RAPID: Reprocessing the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Special Sensor Ions, Electrons, Scintillation (DMSP SSIES-3) Ionospheric Data to Level-2 Quality

University Of Texas At Dallas, Richardson TX

Investigators

Abstract

This RAPID award aims to continue to process, curate, and distribute plasma data from the operational DMSP spacecraft for the space science community during this critical period of 2024-2025 as we reach solar maximum. We are currently nearing the maximum of the 11-year solar cycle (with the peak expected sometime in 2025) as shown by the recent increase in the number and intensity of geomagnetic storms and activity. An example of this is the “Mother’s Day Storm” in May 2024 which was the largest geomagnetic storm to hit the Earth since 2003 resulting in auroras that were visible in most of the continental United States. These storms influence much of our civilian and military technological and infrastructure such as satellite communications, GPS, and power grid operations. The publicly available thermal plasma observations (densities, temperatures, flows, and composition from the SSIES-3 package) from the operational DMSP spacecraft were of only level 1 quality and contained large amounts of poor-quality data. Curating this database of the SSIES-3 ionospheric observations and providing it to the space science community will allow the full community to use these data in their own modeling and research efforts. These ionospheric data are necessary as inputs for numerous researchers and groups using them to develop a better understanding of the behavior and dynamics of the ionosphere. The curated data will be delivered to the U.S. NSF-funded Madrigal and NASA SPDF data centers for public distribution and use. Prior to the team’s previous work, the publicly available thermal plasma observations (ion densities, temperatures, flows, and composition from the SSIES-3 package) from the operational DMSP spacecraft (F16, F17, and F18) were of only level-1 quality and contained large amounts of poor-quality data that were not flagged as such for the end user. During the past four years, the team updated the data reduction code and reprocessed over 25 satellite-years of SSIES-3 data from 2003 onward producing a level-2 quality dataset along with quality flags on most of the parameters. These improved level-2 data were delivered to the U.S. NSF-funded Madrigal and NASA SPDF data centers for public distribution and use. This RAPID award will fill the gap in the availability of these data products during the solar maximum just when they are most critically needed by the space science research community. The team will continue to produce these data for all three spacecraft for all of 2024 and most of the 2025 period. These level-2 data will be delivered to the data centers for the space science community’s use. As time permits, the team will work backwards from 2022 to fill in some (but not all) of the gap in the data that still needs to be reprocessed. 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.