Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances (TIDs)

Traveling ionospheric disturbances are space weather in nature and cause fluctuations in electron density that can have impacts on HF propagation.  Two techniques, GNSS based total electron content (integrated density through the ionosphere and plasmasphere), and incoherent scatter radar (direct altitude profiles of temperature, density, velocity), can provide spatial structure information on these disturbances.

Solar Flare and Storm Effects

Solar flares cause D region based HF blackouts, but have effects through the ionosphere and neutral atmosphere.  September 2017 was characterized by multiple solar flares as well as large geomagnetic storm perturbations.  Studying these helps understand the system's response to forcing.

Small-Scale Mid Latitude Irregularities

At mid-latitudes over North America, we have known for more than a decade that HF radars (SuperDARN) see almost constant backscatter from small-scale irregularities moving at slow ionospheric speeds.  The causes of these irregularities are still under investigation, but they are very useful as a remote diagnostic.  This will give updates on progress toward understanding the irregularity origins.  Their presence may cause short time period HF propagation path changes.

In his recent QEX article, “Ionospheric Disturbances at Dawn, Dusk, and During the 2017 Eclipse,” Steve Cerwin, WA5FRF published his analysis of observations of WWV (5 MHz) and WWVB (60 kHz) transmitters in Ft. Collins, CO as received at his home in San Antonio, TX.  Cerwin reports that during the August 21, 2017 eclipse, a definite and measurable enhancement of low frequency (LF) and high frequency (HF) signals from his station. In addition to eclipse observations, Cerwin also examined the dawn and dusk transitions on both frequencies. Notable findings include a propagation null on WWVB that is correlated in time with dusk and dawn, and is consistent with destructive interference from a combination of ionospheric skip and ground-wave multipath propagation. Cerwin also reports on increased frequency jitter at 5 MHz during these times, as well a radical positive frequency swing at dawn and a negative swing at dusk.

Full text of Steve Cerwin’s article is available here. This is from the September/October 2018 QEX, copyright ARRL. HamSCI thanks the ARRL for permission to reprint this article.

The results of the 2015 CASSIOPE ePOP - Field Day experiments have been published in the peer-reviewed American Geophysical Union journal Radio Science as "Citizen radio science: an analysis of Amateur Radio transmissions with e‐POP RRI" by Dr. Gareth Perry et al. From the plain language summary:

We report the results of an experiment in which we used a satellite‐based radio receiver to eavesdrop on Ham radio communications as the satellite passed over the United States. We identified 14 Ham radio users by their call signs, and used this information to determine their location during the experiment. We were able to identify unique signatures in the Hams' signals that are directly related to the nature of the how the Hams' radio waves traveled through the Earth's ionosphere up to the satellite. Furthermore, we used our knowledge of the position of the spacecraft, and the location of the Hams and their broadcast frequencies to deduce the structure of the Earth's ionosphere over the United States during the experiment. This experiment and its results show that Ham radio transmissions and Hams (amateur radio operators) can be valuable assets in determining the structure of the ionosphere over large geographic regions.

The version of record is available from https://doi.org/10.1029/2017RS006496. A free pre-print is available from http://hamsci.org/sites/default/files/publications/Perryetal_HamRadio_2017_rev2.1.pdf.

The Canadian CAScade, Smallsat and Ionospheric Polar Explorer (CASSIOPE) spacecraft once again eavesdropped in on the 2018 ARRL Field Day. Onboard CASSIOPE is the Enhanced Polar Outflow Probe (e-POP), a suite of eight science instruments studying spaceweather. The Radio Receiver Instrument (RRI), one of e-POP’s eight instruments, was tuned to 7.005 MHz (40 m), during 6 passes over the North American continent during the Field Day activities. “We’re really happy with our results this year” remarked Dr. Gareth Perry, a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Calgary, CASSIOPE’s home institution. “RRI recorded plenty of chatter between Field Day participants, especially during our passes over the eastern and central United States on the evening of the 23rd”.

