LTCS: Lower Thermosphere Coupling Study
Convenors: C G Fesen and R M Johnson
Date: June 8th, 3:30 PM
Attendance: about 50
The LTCS workshop enjoyed a large turnout, with over 50 people in attendance. To date, LTCS has conducted 17 campaigns. This workshop was devoted to deciding on projects to be pursued. Three general areas for group activityemerged which are described below.
All groups will report on their progress at an evening meeting at the fall AGU convention. Anyone interested in participating in any of these studies is welcome and urged to contact the study coordinator or the LTCS organizers. For more details, email addresses, and information on LTCS and the campaigns, check the webpage at http://www.dartmouth.edu/~cfesen/ltcs
For the 1999 ISR schedule, two observing periods were allotted to LTCS: a 3-4 day "floating" campaign sometime in the window of March 2-12, and also Sept 7-9.
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 |