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January 11th, 2008
SCIFER 2 (Sounding of the Cleft Ion Fountain Energization Region Two)
Friday January 11, 2008 Update
This is tenth update for SCIFER 2 collaborators and friends participating in the SCIFER 2 campaign. If you do not wish to be included in these emails, please ask to be removed from future mailings.
Breaking news:
The tenth count was held on Friday January 11, 2008 with the window opening at 0600 UT. The ground winds at Andoya Rocket Range were favorable. The science team continues to drive directly to KHO Auroral. There were several intense substorms on the night side before the window opened. For the first half of the window both Longyearbyen and Ny Alesund were cloudy. A quiet, stable auroral arc maintained themselves over and to the east Svalbard for the second half of the when seeing conditions improved. The space weather conditions for tomorrow are predictd to be much better. The next count down begins at 0300 UT (0400 Norway time). Science station time is 0330 UT (0430 Norway time) at UNIS IPY room. A decision will be made whether to stay in town or to proceed to the KHO Auroral Observatory. The forecast tomorrow is for colder and clearer weather.
Local color: Our snow blower is bigger than your snow blower or at least our snow mover is bigger than you snow mover. Attached is a picture of the machine used to move snow at the auroral observatory. It was necessary yesterday to find some equipment on the ground before snow started to fall and thus required removing snow to the ground level. After digging there was true reference to the ground showing that the local snow depth is 5 m.
Space Weather Conditions
The space weather conditions were moderate again today with little change from yesterday. The solar wind velocity subside somewhat to 500 km/s and the density (1/cm^3) and magnetic field (4 nT) were small. The STEREO B satellite indicates that the solar wind speed, density and magnetic field will increase dramatically tomorrow and we are hopeful
Current Weather Conditions:
Longyearbyen: Temperature -15.4 C (4.2 F), wind chill -23.4 C (-10 F), mostly cloudy skies
Rocket/Payload status: The payload is mounted on the launcher and is operating nominally. The payload was in the vertical position and nominal for the window today.
Phone numbers for science launch operations
Backup Science Center at UNIS, Longyearbyen 79 02 64 48
KHO Auroral Observatory 79 02 64 70 or 71
EISCAT 79 02 12 36
CUTLASS Ops 44-116-252-3520