CASSIOPE also participated in the 2015 and 2017 Field Day; its activities for the latter were heavily advertised. “The 2017 response from the Ham radio community was overwhelming! RRI’s band was inundated with CW signals. It’s been tough to sort out the 2017 data, so we decided to use a different tactic this year.” Dr. Perry and members of the Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation (HamSCI) group coordinated with the Nashoba Valley Amateur Radio Club (NVARC, N1NC) and the Hoosier DX And Contest Club (N9NS) and the Indianapolis Radio Club to “direct traffic” – asking their members to stick to pre-selected frequencies during the passes, and to record their transmitting logs. “We figured that it would be easier to assign frequencies ahead of time so that we know where to look in post-processing, which seems to have paid-off” added Dr. Perry.

Dr. Perry and the HamSCI group have been using the ARRL Field Day as a opportunity to study space weather and HF radio wave propagation. “Not only have the Field Day experiments been valuable scientifically, but they have also helped promote the relevancy of Ham radio to the greater scientific community.” This year, CASSIOPE also had extra support from one of the more important space science facilities in the country, “Thanks to Dr. Phil Erickon’s (W1PJE) efforts, we were able to get some ionospheric diagnostics from the Millstone Hill Incoherent Scatter Radar, a large ionospheric radar with wide coverage over the US east coast.  Millstone Hill ionospheric measurements during the CASSIOPE east coast passes will add another layer of critical information to our observations.” Dr. Perry hopes that CASSIOPE will participate in Field Day activities for as long as possible “we’re looking forward to next year already!”.

Dr. Perry is the lead-author on the first publication using data from the ARRL Field Day experiments, Citizen radio science: an analysis of Amateur Radio transmissions with e-POP RRI, which reports on CASSIOPE’s 2015’s ARRL Field Day activities. The article was recently accepted for publication in Radio Science. All e-POP data is available at the CASSIOPE/e-POP data portal at https://epop.phys.ucalgary.ca/data/.  Please note: the RRI dataset is in HDF5 format.  Preparations are underway to convert the RRI data to a more useable format for the Ham community. CASSIOPE/e-POP operations are funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) under the Third Party Mission Program.  Radar observations and analysis at Millstone Hill are supported by a US National Science Foundation grant to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

CQ Amateur Radio Magazine published an article by Rich Moseson, W2VU, about the 2018 HamSCI meeting in the May 2018 issue entitled, "A Virtuous Cycle: Hams and Scientists Helping Each Other". The 2018 HamSCI Workshop was held at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) February 23-24, 2018 and brought together hams and space scientists from across the United States, Canada, and Great Britain. Over 60 people in attended, and presentations included results from the 2017 Great American Eclipse, ideas for a personal space weather station, and other amateur radio-space science experiments and projects. PDFs of most presentations from the workshop are available here. Full text of the CQ Article is available here (Copyright CQ Communications, Inc., Posted by permission).

The SEQP was scored by Nathaniel Frissell, W2NAF and Spencer Gunning, K2AEM. The following text is by Ward Silver, N0AX, and is based on information published on the HamSCI website and the Feb 2018 QST article, “The Solar Eclipse QSO Party” by Ward Silver, NØAX.

The question, “Will anybody participate in the Solar Eclipse QSO Party (SEQP)?” Was answered loud and clear on eclipse day, August 21st. The HF bands were busy from the first minute of the SEQP at 1400 UTC to the closing bell at 2200 UTC. Logs were received from 566 stations. Some operated on all bands, others concentrated on one or two. In total, the SEQP generated over 618,000 RBN spots, 630,000 WSPRNet spots, 1.2 million PSKReporter spots, and 29,000 logged QSOs. The Sun may have taken a lunar nap but the bands were full of life!

How was propagation? Excellent for mid-August, actually! The Sun held off on generating any flares or CMEs so conditions were relatively quiet until well after the SEQP was done and the eclipse no longer visible in North America. During the SEQP, the smoothed sunspot number (SSN) was 44, solar flux hit 83, and KP was 3 or less — pretty good in summer near a solar minimum. These quiet geomagnetic conditions made the contact data more valuable since the effect of disturbances was minimized.

