Citizen Radio Science: An Analysis of Amateur Radio Transmissions With e‐POP RRI

Abstract

We report the results of a radio science experiment involving citizen scientists conducted on 28 June 2015, in which the Radio Receiver Instrument (RRI) on the Enhanced Polar Outflow Probe (e‐POP) tuned in to the 40‐ and 80‐m ham radio bands during the 2015 American Radio Relay League Field Day. We have aurally decoded the Morse coded call signs of 14 hams (amateur operators) from RRI's data to help ascertain their locations during the experiment. Through careful analysis of the hams' transmissions, and with the aid of ray tracing tools, we have identified two notable magnetoionic effects in the received signals: plasma cutoff and single‐mode fading. The signature of the former effect appeared approximately 30 s into the experiment, with the sudden cessation of signals received by RRI despite measurements from a network of ground‐based receivers showing that the hams' transmissions were unabated throughout the experiment. The latter effect, single‐mode fading, was detected as a double‐peak modulation on the individual dots and dashes of one of the ham's Morse coded transmissions. We show that the modulation in the ham's signal agrees with expected fading rate for single‐mode fading. The results of this experiment demonstrate that ham radio transmissions are a valuable tool for studying radio wave propagation and remotely sensing the ionosphere. The analysis and results provide a basis for future collaborations in radio science between traditional researchers in the academia and industry, and citizen scientists in which novel and compelling experiments can be performed.

Modeling and Validating a SuperDARN Radar's Poynting Flux Profile

“…Little is known about the stability of the transmitting beam under more disturbed geomagnetic conditions or more regular events such as when the day/night terminator intersects with the beam, or how such perturbations might influence the data. At polar latitudes, there is strong evidence that the transmitting beam undergoes significant deviations (Perry et al., 2016), which is consistent with other radio experiments in the polar region (Warrington et al., 1997). In both cases, large scale plasma density irregularities, also known as polar‐cap patches, were identified as the likely cause of the deviations.…”

“…Observations of these deflections were reported by Perry et al. (2016) and Warrington et al. (1997).…”

“…This work is a first step toward gaining new insight into Perry et al. (2016)’s observations and using RRI to gain new insight into the effects of ionospheric irregularities at high‐latitudes and their effects on HF radio wave propagation.…”

ScintPi: A Low‐Cost, Easy‐to‐Build GPS Ionospheric Scintillation Monitor for DASI Studies of Space Weather, Education, and Citizen Science Initiatives

“…These users could build copies of the system and collaborate with professional scientists in the acquisition and analyses of the observations. Such an initiative would follow the success and lessons learned from previous efforts in space weather using different types of instruments and observables (Barnard et al, ; Frissell et al, ; Knipp, ; Kosar et al, ; MacDonald et al, ; Perry et al, ).…”

“…In recent years, however, it has become more recognized that distributed arrays of small instruments (DASI) can provide new information and help advance understanding about the state of the space environment near Earth (e.g., Coupling, Energetics and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions, ; National Research Council, ). Additionally, recent studies have shown the benefit of crowdsourcing and engagement of citizen scientists in studies of the space environment (Barnard et al, ; Frissell et al, ; Knipp, ; Kosar et al, ; MacDonald et al, ; Perry et al, ). These trends motivate the study of new, low‐cost instruments capable of providing useful observations.…”