Space & Atmospheric Science Highlights
Table of Contents
The Space & Atmospheric Science (SAS) group consists of Christiano Garnett Marques Brum (Head of SAS), Pedrina Terra dos Santos, Michael Sulzer, Shikha Raizada, Jens Lautenbach, Selvaraj Dharmalingam, and Sukanta Sau.
Arecibo Observatory used to Detect Topside Descending Layers in the Upper Atmosphere for the First Time
A new study into previously-acquired Arecibo data led by Dr. Selvaraj Dharmalingam has revealed topside descending layers in the upper atmosphere for the first time. Although such layers had been seen at altitudes in our atmosphere below 170 km, studies had typically not investigated their potential presence at higher altitudes. These layers are formed by the accumulation of ions, and the layers observed below 170 km are likely connected to the new ones detected above.
The study of this region in our atmosphere is important because the “E layer”, or the electrified layer, affects communication signals. These results suggest that the very large “sporadic layer” observed below 170 km is not as locally formed, since they appear to be connected with the layer above. In data collected in 2014, the layer extended as high as 600 km above the Earth’s surface, whereas in 2019 it did not reach past 400 km. This may be directly caused by the solar maximum that occurred in 2014.
The results of this work are under review and will be published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics.
PRISMA: Puerto Rican Initiative for Studies using Meteor Radar
The PRISMA meteor radar has been in operation at the Caribbean Climate Open Research and Education (CCORE) center (unit 2) on the island of Culebra, Puerto Rico since February 2023.
PRISMA is a Skiymet All-Sky VHF that detects radio scatter from the ionised trails of individual meteors drifting with the winds of the upper mesosphere, mesopause and lower thermosphere. It operates at 40.92 MHz in a monostatic mode. The meteor trails are illuminated by one two-element Yagi antenna directed toward the zenith with the transmitted power average of approximately 170W from a 13.3-microsecond pulse length, 6 kW peak envelope power, and 466-microsecond inter-pulse period. The backscattered signals from meteor trails are received by five two-element Yagi antennas oriented along two orthogonal baselines.
PRISMA’s goals involve (1) determining the meteor’s climatology in Puerto Rico vicinities; (2) determining meteor flux properties; and (3) aiding research in planetary, meteor, and atmospheric sciences. PRISMA will also evaluate the potential of using meteor radar to study space debris, providing new tools to support the space environment’s protection.
PRISMA is funded by the Advance Research Grants Program from Puerto Rico Science, Technology & Research Trust.
Publications
Dale C. Ferguson, James K. Breakall, Paul A. Bernhardt, Felix Fernandez, Christiano Brum, Alfredo III Santoni-Ruiz, Robert B. Kerr and Robert L. Williams II (2022) "A Preliminary Plan to Quickly Restore Utility to the Arecibo 305m Telescope". Journal of Astronomical Instrumentation. https://doi.org/10.1142/S225117172250012X (Published: 24 July 2022)
Baumann, C., Kero, A.,Raizada, S., Rapp, M.,Sulzer, M. P., Verronen, P. T., and Vierinen, J. (2022) Arecibo measurements of D-region electron densities during sunset and sunrise: implications for atmospheric composition, Ann. Geophys., 40, 519–530, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-40-519-2022. (Published: 02 Aug 2022).