It was fairly conclusively demonstrated that the shadow of the eclipse stops ion production in the ionosphere. Amateurs observed Doppler shifts, phase shifts, and amplitude changes in WWV, WWVB, and AM radio station reception. The SEQP observations suggest the F layer rose and the D layer was depleted during the eclipse. While these effects weren’t unexpected, they have been observed in far greater detail than ever before. This data supports the finely-detailed validation of ionospheric and geomagnetic models against the recorded data. That is where “new science” often happens as unexpected subtle behavior of a natural phenomenon is examined and explained.

The first paper to be published was written by HamSCI founding member, Dr. Nathaniel Frissell, W2NAF — "Modeling Amateur Radio Soundings of the Ionospheric Response to the 2017 Great American Eclipse," in which Reverse Beacon Network (RBN) observations of the SEQP were compared with raytracings through an eclipsed version of the physics- based ionospheric model SAMI3. (The paper was published in the American Geophysical Union journal Geophysical Research Letters – see the HamSCI website for more information.)

This initial HamSCI event echoes the success of amateur-research collaboration reaching back nearly a century to the Listening Tests of the early 1920s establishing the ionosphere’s existence. Here we are again! Stay tuned for the next opportunity to contribute your skills as we “advance the radio art!” Thanks to all the stations who participated around the world, generating valuable data and a chance to learn more about how the ionosphere works.

Download the Full SEQP Contest Results

Visit the SEQP Home Page

The first science results from the 21 August 2017 Solar Eclipse QSO Party have been published in the American Geophysical Union journal Geophysical Research Letters. In the paper, "Modeling Amateur Radio Soundings of the Ionospheric Response to the 2017 Great American Eclipse," Nathaniel Frissell, W2NAF, and team present Reverse Beacon Network (RBN) observations of the SEQP and compare them with raytracings through an eclipsed version of the physics-based ionospheric model SAMI3. On  14 MHz (20 m), eclipse effects were observed as a drop-off in communications for an hour before and after eclipse maximum. On 7 MHz (40 m), typical path lengths extended from about 500 km to 1000 km for 45 minutes before and after eclipse maximum. On 1.8 MHz (160 m) and 3.5 MHz (80 m), eclipse effects were observed as band openings 20 to 45 minutes around eclipse maximum.

By using raytracing to compare these observations with the SAMI3 model, it was found that the majority ofthe 14 MHz signals refracted off the ionosphere at heights less than 125 km (E region). On the lower bands, 1.8, 3.5, and 7 MHz, it was found that signals likely refracted off heights greater than 125 km (F region). These observations suggest an eclipse-induced weakening of the ionosphere, and are consistent with numerous prior HF radio eclipse ionospheric studies.

In total, the SEQP generated over 618,000 RBN spots, 630,000 WSPRNet spots, 1.2 million PSKReporter spots, and 29,000 log QSOs. This paper, along with the geolocated RBN data with solar eclipse obscuration values used in the paper, are being published under an open-access license to allow for further research. The data files can be found under the Supporting Information section of the paper. Additional HamSCI eclipse data can be found at https://zenodo.org/communities/hamsci.

Permanent link to SEQP Paper: https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL077324

UPDATE: Booth talk scheduled update 8 May 2018.

HamSCI will again be at the Dayton Hamvention, this year as part of the new Ham Radio 2.0: Innovation and Discovery area sponsored by the Yasme Foundation. Come visit the HamSCI Booth and Forum to learn about projects on the cutting of ham radio science and engineering research, including initial science results of the Solar Eclipse QSO Party (SEQP), the status of the Arecibo Observatory, the latest in understanding the causes of 6 meter sporadic E propagation, and how an inexpensive software defined radar for ionospheric studies works. Hamvention will be held May 18-20, 2018 at the Greene County Fairgrounds in Xenia, Ohio.

Most HamSCI activity will take place in at Booth 4304 in Building 4 (Volta), which is part of the Ham Radio 2.0: Innovation and Discovery area. Also known as 2.0 Row, this new area is intended to be a gathering spot for innovative groups and organizations. This year, both HamSCI and IARU Region 1 Youngsters on the Air (YOTA) are part of 2.0 Row, which is located close to the FIRST Robotics, the Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers, and the NASA Radio Jove Booths. You can meet many members of the HamSCI effort at the booth, including Nathaniel Frissell (W2NAF) of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Carl (K9LA) and Vicky (AE9YL) Luetzelschwab, Phil Erickson (W1PJE) of the MIT Haystack Observatory, and Bob McGwier (N4HY) of Virginia Tech and AMSAT.

