currently developing necessary software for this work.
To prepare for TIMED/CEDAR collaborations, the group proposed a detailed study of LTCS 11 as a test bed of combined ground-based and satellite datasets, with focus on the lower thermosphere. Datasets include those from the incoherent scatter, MLT, and meteor radars and the UARS satellite.
| Coordinator: D. Drob, NRL | |
| datasets/task | participants |
|---|---|
| WINDII winds | Fejer |
| data assimilation | Forbes and Palo |
| F-region effects | Buonsanto |
and results/participants from study (1) below.
II. Geomagnetic activity
To examine the effects of geomagnetic activity on the lower thermosphere manifested in LTCS datasets, the group plans to
1) analyze existing campaigns that occurred during periods of significant geomagnetic activity (Kp > 4). In the case of radar data sets, most have already been analyzed and can reasonably easily be re-binned for this study. This effort will provide useful information for a detailed look at LTCS 11 (see above) and future work with TIMED data.
| Coordinator: I. Azeem, U. Michigan | |
| datasets/task | participants |
|---|---|
| Sondrestrom | Azeem and Johnson |
| EISCAT | Nozawa |
| Millstone Hill | Goncharenko and Salah |
| Durham | Clark |
| Arecibo | Kivanc and Venkatraman |
| TIEGCM modeling | Fesen |
TBD: exact campaigns for analysis.
2) submit a proposal to TIMED/CEDAR competition in FY 99 to focus on geomagnetic activity events and effects. Joe Salah will distribute a white paper report in one month to which interested persons can contribute.
| Coordinator: J. Salah, MIT Haystack Observatory |
III. Climatology
This effort is to analyze existing LTCS datasets for seasonal and solar cycle effects, providing the climatological background necessary before undertaking studies of variability.
| Coordinator: C. Fesen, U. Texas, Dallas | |
| datasets/task | participants |
|---|---|
| Xmas I. MLT | Avery, Manson |
| Arecibo | Kivanc and Venkatraman |
| Millstone Hill | Goncharenko and Salah |
| Durham | Clark |
| CSU lidar | Williams |
| Sondrestrom | Azeem and Johnson |
| EISCAT | Nozawa |
| Mt. St. John FPI | Deutsch |
| CTIP modeling | Balthazar |
| TIEGCM modeling | Fesen |