Bakhmetieva, Nataliya V., and Gennadiy I. Grigoriev. (2022) "Study of the Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere by the Method of Creating Artificial Periodic Irregularities of the Ionospheric Plasma" Atmosphere 13, no. 9: 1346. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13091346 (Published: 24 August 2022)
Santos, A. M.,Brum, C. G. M., Batista, I. S., Sobral, J. H. A., Abdu, M. A., Souza, J. R., et al. (2022). Anomalous responses of the F2 layer over the Brazilian equatorial sector during a counter electrojet event: A case study. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 127, e2022JA030584. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022JA030584. (Published: 09 August 2022)
Pignalberi, Alessio, Michael Pezzopane, Igino Coco, Mirko Piersanti, Fabio Giannattasio, Paola De Michelis, Roberta Tozzi, and Giuseppe Consolini (2022). "Inter-Calibration and Statistical Validation of Topside Ionosphere Electron Density Observations Made by CSES-01 Mission" Remote Sensing 14, no. 18: 4679. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14184679 (Published: 19 September 2022)
Yanlin Li, Qihou Zhou, Julio Urbina, Tai-Yin Huang (2022) “Sporadic micro-meteoroid source radiant distribution inferred from the Arecibo 430 MHz radar observations”, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 515, Issue 2, September 2022, Pages 2088–2098, https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac1921 (Published: September 2022)
Henderson, B. S., Sultan, P. J., Sulzer, M. P., & Levine, E. V. (2022). High-resolution observation of heater-induced daytime plasma fluctuations at Arecibo. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 127, e2022JA030699. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022JA030699 (Published: 16 November 2022)
P K Manoharan, Phil Perillat, C J Salter, Tapasi Ghosh, Shikha Raizada, Ryan S Lynch, Amber Bonsall-Pisano, B C Joshi, Anish Roshi, Christiano Brum, Arun Venkataraman (2022) "Probing the Plasma Tail of Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov". The Planetary Science Journal, Volume 3, Issue 12, id.266, 12 pp. https://doi.org/10.3847/PSJ/aca09f (Published: 03 December 2022)
M. Santos, C. G. M. Brum, I. S. Batista, J. H. A. Sobral; M. A. Abdu, J. R. Souza, R. de Jesus (2022) "Ionospheric variability over Brazilian equatorial region during the minima solar cycles 1996 and 2009: comparison between observational data and the IRI model" MDPI-atmosphere. (Published: 31 December 2022)
Selvaraj, D., Sulzer, M. P., Zhang, S.-R., & Brum, C. G. M. (2023). Long-term trends in the upper atmosphere using the incoherent scatter radar observations over Arecibo. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 128, e2022JA031049. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022JA031049 (Published: 13 February 2023)
Sousa Santos, J.; Socola, J. G.; Rodrigues, F. S.; Eastes, R. W.; Brum C. G. M.; and P. Terra (2022) " Severe L-band scintillation over low-to-mid latitudes caused by an extreme equatorial plasma bubble: joint observations from ground-based monitors and GOLD". Earth, Planets and Space Journal. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40623-023-01797-5 (Published: 21 March 2023)
Salih Mehmed Bostan, Julio V. Urbina, John D. Mathews, Ross L. Dinsmore, Robert M. Robinson (2023) Multi-instrument study of a spread-F event at Arecibo linked to solar wind variations, Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics, Volume 249, 106099, ISSN 1364-6826, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jastp.2023.106099. (Published: August 2023)
Haldoupis, C., Haralambous, H., Meek, C., & Mathews, J. D. (2023). Understanding the diurnal cycle of midlatitude sporadic E. The role of metal atoms. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 128, e2023JA031336.https://doi.org/10.1029/2023JA031336(Published: March 2023)
Isaac Wright; Fabiano Rodrigues; Josemaria Gomez Socola; Alison Moraes; Joao Francisco Galera Monico; Jan Sojka; Ludger Scherliess; Dan Layne; Igo Paulino; Ricardo Arlen Buriti;Christiano Garnett Marques Brum; Pedrina Terra; Kshitija Deshpank; Pralay Vaggu; Phil Erickson; Nathaniel Frissell; Jonathan Makela; Danny Scipion (2023) "On the detection of a solar radio burst event occurred on 28 August 2022 by an array of low-cost GNSS-based ionospheric scintillation monitors distributed over the American sector", Earth, Planets and Space. (Submitted on 24/05/2023)
Isham B, Bullett T, Gustavsson B, Polisensky E,Brum C, Fallen C, Belyey V, Parra-Rojas F, Norouzi L, Stramkals A and Ökten MB (2023) “Science goals for a high-frequency radar and radio imaging array”. Front. Astron. Space Sci. doi: 10.3389/fspas.2023.1064368. (Published: August 2023)
Non-refereed publications
S. Raizada; C. G. M. Brum; J. Urbina; B. Isham; J. D. Mathews; M. Sulzer; J. Lautenbach; E. Nossa ; J. Selvaraj; P. Santos; S. Sau; and J. Breakall (2022) "Characterizing the variability and structures in the coupled/complex ionosphere-atmosphere system". NASEM Decadal Survey for Solar and Space Physics (Heliophysics) 2024-2033.