Booth talks will be a new feature this year, in which speakers will present on a diverse set of topics right in the Ham Radio 2.0 gathering area. Talks from both HamSCI and Ham Radio 2.0 will be interleaved. Some highlights include an eclipse ham radio ray tracing work by NJIT Student Josh Vega (WB2JSV), an eclipse SuperDARN study by Virginia Tech Student Magda Moses (KM4EGE), and the development of an inexpensive Software Defined Radar for Ionospheric Work by Bob McGwier (N4HY). Some additional topics include The FT8 Advantage by Carl Luetzelschwab (K9LA), ARHAB (Amateur Radio High Altitude Ballooning) and Balloon Data by William Brown (WB8ELK), and AMSAT Fox & Gold Satellites by AMSAT-NA Vice President for Engineering Jerry Buxton (N0JY). See below for the complete schedule.

On Saturday, the HamSCI Forum will take place in Forum Room 4 from 9:15 - 10:30 AM. Dr. Phil Erickson (W1PJE) of the MIT Haystack Observatory will present on the relationship between ham radio operators and space physicists, and how each can help each other. Angel Vazquez (WP3R), the Head of Telescope Operations and RFI and Spectrum Manager of the Arecibo Observatory will present on the status of Arecibo after the horrific hurricanes that took place in September 2017. Phil Erickson will present on Joe Dzekevich's (K1YOW) research on the relationship of winter 6 meter sporadic E and Jet Streams. Finally, Dr. Nathaniel Frissell (W2NAF) of NJIT will present on the initial scientific results of the 2017 Solar Eclipse QSO Party.

Support for the 2018 HamSCI Hamvention activities comes from the  New Jersey Institute of Technology Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research, the Yasme Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the volunteers of HamSCI booth forum.

HamSCI at Hamvention 2017

HamSCI Presentations

Booth Talks

Booth talks include both HamSCI and Ham Radio 2.0 Talks.

Friday Booth Talks

Friday, May 18, 2018	Group	Title	Presenter	Organization	Home QTH
9:15 AM	HR 2.0	Broadband Digital Satellite Systems	Michelle Thompson, W5NYV		San Diego, CA
10:00 AM		Ray Tracing and the Solar Eclipse QSO Party	Josh Vega, WB2JSV	NJIT	Newark, NJ
11:00 AM	HR 2.0	SatNOGS Automated Satellite Ground Stations	Pierros Papadeas, SV1QVE	SatNOGS	Nea Filadelfeia, Greece
12:00 PM	HR 2.0	The Internet Telegraph	Scotty Cowling, WA2DFI	TAPR	Tempe, AZ
1:00 PM	HR 2.0	NPOTA (National Parks On The Air) - First Steps	Laura Steinberger, WZ8C		Traverse City, MI
2:00 PM		The FT8 Advantage	Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LA		Fort Wayne, IN
3:00 PM	HR 2.0	AMSAT Fox & Golf Satellites	Jerry Buxton, N0JY	AMSAT	Granbury, TX
4:00 PM	HR 2.0	Cool QSLs	Jeffrey Murray, K1NSS		Saugerties, NY

Saturday Booth Talks

Saturday, May 19, 2018	Group	Title	Presenter	Organization	Home QTH
9:15 AM	HR 2.0	Summits On The Air - SOTA	Keith Schlottman, KR7RK		Tucson, AZ
10:00 AM	HR 2.0	WSJT Modes	Ria Jairam, N2RJ Dave Fisher, NX6D		Sussex, NJ Pleasanton, CA
11:00 AM	HR 2.0	ARDF with LIDAR data	Matt Robbins, AA9YH		Cincinnati, OH
12:00 PM		SuperDARN Eclipse Results	Magda Moses, KM4EGE	Virginia Tech	Blacksburg, VA
1:00 PM	HR 2.0	ARHAB (Amateur Radio High Altitude Ballooning) and Balloon Data	Bill Brown, WB8ELK	ARHAB	Madison, AL
2:00 PM		DX Display and the HARC Database	Bill Engelke, AB4EJ	University of Alabama	Tuscaloosa, AL
3:00 PM	HR 2.0	Real-time Contest Scoreboards	Victor Androsov, VA2WA		Boucherville, QC
4:00 PM		Software Defined Ionospheric Radar	Bob McGwier, N4HY	Virginia Tech	Blacksburg, VA

