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Closure of the UK Ionosondes at Chilton and
Port Stanley
The following has been received from Rutherford Appleton
Laboratories regarding the proposed closure of the Ionosonde programme.
Obviously there are concerns with the possible loss of this facility and
those interested parties are asked to send their views to the chairman
of the Propagation Studies Committee at psc.chairman@rsgb.org.uk in the
first instance.
Obviously RAL would also be interested in individual responses
but it is felt that a strong argument for it's retention, put forward
by the Society might help.
73
Colin, G3PSM
Dear All,
Closure of the UK Ionosondes at Chilton and Port Stanley
This letter is intended to alert our users and the scientific community
to the decision of the UK's Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council
(PPARC) to withdraw all funding from the UK ionosondes program.
Unless this decision is reversed, or alternative funding is found by
the end of June, this will mean the closure of the ionospheric monitoring
stations at Chilton in the UK and at Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands
within the next 6 months.
The Chilton ionosonde continues the data series begun at Slough in 1931
and has just celebrated 75 years of regular soundings of the ionosphere,
the longest sequence of ionospheric data anywhere in the world. The Port
Stanley ionosonde has been taking data since 1945, making it one of the
longest time series of ionospheric data anywhere in the southern hemisphere.
Closure of the Chilton and Port Stanley ionosondes will cut off valuable
long-term data series and leave crucial gaps in coverage at the Northwestern
edge of Europe and in the South Atlantic. This would be a significant
loss to ionospheric, solar-terrestrial, upper atmosphere and radio science.
With PPARC's encouragement the UK ionosondes team is urgently looking
at alternative models of funding for this important, interdisciplinary
work.
However, it is vital to avoid having to decommission the sites, if the
data series are to stand any chance of continuation. Community support
will be an important factor in securing alternative funding and in ensuring
adequate time and funding to implement change.
If you would like to support continued operation of the UK ionosondes,
please write or email to the contacts given below. We suggest that you
ask that PPARC recognise the importance of these instruments and work
with the UK ionosondes project team to find and develop alternative models
of funding
.
Also included below is a list of some of the key issues about the Chilton
and Port Stanley ionosondes. Please feel free to choose from this list
those points most important to your own area of interest and elaborate
on them in your comments to PPARC.
Many thanks in advance for your support,
Sarah James
Head of Ionospheric Monitoring at RAL
Please send letters or emails to the following:
Prof Keith Mason
keith.mason@pparc.ac.uk
Chief Executive, Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council Polaris
House
North Star Avenue
Swindon SN2 1ET
UK
And to:
Mr. Peter Warry
peter.warry@pparc.ac.uk
Chair, Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council
Polaris House
North Star Avenue
Swindon SN2 1ET
UK
Please copy any letters or emails to:
Sue Horne sue.horne@pparc.ac.uk
Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council
Polaris House
North Star Avenue
Swindon SN2 1ET
UK
And:
Sarah James
s.f.james@rl.ac.uk
Ionospheric Monitoring Group
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Chilton
Didcot OX11 0QX
UK
The importance of the Chilton / Slough and Port Stanley ionospheric
data
* The 75-year data series of regular ionospheric measurements from Slough
and Chilton is the key international measure of long-term change in the
upper atmosphere.
* The over 60 year data series from Port Stanley is one of longest sequences
in the rest of the world and, along with Canberra, one of the two longest
anywhere in the southern hemisphere. It is the key dataset in the South
American sector of the world.
* The quality and consistency of the data have been very carefully maintained.
For example, cross-calibration was carried out when the Digisonde at Slough
was bought in the 1980's and when the instrument moved from Slough to
Chilton in the 1990's. Manual scaling of the hourly parameters has continued
in parallel with autoscaling, since the latter became available. This
has enabled recent work analysing the accuracy of autoscaling over several
years.
* The quality and length of the Slough / Chilton data series means it
is widely used around the world as the leading ionosonde data series.
These data are the single, most important sequence in global Ionosonde
data.
