SSUSI Bibliography

Progress toward forecasting of space weather effects on UHF SATCOM after Operation Anaconda

Space weather impacts on communications are often presented as a\ raison d\textquoterightetre\ for studying space weather (e.g., Solar and Space Physics: A Science for a Technological Society, 2013). Here we consider a communications outage during Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan that may have been related to ionospheric disturbances. Early military operations occurred during the peak of solar cycle 23 when ionospheric variability was enhanced. During Operation Anaconda, the Battle of Takur Ghar occurred at the summit of a 3191 m Afghan mountaintop on 4 March 2002 when the ionosphere was disturbed and could have affected UHF Satellite Communications (SATCOM). In this paper, we consider UHF SATCOM outages that occurred during repeated attempts to notify a Quick Reaction Force (QRF) on board an MH-47H Chinook to avoid a \textquotedbllefthot\textquotedblright landing zone at the top of Takur Ghar. During a subsequent analysis of Operation Anaconda, these outages were attributed to poor performance of the UHF radios on the helicopters and to blockage by terrain. However, it is also possible that ionospheric anomalies together with multipath effects could have combined to decrease the signal-to-noise ratio of the communication links used by the QRF. A forensics study of Takur Ghar with data from the Global Ultraviolet Imager on the NASA Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics mission showed the presence of ionospheric bubbles (regions of depleted electron density) along the line of sight between the Chinook and the UHF communications satellites in geostationary orbit that could have impacted communications. The events of 4 March 2002 motivated us to develop the Mesoscale Ionospheric Simulation Testbed model, which can be used to improve warnings of potential UHF outages during future military operations.

Kelly, Michael; Comberiate, Joseph; Miller, Ethan; Paxton, Larry;

Published by: Space Weather      Published on: 10/2014

YEAR: 2014     DOI: 10.1002/2014SW001081

Ionosphere; scintillation; UHF SATCOM

The Mesoscale Ionospheric Simulation Testbed (MIST) Regional Data Assimilation Model

The Mesoscale Ionospheric Simulation Testbed (MIST) provides a regional nowcast and forecast of electron density values and has sufficient resolution to include equatorial plasma bubbles. The SSUSI instrument on the DMSP F18 satellite has high-resolution nightly observations of plasma bubbles at 8 PM local time throughout the current solar maximum. MIST can assimilate SSUSI UV observations, GPS TEC measurements, and SCINDA S4 readings simultaneously into a single scintillation map over a region of interest. MIST also models ionospheric physics to provide a short-term UHF scintillation forecast based on assimilated data. We will present examples of electron density and scintillation maps from MIST. We will also discuss the potential to predict scintillation occurrence up to 6 hours in advance using observations of the equatorial arcs from SSUSI observations at 5:30 PM local time on the DMSP F17 satellite.

Comberiate, J; Kelly, MA; Miller, E; Paxton, L;

Published by:       Published on:

YEAR: 2013     DOI:

Multi-Instrument Observations at High Latitudes

Miller, E; Paxton, L; Schaefer, RK; Weiss, M; Wolven, BC; Zhang, Y;

Published by:       Published on:

YEAR: 2013     DOI:

SSUSI: A Newly Available Resource for the Upper Atmosphere Community to Study the Global Response of the Coupled Ionosphere Thermosphere System

The Global Ultraviolet Imager (GUVI) on TIMED was actually the 7th wide field of regard instrument built by APL. Five SSUSI instruments were built by APL and delivered, calibrated and ready for flight between 1994 and 1996. Another instrument, the Near Infrared Spectrograph was flown on the NASA NEAR mission using the SSUSI optical design. The first SSUSI flight was in 2003 on the DMSP F16 spacecraft. Two others have flown since then on DMSP F17 and F18. Two more await flight with the next slated for a Spring 2014 launch on DMSP F19. Recently, the SSUSI data have been made publicly releasable so they are, in principle, available to the research community. However, there are no funds to actually provide access to these products. We are working with various partners to provide a venue to access to the many products we routinely produce. SSUSI provides data products that both monitor the state of the auroral regions and yields a detailed picture of the ionosphere. SSUSI gives us the ability to observe the dynamics of these systems during storm and quiet periods throughout an entire solar cycle. The near polar orbit of the DMSP satellite provided excellent coverage of the auroral oval during solar minimum. During storm times, the high inclination orbit allows us to track the progress of the storm with 30 minute revisit time. In this presentation, we will also discuss the ability of SSUSI to image ionospheric dynamics and provide 3D images of the ionosphere. These data, when combined with assimilative data techniques provides a powerful new capability for examining the small and large scale structure of the ionosphere in a way that is not accessible to either GOLD or ICON.

Paxton, L.; Schaefer, R.~K.; Weiss, M.; Wolven, B.~C.; Zhang, Y.; Miller, E.; Bust, G.~S.; Romeo, G.;

Published by: AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts      Published on:

YEAR: 2013     DOI:

0355 ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE Thermosphere: composition and chemistry; 2407 IONOSPHERE Auroral ionosphere; 2415 IONOSPHERE Equatorial ionosphere; 7954 SPACE WEATHER Magnetic storms

Coordinated Ground-and Space-based 3-D Electron Density Reconstruction and Plasma Bubble Imaging

Comberiate, J; Miller, ES; Paxton, LJ; Makela, JJ; Kelley, MC;

Published by:       Published on:

YEAR: 2009     DOI:

Space-and Ground-Based Observations of Solar Cycle and Local Time Dependence of Equatorial Plasma Bubble Activity

Miller, ES; Comberiate, J; Makela, JJ; Paxton, LJ; Kelley, MC; Groves, KM; Tsunoda, RT;

Published by:       Published on:

YEAR: 2009     DOI: