Newly established autonomous adaptive low-power instrument platform(AAL-PIP) chain on East Antarctic Plateau and operation

An autonomous adaptive low-power instrument platform(AAL-PIP)chain of six stations has been newly established on East Antarctic Plateau along the 40°geomagnetic meridian,to investigate interhemispheric geomagnetically conjugate current systems,waves,and other space weather phenomena in Polar Regions.These six stations,PG0 to PG5,which host low-power magnetometers(Fluxgate and Searchcoil),dual frequency GPS receivers,HF radio experiment,and run autonomously with solar power and two-way satellite communication,are designated at the geomagnetically conjugate(based on the International Geomagnetic Reference Field)locations of the West Greenland geomagnetic chain covering magnetic latitudes from 70°to 80°.We present the development,deployment,and operation of this chain,as well as the data collected by the chain and some preliminary scientific results showing evidence of interhemispheric asymmetries,which are important to better understand Solar Wind–Magnetosphere–Ionosphere(SWMI)coupling in Polar Regions.Recent investigations focus on magnetic impulse(MI)events,traveling convection vortices(TCVs),and ultra-low frequency(ULF)waves in the coupled southern and northern hemispheres.

Observation and Analysis of Meteorological Conditions for Icing of Wires in Guizhou, China

Icing of wires is a product of rain, fog, and freezing rain, and is a common meteorological disaster in winter in Guizhou Province of China. It is extremely harmful to facilities such as power transmission and communication lines, and has caused huge economic loss up to 48.9566 billion dollars a year. Based on the meteorological records of Guizhou from 1967, we analyze the meteorological characteristics during the icing of wires, and obtain the temperature, wind speed and direction conditions of the ice accident. The icing of wires is carried out by supercooling raindrops, freezing of the clouds, freezing and spreading on the wires. Different types of supercooled raindrops and cloud freezing and freezing processes will form different types of ice accretion;wind direction and wind speed will affect the growth of ice accretion by changing the speed of sub-cooling raindrops and cloud falling. The weight of rain-type ice accretion is between 24 and 152 g, and the weight of smog-type ice is between 40 - 76 g. The average ice density of these two places can be calculated to be 0.2 - 0.5 g/cm3. The longer the icing of wires, the higher the ice disaster rate.

Characterization of multi-scale ionospheric irregularities using ground-based and space-based GNSS observations

Ionospheric irregularities can adversely affect the performance of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). How-ever, this opens the possibility of using GNSS as an effective ionospheric remote sensing tool. Despite ionospheric monitoring has been undertaken for decades, these irregularities in multiple spatial and temporal scales are still not fully understood. This paper reviews Virginia Tech’s recent studies on multi-scale ionospheric irregularities using ground-based and space-based GNSS observations. First, the relevant background of ionospheric irregularities and their impact on GNSS signals is reviewed. Next, three topics of ground-based observations of ionospheric irregulari-ties for which GNSS and other ground-based techniques are used simultaneously are reviewed. Both passive and active measurements in high-latitude regions are covered. Modelling and observations in mid-latitude regions are considered as well. Emphasis is placed on the increased capability of assessing the multi-scale nature of ionospheric irregularities using other traditional techniques (e.g., radar, magnetometer, high frequency receivers) as well as GNSS observations (e.g., Total-Electron-Content or TEC, scintillation). Besides ground-based observations, recent advances in GNSS space-based ionospheric measurements are briefly reviewed. Finally, a new space-based ionospheric observa-tion technique using GNSS-based spacecraft formation flying and a differential TEC method is demonstrated using the newly developed Virginia Tech Formation Flying Testbed (VTFFTB). Based on multi-constellation multi-band GNSS, the VTFFTB has been developed into a hardware-in-the-loop simulation testbed with external high-fidelity global ionospheric model(s) for 3-satellite formation flying, which can potentially be used for new multi-scale ionospheric measurement mission design.