Periasamy K. Manoharan; Christopher J. Salter; Christiano M. Brum; Stephen M. White; Phil Perillat; Alfredo Santoni; Felix Fernandez; Tapasi Ghosh; Benetge Perera; and Arun Venkataraman (2022) "Regular Solar Radio Imaging at Arecibo: Space Weather Perspective of Evolution of Active Regions". NASEM Decadal Survey for Solar and Space Physics (Heliophysics) 2024-2033.
Brett Isham, Christiano Brum, Jason Koo (2022) "Design Concepts For a New Arecibo Radar And Radio Telescope". NASEM Decadal Survey for Solar and Space Physics (Heliophysics) 2024-2033.
Brett Isham, Christiano Brum, Jason Koo (2022) "Science Goals For a New Arecibo Observatory". NASEM Decadal Survey for Solar and Space Physics (Heliophysics) 2024-2033.
Xinzhao Chu; Guotao Yang; Zhibn Yu; Chester S. Gardner; Sharon L. Vadas; and Shikha Raizada (2022) "Future Lidars for Cutting-Edge Sciences in the ITM Physics and Space-Atmosphere Coupling". NASEM Decadal Survey for Solar and Space Physics (Heliophysics) 2024-2033.
Anthony van Eyken; John Kelly; Eric Donovan (2022) "A Well Managed Planet?". NASEM Decadal Survey for Solar and Space Physics (Heliophysics) 2024-2033.
Anish Roshi, N. Aponte, E. Araya, H. Arce, L. A. Baker, W. Baan, T. M. Becker, J. K. Breakall, R. G. Brown, C. G. M. Brum, M. Busch, D. B. Campbell, T. Cohen, F. Cordova, J. S. Deneva, M. Devogèle, T. Dolch, F. O. Fernandez-Rodriguez, T. Ghosh, P. F. Goldsmith, L. Gurvits, M. Haynes, C. Heiles, D. Hickson, B. Isham, R. B. Kerr, J. Kelly, J. J. Kiriazes, S. Kumar, J. Lautenbach, M. Lebron, N. Lewandowska, L. Magnani, P. K. Manoharan, S. E. Marshall, A. K. McGilvray, A. Mendez, R. Minchin, V. Negron, M. C. Nolan, L. Olmi, F. Paganelli, N. T. Palliyaguru, C. A. Pantoja, Z. Paragi, S. C. Parshley, J. E. G. Peek, B. B. P. Perera, P. Perillat, N. Pinilla-Alonso, L. Quintero, H. Radovan, S. Raizada, T. Robishaw, M. Route, C. J. Salter, A. Santoni, P. Santos, S. Sau, D. Selvaraj, A. J. Smith, M. Sulzer, S. Vaddi, F. Vargas, F. C. F. Venditti, A. Venkataraman, A. K. Virkki, A. Vishwas, S. Weinreb, , D. Werthimer, A. Wolszczan, and L. F. Zambrano-Marin. (2022) “The Next Generation Arecibo Telescope (NGAT)”. NASEM Decadal Survey for Solar and Space Physics (Heliophysics) 2024-2033.
