The Incoherent Scatter Radar Summer School

The University Of Central Florida Board Of Trustees, Orlando FL

Investigators

Abstract

The Incoherent Scatter Radar (ISR) Summer School benefits society by training a workforce that will be able to collect and use ISR data, a skill currently taught at few, if any, institutions of high education. This training of a new user community increases the research output from NSF's investment in ISR facilities and contributes to the fundamental understanding of space weather in Earth’s atmosphere. this school also provides students with a background in radar theory, in learning to control and operate large radars, and an understanding of the data processing required to analyze radar data. All of this is directly transferable to other radar applications such as satellite tracking, weather radar, and satellite communications. In the school, facility PIs mentor students and establish professional relationships that extend beyond the school. Two of the core lecturing staff are female which provides important role models for students. The school often combines with the EISCAT ISR Summer School, fostering international relationships and communications. Recognizing that incoherent scatter is a very powerful technique to make precise measurements of multiple upper atmospheric parameters extending from below 100 km to above 600 km, the NSF has heavily invested in several ISR facilities. However, due to an aging workforce and a shift in the U.S. educational curriculum away from ISR theory and engineering, the next generation of trained engineers is now being produced in Europe and Asia where ISR investments continue. This project addresses the need for training ISR users and workers in the US by conducting a yearly ISR summer school with a combination of lectures and group work. The purpose of this school is to teach students how to propose and conduct an ISR experiment, and how to analyze and report the results. As has been evidenced by students from the prior decade of summer schools, these students will often incorporate ISR data into future research and thus advance overall knowledge of the upper atmosphere. Some students will delve much deeper into the topic and will become the future researchers and leaders of the field. 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.