SA51B-2405
e-POP Radio Science Using Amateur Radio Transmissions
Friday, 18 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
Nathaniel A Frissell1, Gareth William Perry2, Ethan S Miller3, Alex Shovkoplyas4, Magdalina Louise Moses1, H. Gordon James5 and Andrew W Yau2, (1)Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, United States, (2)University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada, (3)Applied Physics Laboratory Johns Hopkins, Laurel, MD, United States, (4)Afreet Software, Inc., Richmond Hill, ON, Canada, (5)Natural Resources Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada
Abstract:
A major component of the enhanced Polar Outflow Probe (e-POP) Radio Receiver Instrument (RRI) mission is to utilize artificially generated radio emissions to study High Frequency (HF) radio wave propagation in the ionosphere. In the North American and European sectors, communications between amateur radio operators are a persistent and abundant source source of HF transmissions. We present the results of HF radio wave propagation experiments using amateur radio transmissions as an HF source for e-POP RRI. We detail how a distributed and autonomously operated amateur radio network can be leveraged to study HF radio wave propagation as well as the structuring and dynamics of the ionosphere over a large geographic region. In one case, the sudden disappearance of nearly two-dozen amateur radio HF sources located in the midwestern United States was used to detect a enhancement in foF2 in that same region. We compare our results to those from other more conventional radio instruments and models of the ionosphere to demonstrate the scientific merit of incorporating amateur radio networks for radio science at HF.