* The location of the Port Stanley ionosonde is unique. It is close to
the South Atlantic Anomaly in the geomagnetic field, a region where energetic
particles from the radiation belts are more likely to be deposited into
the upper atmosphere. Unusual features, which are seen in Stanley data,
may be related to its proximity to the South Atlantic Anomaly. It is the
case that the ionosphere does not necessarily behave in the same way in
the southern and northern hemispheres, due to the inclination and offset
of the geomagnetic dipole relative to the axis of rotation of the earth,
and due to the effect of seasonal thermospheric winds on the composition
of the upper atmosphere. These winds may themselves be subject to long-term
change. So Stanley data is necessary to a global understanding of the
ionosphere and upper atmosphere.
* Data from Chilton and Slough were recently used to demonstrate an electrical
link between lightning and the ionosphere, a link long proposed but previously
unproven. This is an excellent example of the long sequence of routine
measurements taken by the UK ionosondes yielding answers in brand new
areas of research, and adding to the understanding of the important subject
of the vertical coupling of energy in the atmosphere. (Nature 435 (7043):
799-801 Jun 9 2005, Davis, CJ. and Johnson, CG.)
* Ionospheric data from Chilton have already been used in comparison with
data from Mars, to understand the impact of solar activity on the Martian
ionosphere. This topic is increasingly important for robotic missions
to other planets, and safety critical for proposed human exploration of
the solar system. (For example: Science 311 (5764): 1135-1138 Feb 24 2006,
Mendillo, M. et al)
* The Chilton ionosonde has an important role in the European network
of real-time ionospheric measurements, providing the northwestern edge
of real-time mapping of conditions across Europe. Its edge position makes
its loss significant to the overall accuracy of the maps, especially when
there are strong horizontal gradients in the ionosphere, for example at
dawn and dusk. (STIF maps at
http://ionosphere.rcru.rl.ac.uk/,
Annals of Geophysics 48 (3) Jun 2005 - Special issue on Effects of the
Ionosphere on Terrestrial and Earth-Space Communications).
* The UK has a strong reputation globally and within Europe in ionospheric
science. European COST projects on trans-ionospheric radio propagation
have not only used UK ionosonde data, but have also been led from the
UK. This reputation and position will suffer from the termination of the
most prestigious data in this area of science.
* Through the UK ionosondes, the UK contributes to the internationally
important Space Environment Center (SEC) in the US, the Ionospheric Prediction
Service (IPS) in Australia and to the World Data Centre (WDC) worldwide
system. The data are vital to the production of the IF2 and IG indices,
produced by the WDC for STP in the UK. Without Chilton and Port Stanley
data, these indices can no longer be produced.
* One of the six science goals of the International Heliophysical Year
(IHY) in 2007 is to "Determine the response of terrestrial and planetary
magnetospheres and atmospheres to external drivers". Long-term ionosonde
data are able to make a unique contribution to answering this question.
IHY will be a period of unprecedented collaboration on this topic, internationally
and across disciplines and with multiple instruments.
It is counter productive to cut the UK ionosondes program just before
such a vital period.
* As well as the areas of research that will be affected immediately by
the closure of Chilton and Stanley, it should be noted that the importance
of long-term studies of geophysical data are normally in areas that were
not foreseen when monitoring work began. Referring to recent results from
these stations in long-term change, the comparative studies of terrestrial
and Martian ionospheres and into coupling between the troposphere and
ionosphere through lightning, these studies could not have been done,
or had not been imagined until recently. Unknown future science will be
lost too with the closure of these instruments.
Ms Sarah James
Email: S.F.James@rl.ac.uk
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Tel: +44 1235 446579
Chilton, Didcot, Oxon, OX11 0QX, UK. Fax: +44 1235 445848
The Ionospheric Monitoring Group: http://www.ukssdc.ac.uk/ionosondes/ionosondes.html
Chilton: http://www.ukssdc.ac.uk/ionosondes/ralsite.html
Port Stanley: http://www.ukssdc.ac.uk/ionosondes/falsite.html
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