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The Platteville Atmospheric Observatory located near Platteville, Colorado was one of the first major ionospheric heaters in the world. Operating from 1968 through 1984, it expanded knowledge of ionospheric processes greatly. The observatory continues operation, but now focuses on wind profiling. The first studies were made of HF heater induced airglow, heater-induced spread F, wide band heater-induced absorption, and heater created field-aligned ionization.
The ionosphere is the ionized part of Earth's upper atmosphere, from about 48 km (30 mi) to 965 km (600 mi) altitude, a region that includes the thermosphere and parts of the mesosphere and exosphere. The ionosphere is ionized by solar radiation. It plays an important role in atmospheric electricity and forms the inner edge of the magnetosphere. It has practical importance because, among other functions, it influences radio propagation to distant places on the Earth.
The Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) is a research organization at the University of Colorado Boulder. LASP is a research institute with over one hundred research scientists ranging in fields from solar influences, to Earth's and other planetary atmospherics processes, space weather, space plasma and dusty plasma physics. LASP has advanced technical capabilities specializing in designing, building, and operating spacecraft and spacecraft instruments.
The High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) was initiated as an ionospheric research program jointly funded by the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Navy, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). It was designed and built by BAE Advanced Technologies. Its original purpose was to analyze the ionosphere and investigate the potential for developing ionospheric enhancement technology for radio communications and surveillance. As a university-owned facility, HAARP is a high-power, high-frequency transmitter used for study of the ionosphere.
Platteville is a Statutory Town in Weld County, Colorado, United States. The population was 2,485 at the 2010 census. It is adjacent to Fort Vasquez on U.S. Highway 85.
Space weather is a branch of space physics and aeronomy, or heliophysics, concerned with the time varying conditions within the Solar System, including the solar wind, emphasizing the space surrounding the Earth, including conditions in the magnetosphere, ionosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere. Space weather is distinct from but conceptually related to the terrestrial weather of the atmosphere of Earth. The term space weather was first used in the 1950s and came into common usage in the 1990s.
A geomagnetic storm is a temporary disturbance of the Earth's magnetosphere caused by a solar wind shock wave and/or cloud of magnetic field that interacts with the Earth's magnetic field.
The Arecibo Observatory, also known as the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC) and formerly known as the Arecibo Ionosphere Observatory, is an observatory in Barrio Esperanza, Arecibo, Puerto Rico owned by the US National Science Foundation (NSF).
The HIPASObservatory was a research facility, built to study the ionosphere and its influence on radio communications. It was located 25 miles east of Fairbanks, Alaska in the Fairbanks North Star Borough area.
Airglow is a faint emission of light by a planetary atmosphere. In the case of Earth's atmosphere, this optical phenomenon causes the night sky never to be completely dark, even after the effects of starlight and diffused sunlight from the far side are removed. This phenomena originates with self illuminated gases and it has no relationship with Earth's magnetism and sun spot activity.
William Edwin Gordon was an electrical engineer, physicist and astronomer. He was referred to as the "father of the Arecibo Observatory".
The Sura Ionospheric Heating Facility, located near the small town of Vasilsursk about 100 km eastward from Nizhniy Novgorod in Russia, is a laboratory for ionosphere research . Sura is capable of radiating about 80 megawatts at 4.3 MHz, increasing to 260 megawatts at 9.5 MHz. The facility is operated by the radiophysical research institute NIRFI in Nizhny Novgorod. The Sura facility was commissioned in 1981. Using this facility, Russian researchers studied the behaviour of the ionosphere and the effect of generation of low-frequency emission on modulation of ionosphere current. In the beginning, the Soviet Defense Department mostly footed the bill. The American HAARP ionospheric heater, whose operation began in 1993, is similar to the Sura facility.
The La Posta Astro-Geophysical Observatory was a 60-foot-diameter (18 m) Navy Electronics Laboratory radio-telescope installation at Campo, CA.
Sixto A. González was the Director of the Arecibo Observatory from September 29, 2003 to September 15, 2006. Arecibo Observatory was an astronomical observatory located in Puerto Rico. At the time of González's directorship Arecibo was the world's largest single dish radio telescope. González was the first Puerto Rican in the position of Director of the observatory.
Carr is an unincorporated community and U.S. Post Office in Weld County, Colorado, United States. The ZIP Code of the Carr Post Office is 80612. Some consider Carr a ghost town. Today, just a few old houses remain plus the school house and a few old store fronts. Aside from that there are scattered old foundations throughout the town. There are a few year-round residents but for the most part the town is abandoned.
An ionospheric heater, or an ionospheric HF pump facility, is a powerful radio wave transmitter with an array of antennas which is used for research of plasma turbulence, the ionosphere and upper atmosphere. These transmitters operate in the high frequency (HF) range (3-30 MHz) at which radio waves are reflected from the ionosphere back to the ground. With such facilities a range of plasma turbulence phenomena can be excited in a semi-controlled fashion from the ground, during conditions when the ionosphere is naturally quiet and not perturbed by for example aurora. This stimulus-response type of research complements passive observations of naturally excited phenomena to learn about the ionosphere and upper atmosphere.
The Jicamarca Radio Observatory (JRO) is the equatorial anchor of the Western Hemisphere chain of Incoherent Scatter Radar (ISR) observatories extending from Lima, Peru to Søndre Strømfjord, Greenland. JRO is the premier scientific facility in the world for studying the equatorial ionosphere. The Observatory is about half an hour drive inland (east) from Lima and 10 km from the Central Highway. The magnetic dip angle is about 1°, and varies slightly with altitude and year. The radar can accurately determine the direction of the Earth's magnetic field (B) and can be pointed perpendicular to B at altitudes throughout the ionosphere. The study of the equatorial ionosphere is rapidly becoming a mature field due, in large part, to the contributions made by JRO in radio science.
Auburn is an unincorporated community in Weld County, Colorado, United States, five miles southeast of Downtown Greeley.
Jones City is an unincorporated community in Putnam County, in the U.S. state of Ohio.
Best Station is an exurban unincorporated community in northern Lehigh County, in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is located in Washington Township.
Explorer 31 was an American satellite launched as part of the Explorers program of NASA. Explorer 29 was launched on 29 November 1965 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, United States, with Thor Agena rocket. Explorer 31 was released along with the Canadian satellite Alouette 2.
Coordinates: 40°10′54″N104°43′30″W / 40.18167°N 104.72500°W
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