Periasamy K. Manoharan, Christopher J. Salter, Christiano M. Brum, Stephen M. White, Phil Perillat, Alfredo Santoni, Felix Fernandez, Tapasi Ghosh, Benetge Perera, Arun Venkataraman (2022)"Regular Solar Radio Imaging at Arecibo: Space Weather Perspective of Evolution of Active Regions" Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2211.04472 (Submitted on 7 Nov 2022)
Manoharan, P. K., Salter, C., Brum, C. G. M., White, S., Perillat, P., Santoni, A., Venkataraman, A. (2023). Regular Solar Radio Imaging at Arecibo: Space Weather Perspective of Evolution of Active Regions. Bulletin of the AAS, 55(2). Retrieved from https://baas.aas.org/pub/2023n2i226p05 (Published: January 31, 2023)
Mitchell Larscheid and Jens Lautenbach "Aircraft and cloud detection software for autonomous observation system operation", Proc. SPIE 12428, Photonic Instrumentation Engineering X, 1242815 (8 March 2023); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2651200
Periasamy K. Manoharan, Christopher J. Salter, Stephen M. White, Phil Perillat, Zelix Fernandez, Ben Perera, Arun Venkataraman and Christiano Brum (2023) "Solar Radio Imaging at Arecibo: The Brightness Temperature and Magnetic Field of Active Regions". Solar Physics (Published: 21/06/2023)
Meetings
EGU General Assembly 2023
Li, Yanlin ; Huang, Tai-Yin ; Urbina, Julio ; Vargas, Fabio ; Feng, Wuhu (2023) On the Correlation between the sodium in the MLT and meteor radiant distribution. EGU23, the 25th EGU General Assembly, held 23-28 April, 2023 in Vienna, Austria and Online. Online at https://egu23.eu/, id. EGU-4415
The 103rd American Metereological Society (AMS) Annual Meeting, 8 to 12 January, 2023 (Denver, Colorado)
Robert B. Kerr, Michael A. MIgliozzi, Juanita Riccobono, Sudha Kapali, Jonas R. Souza,Pedrina T. Terra, Christiano Gartnett Marques Brum, Christian Cortes, Carlos Perez, Jeffrey Baumgardner, and John Noto (2023) “A New Meridional Chain of Fabry-Perot Interferometers for Measurements of Thermospheric winds and Temperatures”. The 103rd AMS Annual Meeting, 8 to 12 January, 2023 (Denver, Colorado)
AGU Fall Meeting 2022, Chicago, IL & Online Everywhere (12-16 December 2022)
Alexander Molina (2022)"Intense Flare of the current Solar Cycle and Its Coronal Mass Ejection between the Sun and Earth". AGU Fall Meeting 2022, Chicago, IL , (12-16 December).
Angela Santos,Christiano Garnett Marques Brum, Inez Staciarini Batista, Jose H A Sobral, Mangalathayil Ali Abdu, Jonas Rodrigues de Souza, Rodolfo de Jesus (2022) "Behavior of foF2 and hmF2 parameters over São Luís, a Brazilian equatorial station during the minimum solar cycles 22/23 and 23/24". AGU Fall Meeting 2022, Chicago, IL , (12-16 December).
Anthea Coster, William E Rideout, Nestor Aponte, Susan Skone, Donald L Hampton, Brenna Royersmith, Conrad Meyer-Reed and P. T. Jayachandran (2022) "Utility of Open-Access Scintillation Data: Review of 2022 Space Weather Events in the NSF CEDAR Madrigal Database". AGU Fall Meeting 2022, Chicago, IL , (12-16 December).
Binghui Wang, Erhan Kudeki, Yulun Wu and Shiyi Yang (2022) "Topside F-Region ionospheric parameters Inferred from Arecibo ISR using 500 μs and 1000 μs Long Pulses". AGU Fall Meeting 2022, Chicago, IL , (12-16 December)
Christiano Garnett Marques Brum, Pedrina T Terra, Robert Kerr, Angela Santos,Juanita Riccobono, Michael A Migliozzi, Sudha Kapali,Raul Garcia, Carlos Perez, Christian Cortes and Sukanta Sau (2022) "Impacts of Tropospheric Extreme Weather Systems on The Upper Atmosphere Based on Red Line Airglow Emission Data". AGU Fall Meeting 2022, Chicago, IL , (12-16 December).
