An autonomous adaptive low-power instrument platform (AAL-PIP) for remote high-latitude geospace data collection

Abstract

Abstract. We present the development considerations and design for ground-based instrumentation that is being deployed on the East Antarctic Plateau along a 40 • magnetic meridian chain to investigate interhemispheric magnetically conjugate geomagnetic coupling and other space-weatherrelated phenomena. The stations are magnetically conjugate to geomagnetic stations along the west coast of Greenland. The autonomous adaptive low-power instrument platforms being deployed in the Antarctic are designed to operate unattended in remote locations for at least 5 years. They utilize solar power and AGM storage batteries for power, two-way Iridium satellite communication for data acquisition and program/operation modification, support fluxgate and induction magnetometers as well as a dual-frequency GPS receiver and a high-frequency (HF) radio experiment. Size and weight considerations are considered to enable deployment by a small team using small aircraft. Considerable experience has been gained in the development and deployment of remote polar instrumentation that is reflected in the present generation of instrumentation discussed here. We conclude with the lessons learned from our experience in the design, deployment and operation of remote polar instrumentation.

High‐latitude GPS phase scintillation from E region electron density gradients during the 20–21 December 2015 geomagnetic storm

“…The CASES receiver at PFRR is part of an array deployed by ASTRA to span Alaska from North to South since 2012, with the purpose of monitoring high-latitude scintillation and TEC. The CASES receivers have also been used successfully for several years near South Pole Station in Antarctica [Deshpande et al, 2012;Clauer et al, 2014;Kim et al, 2014].…”

A comparison of the ground magnetic responses during the 2013 and 2015 St. Patrick's Day geomagnetic storms

“…Second, we obtain ground-based magnetometer data from multiple stations distributed globally to examine how the MI system response evolves both spatially and temporally during the CME events. High-latitude station data include Autonomous Adaptive Low-Power Instrument Platforms (AAL-PIP) from the Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Science Team (http://mist.nianet.org/index.html) [Clauer et al, 2014] and DTU Space stations (Denmark's National Space Institute, Technical University of Denmark). AAL-PIP stations on the East Antarctic Plateau lie on the same International Geomagnetic Reference Field (IGRF) as a Northern Hemisphere DTU Space station on the west coast of Greenland; these paired stations can thus be used for interhemispheric comparisons of the high-latitude ground magnetic response.…”

Conjugate observations of traveling convection vortices associated with transient events at the magnetopause

“…Data (1 s resolution) from a Canadian station in Iqaluit (IQA), which is operated by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), are also included to examine longitudinal propagation of the magnetic field perturbations shown in this study. The Antarctic stations include South Pole Station (SPA), three (P01, P03, and P05) of Automated Geophysical Observatories (AGOs) [Rosenberg and Doolittle, 1994], and three (PG1, PG2, and PG3) of newly deployed stations called Autonomous Adaptive Low-Power Instrument Platform (AAL-PIP) [Musko et al, 2009;Clauer et al, 2014]. The AAL-PIP systems are deliberately located at magnetically conjugate points paired with the Greenland west coast network.…”