SuperMAG: New Science Capabilities and Continued Operation

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD

Investigators

Abstract

This project seeks to (1) ensure the continued operation of SuperMAG, a worldwide collaboration between organizations and national agencies that operate more than 300 ground-based magnetometers; and (2) expand the current service to incorporate additional data, enhance the magnetic storm and substorms event lists, and produce new data products. The expansion to SuperMAG will enable the SuperMAG data holdings to be constantly updated. These updates will include adding new data, as well as additional error correcting, bug fixes, and enhanced support in the form of advice and data access. SuperMAG provides users easy access to an extensive dataset that would otherwise be prohibitively difficult to obtain and use in a meaningful way. The project will provide educational opportunities for early career scientists and students and engage high school teachers in research. SuperMag is a holding of fully processed data from 300 ground-based magnetometers worldwide. Through a user-friendly website, SuperMAG provides to the research community measurements of magnetic field perturbations from all available stations rotated in a common coordinate system, with identical time resolution and a common baseline removal approach. Continued funding of SuperMAG will enable uninterrupted support to the community for effective and efficient utilization of ground magnetometer data in research studies related to the global ionospheric current system and its coupling to the magnetosphere. For studies requiring clean observations of the magnetic effects of local currents in the magnetosphere and ionosphere system SuperMAG is very valuable. As such, SuperMAG provides a useful service to the scientific community. The ready access to magnetometer data provided by SuperMAG is not just only critical for the magnetospheric community but the general geospace community. The data provided by SuperMAG are clearly important for space weather applications. The project will provide educational opportunities for early career scientists and students and engage high school teachers in research. 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.