Frontier Space Physics Research at the Millstone Hill Geospace Facility

The Millstone Hill Geospace Facility is a crucial observatory for studies of the near-Earth space environment or geospace. For nearly 6 solar cycles, the Facility has been an anchor for mid-latitude and subauroral geospace research, the latitudinal region where most of the US population lives. A multitude of processes occur in this region that can have adverse effects on critical infrastructure including communication and navigation networks, power distribution networks, and pipelines. The mission of the Facility is to observe and enable scientific studies of these important space plasma processes and phenomena. The Facility currently supports several critical and unique capabilities that include the large-aperture high-power Millstone Hill incoherent scatter radar, and the Global Navigation Satellite System based total electron content analysis system for worldwide observations. The project will support ionospheric and upper atmospheric research at the frontiers of geospace science. The expected advances include (1) deeper understanding of subauroral plasma and neutral dynamics, with focus on subauroral polarization stream, storm enhanced density, ionospheric conductivity and impacts of penetration electric field on the mid-latitude and low-latitude ionosphere; (2) investigations of links between the lower and upper atmosphere during periods of anomalous stratospheric polar vortex activity; and (3) studies of multi-scale structure of traveling ionospheric disturbances. The project will also train and motivate a new generation of space and radio scientists, engineers, and technicians through focused research opportunities, community interactions, and general public outreach. The project will also maintain and operate the Madrigal Geospace data system. Finally, this project will provide a strategic resource for the development of next generation radio science technology through (1) supporting community use of software radio systems for geospace radio science instrumentation; and (2) contributing to community professional development through the Millstone Affiliates program. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.