HamSCI Forum

Booth Location

HamSCI will be at Booth 4304 in the Ham Radio 2.0: Innovation and Discovery Area.

Questions?

If you have questions, please contact Nathaniel W2NAF at [email protected].

From John Ackermann, N8UR

Microwave Update (MUD) is an international conference dedicated to microwave equipment design, construction, and operation. It is focused on, but not limited to, amateur radio on the microwave bands. The Midwest VHF/UHF Society is pleased to host this year's event. The conference will be held at the Holiday Inn, 2800 Presidential Drive, Fairborn, Ohio 45324 from October 11 - 14, 2018.

Call for Presentations and Papers: The program committee is calling for papers and presentations on the technical and operational aspects of microwave amateur radio communications. Tell us about your latest project, design or operating adventures. Please e-mail your proposals, questions, and submissions to John Ackermann, N8UR, at [email protected]. Don't wait until the beginning of September to let us know what you're planning!

Presentations selected for the technical program may be given in person or by proxy. Please send an abstract and expected duration no later than August 25, 2018 so that we can determine and announce the program agenda the following week. Ideally, send your draft presentation by the same date. We encourage presenters to submit a companion paper for publication in the proceedings book. This paper would ideally be text based and expand on the presentation slides, but a simple copy of the slides is also okay. Either way, this material must be received no later than September 1, 2018 to be included in the book. Additional material (presentation slides, schematics, source code, more text, background info, etc.) to be included on the proceedings CD must arrive no later than September 25, 2018.  All conference attendees will receive a copy of the book and CD.

Full details, including suggested topics, paper guidelines, schedule, and hotel information can be found on the MUD website: www.microwaveupdate.org.

Microwave Update 2018
Dayton, Ohio, October 11 – 14, 2018
Holiday Inn, Fairborn, Ohio
www.microwaveupdate.org
 

The 2018 HamSCI Workshop held at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) February 23-24, 2018 brought together hams and space scientists from across the United States, Canada, and Great Britain. With over 60 people in attendance, presentations included results from the 2017 Great American Eclipse, ideas for a personal space weather station, and other amateur radio-space science experiments and projects.

Friday focused on techniques and methods for collecting and analyzing large-scale amateur radio data, as well as results of the eclipse experiments. Bill Engelke, AB4EJ, of the University of Alabama presented on the HamSCI Amateur Radio Communications (HARC) database and DX Display System that unifies Reverse Beacon Network (RBN), WSPRNet, and the NASA OMNI space physics databases. Philip Gladstone, N1DQ, the founder and owner of the PSKReporter system, shared insights into the PSKReporter system architecture and the impacts of the new FT8 digital mode. Dr. Ethan Miller, K8GU, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, showed techniques for using RBN observations to estimate ionospheric maximum usable frequency (MUF) and foF2 critical frequencies.

The solar eclipse presentations included results that incorporated many different measurement techniques. The Solar Eclipse QSO party generated a number of studies of amateur HF propagation presented by NJIT, Virginia Tech, the Marshall Space Flight Center, and amateur contributors. These presentations showed that in addition to propagation effects related to the expected decrease in ionospheric densities during the eclipse such as a decrease in 14 MHz signal strengths, a lengthening of 7 MHz ray paths, and an increase in the number of 1.8 and 3.5 MHz contacts, subtler effects were also observed. This includes Doppler shifts at LF and HF relating to the changing propagation path lengths as the eclipse passed overhead. Presentations using professional instrumentation systems such as GPS Total Electron Content (GPS-TEC) Monitoring systems and Incoherent Scatter Radar (ISR) were presented by scientists Dr. Anthea Coster and Dr. Larisa Goncharenko from the MIT Haystack Observatory. They showed evidence of bow waves generation by the eclipse, as well as an upwelling of electrons from the ionosphere into the plasmasphere, which hours after the eclipse returned to the ionosphere to produce higher than normal electron densities.

