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January 17th, 2008
SCIFER 2 (Sounding of the Cleft Ion Fountain Energization Region Two)
Thursday January 17, 2008 Update
This is fifteenth 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 fifteenth window for SCIFER 2 opened at 0500 UT. The rocket was OUT for winds the entire window except in the first hour. Early in the window several transitory electron heating and weak outflow events were observed corresponding to discrete arcs. We lost the ACE satellite data, used to support our launch, from 0500-0740 UT due to the Japanese not tracking. There were no “launchable” science events in this window. Science station time is 0230 UT (0330 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 -9 C snow and windy.
Local color: Today was a lesson in how local the weather can be here. In town, Longyearbyen, at 2:00 AM it was calm with a light dusting of fresh snow and -1 C but going up the mountain it was heavily snowing with strong winds and -5 C. These were the first serious snow drifts that we have seen during the campaign and were crossed by accelerating so as to “plow” through them. The deepest ones were at most 18 inches but they are difficult to see especially in the blowing snow and at the switchbacks. The snow drifts have also come back to the auroral observatory. The picture of the day is of me standing on the front steps, actually about 1 m above the lowest step. The picture was taken at noon local time.
Space Weather Conditions
The space weather conditions were steady today. The solar wind velocity was about 600 km/s and the magnetic field was 5-6 nT. The IMF Bz was primarily northward but turned southward after the window ended. There was aurora during most of the window.
Current Weather Conditions:
Longyearbyen: Temperature –2 C with blowing snow.
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