The Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation (HamSCI) Workshop; Scranton, Pennsylvania; March 17-18, 2023

University Of Scranton, Scranton PA

Investigators

Abstract

This award provides support to the Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation (HamSCI) workshop to be held at the University of Scranton March 17-18, 2023. The HamSCI workshop is an annual workshop that aims to bring together members of the amateur radio and professional radio space science communities for mutual benefit. This workshop series has led to cutting-edge work in the fields of space physics, citizen science, and the use of crowd-sourced ionospheric data. The 2023 HamSCI Workshop will feature prominent leaders in radio science, space science, and space weather. The 2023 HamSCI workshop is particularly important and timely, as both the professional science and amateur radio communities are preparing for the upcoming 14 October 2023 annular solar eclipse and the 8 October 2024 total solar eclipse. Both eclipses have paths that sweep across the continental United States (CONUS). These are the last solar eclipses to traverse the CONUS until 2044, and are therefore important, time-sensitive, information-rich opportunities for running unique and “controlled” ionospheric experiments. This meeting will also serve as a bi-annual development meeting of the HamSCI Personal Space Weather Station (PSWS), a project funded through the NSF Aeronomy Distributed Array of Small Instruments (DASI) program. During this two-day workshop, professionals and amateurs come together to give oral and poster presentations, equipment demonstrations, and have informal discussions and networking related to both amateur radio and applicable scientific fields. The workshop topics include the use of amateur radio techniques for observing and understanding the physics behind traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs), Sporadic E, the ionospheric response to solar flares and geomagnetic storms, and space weather effects on radio wave propagation. An attendance on the order of 100 people in person and up to 500 virtual participants is expected. This will be a hybrid workshop with free interactive Zoom participation and live streaming by the Ham Radio 2.0 YouTube channel to ensure broadest accessibility. All presentations will be archived on YouTube and made available through hamsci.org. 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.