On Friday night, Dr. Philip Erickson, W1PJE, of the MIT Haystack Observatory gave the keynote address at the workshop banquet. Dr. Erickson reviewed the science and engineering accomplishments of many of the key figures in the CQ Hall of Fame and presented open questions that could be addressed by future ham radio-science collaborations.

In order to help hams and scientists speak the same language, Ethan Miller opened the Saturday program with a tutorial entitled “Space Physics for Radio Amateurs and Ham Radio for Space Physicists.” This talk highlighted the capabilities of ham radio operators and the interesting propagation that they enjoy. Next, Dr. Ben Witvliet, PE5B/M0IJQ, a long-time ham who recently earned his Ph.D. studying Near Vertical Incidence Skywave (NVIS) propagation, summarized his findings in a talk entitled “NVIS Field research in Spain: Science or Adventure?” Following this, Dr. Gareth Perry of the University of Calgary present results from an experiment where he used the CASSIOPE satellite to listen to Field Day 2015 signals and provides an explanation for the fast variability observed in received signal power.

Saturday afternoon presentations presented ideas for developing a personal Space Weather Station. This is a device that a ham could install at their station to make measurements such as ionospheric absorption, geomagnetic field variation, lightning detection, HF propagation and phase measurements. Dr. Nathaniel Frissell, W2NAF, of NJIT presented an overview vision of what this station may look like. This was followed by presentations from the University of Oklahoma, Dartmouth College, NJIT, and the Tucson Amateur Packet Radio Corporation (TAPR) giving more detailed descriptions of how to make these measurements and why they should be made. Steve Bible, N7HPR, TAPR President, discussed the steps for bringing a product from idea to design to shippable product and provided examples from the TAPR history.

Case Western Reserve Amateur Radio Club, W8EDU, brought four students and two advisors to the HamSCI meeting. During the demo room period, they demonstrated the laboratory exercise they developed, “A Hut on Phasors Legs”. This lab is for the examination of analog signals simultaneously in the time, frequency and phasor domains, as well as demodulated audio. Students from the NJIT Amateur Radio Club provided tours of the NJIT ARC Station, K2MFF. Next, University of Iowa graduate student and amateur radio club president Arya Afshari, KE0CHS, presented his work on “Turbulence in the Magnetosheath: Solar Wind - Magnetosphere Interactions,” which showed hams science from the region of space where the solar wind encounters the Earth’s magnetosphere. To close out the meeting, Kai Chen, K2TRW, and Bill Engelke, AB4EJ, presented on the newer Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) and FT8 radio modes.

The 2018 HamSCI meeting was hosted by the New Jersey Institute of Technology Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research. Once collected from the presenters, PDFs of the presentations will be available for download at the 2018 HamSCI Workshop Agenda page.

Related:

• NJTV Coverage of the HamSCI Workshop and the NJIT K2MFF Amateur Radio Club

Registration for the 2018 HamSCI Workshop is now open! The workshop will be held February 23-24, 2018 at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, NJ and seeks to bring together the amateur radio community and professional scientists. Anyone interested in this workshop is invited to join. This year, the workshop will focus on results of the 2017 Great American Eclipse ham radio ionospheric experiments (including SEQP results) and the development of a Personal Space Weather station.

Do you have something to present? We are especially looking for speakers with presentations showing analysis of 2017 Great American Eclipse ionospheric observations, ideas and proposals for the design and implementation of a personal space weather station. We will also accept other presentations related to amateur radio and science. Presentations will likely be between 20 to 30 minutes long. If you would like to present, please e-mail your abstract to Nathaniel Frissell, W2NAF at [email protected] by February 15, 2018.

For more information and to register, please visit the HamSCI Workshop 2018 page.

Visit the HamSCI Workshop 2018 Homepage