{"id":1037,"date":"2020-03-26T22:31:18","date_gmt":"2020-03-26T22:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aurorasaurudev.wpengine.com\/?p=1037"},"modified":"2023-12-26T21:49:36","modified_gmt":"2023-12-26T21:49:36","slug":"notes-from-hamsci-2020-the-auroral-connection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.aurorasaurus.org\/?p=1037","title":{"rendered":"Notes from HamSci 2020: The Auroral Connection"},"content":{"rendered":"

This year\u2019s Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation (HamSCI) Workshop 2020 took place online, over Zoom and YouTube Live. In this post, we\u2019ll bring you details for how to watch the recorded presentations, summarize Aurorasaurus\u2019 contributions to the presentation lineup, and share lessons learned for getting a conference online with a short turnaround.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The HamSCI Workshop 2020 logo, courtesy HamSCI.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Connecting Communities<\/b><\/h3>\n

Citizen science thrives on community, and some of the best science comes from bringing different perspectives together to look at a concept in new ways. Both aurora and ham radio citizen scientists work closely with the Earth\u2019s atmosphere and ionosphere, but aurora folks tend to think about how what we see reveals aspects of the ionosphere, ham radio operators tend to think about what radio waves can tell us about the ionosphere. In response to tremendous interest from citizen scientists in each of these groups, we teamed up with HamSCI to bring these communities together under the theme \u201cThe Auroral Connection\u201d. As attendee Phil Dolber (ham radio code\u00a0W6WBT) wrote:<\/span><\/p>\n

Wow! Great job…. I really enjoyed being able to attend. This is my silver\u00a0<\/span>lining to this Pandemic, I would not have been able to travel to\u00a0Pennsylvania to participate. I want to get more\u00a0<\/span>involved, also keep in mind all the NASA Centers have amateur radio clubs. I will reach out to Liz on this same\u00a0<\/span>subject. I will share this with our club and reach out to the other NASA clubs about this as well.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As an organization, HamSCI works to connect scientists with citizen scientists to advance research, encourage new technologies, and create educational opportunities. In the case of aurora science, teaming up allows us to investigate both the optical and radio aspects of aurora. The HamSCI Workshop 2020 is its third annual event, which brings together citizen scientists and professional scientists\u2014the first of its kind in heliophysics! The annual HamSCI Workshop provided the perfect opportunity to introduce citizen scientists and scientists from the aurora and ham radio communities and build connections for future collaboration.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What is Ham Radio?<\/b><\/h3>\n

Amateur radio, or \u201cham radio,\u201d is a hobby for radio enthusiasts all over the globe. In short, operators use the radio frequency spectrum to send signals and messages to one another. They may have their own equipment or use equipment through local ham radio clubs. There are over 760,000 amateur radio operators (called \u201chams\u201d) in the United States, and three million worldwide. Each operator is licensed by their national government after passing a set of educational exams. Every ham receives a government-issued identifying call sign that consists of numbers and letters: for example, HamSCI\u2019s Dr. Nathaniel Frissell\u2019s call sign is W2NAF. The call sign contains code that allows other hams to approximate Nathaniel\u2019s location.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There are a number of reasons hams take up amateur radio. Some are interested in helping out in emergencies; when infrastructure stops working, ham radio operators create a backup communications network. Others are interested in \u201ccontesting,\u201d or radio sport: taking on various challenges, and sometimes partnering with scientists to gather data. Another interest area is \u201cDXing,\u201d or “distancing,” where operators aim to communicate with people located far away. Groups like Aurorasaurus are interested in ham radio data from a space weather and space science perspective.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Roughly speaking, ham radio operators communicate over long distances by bouncing radio signals off the variable Earth\u2019s ionosphere, so ionospheric disturbances like aurora or a solar eclipse affect ham radio!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Diagram of a radio wave (red line) bouncing off the ionosphere to travel a distance of nearly 1750 km. Used with permission from Dr. Nathaniel Frissell (W2NAF).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In his opening remarks, Nathaniel played a sound clip (<\/span>below<\/span>) of aurora distorting radio signals\u2014something hams say sounds like \u201cgargling underwater.\u201d In short, the auroral zone provides a way to use ham radio for remote sensing into space. By watching how ham radio connects through the layers of the neutral, non-charged atmosphere and the electrically-charged ionosphere, we can better understand the physics of these systems.<\/span><\/p>\nhttps:\/\/blog.aurorasaurus.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/20141227-KC4USV-Aurora-Only.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

The sound of aurora distorting radio waves<\/a>, recorded at McMurdo station in Antarctica on Dec 27, 2014 on 14 Mhz. Used with permission from Dr. Nathaniel Frissell (W2NAF).<\/em><\/p>\n

The Personal Space Weather Station (PSWS) Project<\/b><\/h3>\n

A new citizen science initiative, this project aims to create a network of inexpensive stations that can make ground-based measurements of the space environment. The data will be put together and made available for other citizen science research. Most development is currently taking place through the Tucson Amateur Packet Radio (<\/span>TAPR<\/span><\/a>)<\/span> TangerineSDR project<\/span><\/a>, a software designed radio (SDR) project that is supporting the Personal Space Weather Station (PSWS). <\/span>Click here<\/span><\/a> to find out how you can get involved.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The project is led by PI Nathaniel Frissell at The University of Scranton, in collaboration with Case Western Reserve University, the University of Alabama, the New Jersey Institute of Technology Center for Solar Terrestrial Research (NJIT-CSTR) in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Haystack Observatory and the Tucson Amateur Packet Radio, Inc. (TAPR). Aurorasaurus is looking into ways to collaborate!<\/span><\/p>\n

Workshop Sessions<\/b><\/h3>\n

The conference was fully recorded, and is available to watch on the <\/span>HamSCI YouTube page<\/span><\/a>. You can also find recordings of each specific presentation linked from the <\/span>Workshop Agenda<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Screenshot of a HamSCI Workshop session, courtesy of Dr. Liz MacDonald<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Aurorasaurus gave several presentations on Saturday:<\/span><\/p>\n