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Team title: TechTIDE - Warning and Mitigation Technologies for Travelling Ionospheric Disturbances Effects

Team ID: G2B-01

Team Leads:

Anna Belehaki, National Observatory of Athens, Greece, belehaki AT noa.gr

Keywords (impact): Navigation and/or Communications, (Aero)space assets function

Keywords (activity type): Understanding , Requirements, Modeling, Nowcasting, Drivers, Indices, Data Utilization, Information Architecture , Assessment , New Instrumentation A, New Instrumentation B, Roadmap

Introduction:

TIDs constitute a specific type of space weather phenomenon that can be solar-driven and/or be driven by other processes acting below the ionosphere. Independent of their source, the effects imposed by TIDs at the ionospheric altitudes are very important. Therefore, a comprehensive system for the direct and accurate identification and tracking of TIDs is the cornerstone for the development of mitigation strategies that will support the reliable and safe operation of the systems affected.

This requires (a) the real-time calculation of the TID characteristics (velocity, amplitude, propagation direction) (b) the accurate specification of all disturbances that act in the ionosphere and create the prevailing ionospheric conditions, (c) the specification of those ionospheric characteristics whose perturbation because of TIDs cause the impact in each specific technology.

Objectives:

The overarching objective of TechTIDE is to design and test new viable TID impact mitigation strategies for the technologies affected by the TIDs and in close collaboration with operators of these technologies, to demonstrate the added value of the proposed mitigation techniques which are based on TechTIDE products.

To achieve this main goal, it is necessary to address the following specific objectives:

i. Improve understanding regarding the physical processes resulting in the formation of TIDs, and consequently to identify the drivers in the interplanetary medium, the magnetosphere and the atmosphere;

ii. Identify the impact of the TIDs on the space based navigation systems (mainly EGNOS services and N-RTK) and on ground-based HF communication and geolocation systems;

iii. Develop improved methodologies, based on consortium partners’ algorithms, suitable to support for the first time the direct, real-time identification and tracking of TIDs over wide world regions;

iv. Establish an operational system to issue warnings of the occurrence of TIDs over the region extending from Europe to South Africa, to estimate the parameters that specify the TID characteristics and the inferred perturbation, and provide all additional geophysical information to the users to help them assess the risks and to develop mitigation techniques, tailored to their applications;

v. Work systematically with potential users to assess the functionality, reliability and efficiency of the TechTIDE services paving the way to its systematic exploitation from users and to its sustainable operation.

Action topics:

  • Understand and quantify ionosphere response to drivers from above and below,
  • Understanding physical mechanisms responsible for producing ionospheric irregularities,
  • Improve predictive capability of irregularities and impact on propagation of radio signal.

Link to team external website:

http://tech-tide.eu