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Aeronomy & Astrophysics
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Dr. Vladimir Papitashvili
Program Manager
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A-120-M/S
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NSF/ATM (Division of Atmospheric Sciences) 00-00315
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Station:
McMurdo Station, South Pole Station
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RPSC POC:
Charles Kaminski
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Research Site(s):
USCG Polar Star, COSRAY, SkyLab
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Dates in Antarctica:
Calibration and maintenance in January, instruments operate continuously
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Solar and heliospheric studies with antarctic cosmic rays
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Solar and heliospheric studies with antarctic cosmic rays.
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Deploying Team Members:
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Leonard Shulman
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Research Objectives:
Neutron monitors in Antarctica provide a vital three-dimensional perspective on the anisotropic flux of cosmic rays that continuously bombards the earth. At McMurdo and South Pole stations, year-round observations of cosmic rays with energies upwards of one billion electron Volts will continue. These data will be used to advance our understanding of a variety of fundamental plasma processes occurring on the Sun and in interplanetary space.
Neutron monitor records, which begin in 1960 at McMurdo and 1964 at South Pole, will play a crucial role in efforts to understand the nature and causes of cosmic-ray and solar-terrestrial variations occurring over the 11-year sunspot cycle, the 22-year Hale cycle, and even longer time scales. At the other extreme, data from South Pole and McMurdo will be analyzed in concert with data from the "Spaceship Earth" neutron monitor network to understand variations associated with solar energetic particles which occur on time scales of minutes to hours. In a new application made possible by real-time data availability, the observations will also be used for space weather forecasting and specification
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