Eliana Nossa, Jonathan Krall, Kate Zawdie, Joseph D Huba, and Douglas Patrick Drob (2022) "In the Search or the Origin of the Mid-latitude Lower E Region Layers". AGU Fall Meeting 2022, Chicago, IL , (12-16 December).
Md Nazmus Sakib, Emmaris Soto, Erdal Yiğit, J. Scott Evans and Robert Meier (2022) "Comparison of Modeled and Measured Electron Density Profiles in the E-region at Low Solar Activity". AGU Fall Meeting 2022, Chicago, IL , (12-16 December).
Michael Pezzopane, Alessio Pignalberi, Igino Coco, Mirko Piersanti, Fabio Giannattasio, Paola De Michelis, Roberta Tozzi and Giuseppe Consolini (2022) "Inter-Calibration and Statistical Validation of Topside Ionosphere Electron Density Observations made by CSES-01 Mission". AGU Fall Meeting 2022, Chicago, IL , (12-16 December).
Morris Cohen,Pedrina T Terra, Christiano Garnett Marques Brum, Jens Lautenbachand Julio V Urbina (2022) “Detecting Hurricane-Driven Disturbances to the D-Region at Arecibo, PR”. AGU Fall Meeting 2022, Chicago, IL , (12-16 December).
Philip John Erickson, Anthea Coster, Roger H Varney, Joshua L Semeter, William E Rideout,Shikha Raizada, Asti Bhatt, Pablo M Reyes and John Swoboda (2022) "An Interactive, Intensive Training Opportunity for Fundamental Remote Sensing of Earth’s Upper Atmosphere". AGU Fall Meeting 2022, Chicago, IL , (12-16 December).
Robert B Kerr, Sudha Kapali, Juanita Riccobono, Michael A Migliozzi, Jonas Rodrigues de Souza,Christiano Garnett Marques Brum, Pedrina Terra, Christian Cortes, Carlos PerezandRaul Garcia (2022) "Vertical Winds in the Midlatitude F-region Ionosphere: Measurement Technique, Validation, Seasonal and Solar cycle variability". AGU Fall Meeting 2022, Chicago, IL , (12-16 December).
Selvaraj Dharmalingam, Mani Sivakandan andMichael P Sulzer(2022) "Layering Processes of Ionospheric Descending Layers over Arecibo". AGU Fall Meeting 2022, Chicago, IL , (12-16 December).
Selvaraj Dharmalingam, Christopher Gary Kruse,Christiano Garnett Marques Brum, Shashwat Sourav (2022) "The Impact of Hurricane-Maria Generated Gravity Waves on Structure and Dynamics of the UTLS". AGU Fall Meeting 2022, Chicago, IL , (12-16 December).
Shikha Raizada, Toshi Nishimura,Mike SulzerandNestor Aponte (2022) "Investigation of enhanced E-region activity and intermediate meteoric ion layers over Arecibo". AGU Fall Meeting 2022, Chicago, IL , (12-16 December).
Shiyi Yang, Erhan Kudeki, Binghui Wang and Yulun Wu (2022) "Full Profile Fitting the Plasma Line Spectra Estimated with Arecibo ULP Returns Detected with the Wideband USRP Receiver". AGU Fall Meeting 2022, Chicago, IL , (12-16 December).
Sukanta Sau, Pedrina T TerraandChristiano Garnett Marques Brum (2022) "Climatology and Long Term Trends in the MLT Region Rotational Temperatures Obtained by the Arecibo Observatory Ebert-Fastie Spectrometer". AGU Fall Meeting 2022, Chicago, IL , (12-16 December).
10th Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) Open Science Conference 2022 (Sep. 1-10)
Emilia Correia, Eduardo Perez Macho, Juliano Moro,Christiano Brum, José Henrique Fernandez, José Valentin Bageston and Adriana Gulisano (2022) "Characterization of the ionosphere response in the South America sector to the March 30 2022 solar event". 10th SCAR Open Science Conference, 1 to September 10, virtual
11th International Aerosol Conference to be held on September 4th-9th, 2022
Jens Lautenbach, Pedrina Terra, and Josef Höffner (2022) “Culebra Aerosol Research Lidar Project, Description and First Results”, submitted to 11th International Aerosol Conference to be held on September 4th-9th, 2022
International Beacon Satellite Symposium Boston College, USA, 1-5 August 2022
Emilia Correia, Eduardo Perez Macho, Juliano Moro,Christiano Brum, José Henrique Fernandez and José Valentin Bageston (2022) “Ionosphere response to the solar event of 30 March 2022”21st International Beacon Satellite Symposium Boston College, USA, 1-5 August 2022.
