Team title: Mid-to-Low-Latitude Space Weather Effects
Team ID: G1-02
Team Leads:
Katariina Nykyri (Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, USA), nykyrik@erau.edu
Xuanye Ma (Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, USA), max@erau.edu
Keywords (impact): Navigation and/or Communications, (Aero)space assets functions
Keywords (activity type): Understanding , Modeling, Forecasting , New Instrumentation A, New Instrumentation B
Introduction:
Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) is a combined ground-based and space-based system that augments the GPS Standard Positioning Service to meet the requirements for civil aviation. The “Storm Enhanced Density” (SED),have caused complete outage of the WAAS that is designed to facilitate aircraft landings with a higher cadence due to improved navigation capabilities. Understanding the dynamics and effects of the small-scale (< 100 km) structures that can develop at the large gradients of the SEDs is lacking because there is insufficient ionospheric data yet to adequately specify the global ionosphere with high resolution. We propose to 1) test the effects of space weather on GPS receiver accuracy, 2) develop and install new observational platforms to collect large quantity of data over two solar cycles to develop better forecasting tools for mitigating against adverse space weather effects on navigation systems.
A solar storm starts a chain of events that originates from the solar interior, extends out into the solar corona, the solar wind, and eventually impacts the Earth's magnetosphere-ionosphere-atmosphere system. At the end of this space weather chain, processes that lead to induction of currents in the ground can potentially impact infrastructure that are critical to society. During extreme space weather the electric power transmission system constitutes the most vulnerable technological infrastructure regarding GIC, as they can suffer from single or multiple transformer damage which in the worst case scenario can lead to collapse of the whole system.
Objectives:
- The overarching goal is to build observational capabilities at mid-and low-latitude regions of the United States (Daytona Beach, Florida and Prescott, Arizona) in order to monitor, understand and ultimately forecast the effects of mild, moderate and severe space weather on accuracy of the GPS/GNSS based navigation systems and radiation levels (and their effects) during different phases of the solar cycle at the altitudes where major commercial aircraft are taking off and landing. This requires building a new infrastructure, for the collection, management and fast analysis of the Big Aviation Data together with ground based facilities for remote sensing of the ionosphere. This data base will be built by using 1) airborne measurements from 80 Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) aircraft in Daytona Beach (DB) and Prescott (PC) campus to measure GPS positioning errors and monitor radiation levels by using next generation space weather instrumentation. The aircraft position will be determined both using the traditional GPS receivers and the ASTRA Remote Ionospheric Observation (RIO) GPS receiver, which is software-defined space-weather monitor for moving platforms to increase the position determination accuracy during active space weather. 2) The field station, housing Digisonde-Portable-Sounder-4D (DPS4D) with transmit antenna and four receiver antennas.
Action topics:
- Understand and quantify spatial and temporal features of geomagnetic variability in response to external and internal drivers,
- Assessment of capabilities to forecast geomagnetic environment variability,
- Understand and quantify impact of geomagnetic variability on critical infrastructure.