44th Scientific Assembly, COSPAR 2022, Athens, Greece, virtual and in-person. (16-24 July)
Marques Garnett Brum, Christiano;Santos, Pedrina; Riccobono, Juanita ; Migliozzi, Michael ;Garcia, Raul; Santos, Ângela ; Kerr, Robert B. ; Kapali, Sudha ;Perez, Carlos;Cortes, Christian (2022) "Impacts of Tropospheric Extreme Weather Systems on The Upper Atmosphere Based on Fabry-Perot Interferometer Red Line Airglow Emission Data." 44th COSPAR Scientific Assembly. Held 16-24 July, 2022. Online at https://www.cosparathens2022.org/. Abstract C1.1-0018-22.
A. M. Santos;C. G. M. Brum; I. S. Batista; J.H.A. Sobral; M. A. Abdu; J. R. Souza and R. de Jesus (2022). "Climatology of the Brazilian equatorial ionosphere during the solar minimums of 1996 and 2009". 44th COSPAR Scientific Assembly. Held 16-24 July, 2022. Online at https://www.cosparathens2022.org/. Abstract C1.1-0055-22.
Manoharan, Periasamy K.;Perillat, Phil(2022) "Arecibo Radio Telescope - Remote Sensing of the Inner Heliosphere" 44th COSPAR Scientific Assembly. Held 16-24 July, 2022. Online at https://www.cosparathens2022.org/. Abstract PSW.5-0005-22.
Santos, Pedrina;Marques Garnett Brum, Christiano; Cohen, Morris (2022) "Variability of the Atmosphere-Ionosphere observed at Arecibo during the passage of the major Hurricane Maria." 44th COSPAR Scientific Assembly. Held 16-24 July, 2022. Online at https://www.cosparathens2022.org/. Abstract C1.1-0054-22.
Brett Isham,Christiano Brum, Jan Bergman, Vasyl Belyey, Bjorn Gustavsson, Emil Polisensky, Gebreab Zewdie, Arturs Stramkals, Terence Bullett (2022) "An HF Receiving Array for Radio Imaging of Stimulated Electromagnetic Emissions and Radar Imaging of the Ionosphere". 44th COSPAR Scientific Assembly. Held 16-24 July, 2022. Online at https://www.cosparathens2022.org/. Abstract C5.1-0003-22.
Grach, Savely (2022) "Phenomena in the HF-pumped F-region of the ionosphere: resuts of the last decade." 44th COSPAR Scientific Assembly. Held 16-24 July, 2022. Online at https://www.cosparathens2022.org/. Abstract C5.1-0001-22.
Truhlik, Vladimir ; Bilitza, Dieter ; Kotov, Dmytro ; Triskova, Ludmila ; Reznychenko, Maryna (2022) "A new global empirical model of the ion temperature for the topside ionosphere and comparison with ISR data". 44th COSPAR Scientific Assembly. Held 16-24 July, 2022. Online at https://www.cosparathens2022.org/. Abstract C4.1-0013-22.
8th IAGA/ICMA/SCOSTEP Workshop on Vertical Coupling in the Atmosphere-Ionosphere, Hungary on July
Angela M Santos, Inez s Batista, José h a Sobral,Christiano G M Brum, Mangalathayil A Abdu, Jonas R Souza (2022) “Dynamics of the intermediate descending layers over the Brazilian sector during periods of maximum and minimum solar activity”.8th IAGA/ICMA/SCOSTEP Workshop on Vertical Coupling in the Atmosphere-Ionosphere, Hungary on July 11-15.