@proceedings {858, title = {Analysis of the HamSCI Solar Eclipse High Frequency Time Difference of Arrival Experiment Observations Using Automated Techniques}, year = {2024}, month = {03/2024}, publisher = {HamSCI}, address = {Cleveland, OH}, abstract = {

The objective of our research is to analyze the effects of a solar eclipse on High Frequency (HF) radio by extracting the time difference of arrival (TDOA) due to multiple ionospheric paths of ~3 kHz bandwidth chirp signals sent and received with unmodified commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) single sideband (SSB) amateur radio transceivers. We use programming techniques learned in the Digital Signal Processing course at The University of Scranton in the Python language to automate this process. On the day of the 14 October 2023 eclipse in Texas, WA5FRF transmitted a series of chirps every 15 minutes to receiving stations N5DUP and AB5YO on 5.3 MHz and 7.2 MHz. Received signals were digitized, then squared and low-pass filtered to detect the waveform envelope. Correlation with a matched signal is then used to identify the start time of each chirp, after which a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is used to identify the beat-frequency (and TDOA value) generated by the multipath propagation. This TDOA value is then used to compute an ionospheric reflection height. On the WA5FRF-N5DUP path, this analysis shows that the F region reflection point raised from 262.5 km at 17:00 UTC to 300 km at eclipse maximum at 17:30 UTC and then returned to approximately 280 km at 18:00 UTC. This result is in good agreement with the hmF2 observations of the Austin ionosonde.

}, author = {Alexandros Papadopoulos and Gerrard Piccini and Thomas Pisano and Nicholas Guerra and Matthew Felicia and Evan Hromisin and Aidan Montare and Kristina Collins and Paul Bilberry and Samuel Blackshear and Steve Cerwin and Nathaniel A. Frissell} } @proceedings {876, title = {Reworking the MUSIC Algorithm to Mitigate MSTID Direction Estimation Bias Associated with SuperDARN Radar Field-of-View Geometry}, year = {2024}, month = {03/2024}, publisher = {HamSCI}, address = {Cleveland, OH}, abstract = {

Medium Scale Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances (MSTIDs) are variations in the F region ionospheric electron density. MSTIDs can be associated with atmospheric gravity waves (AGWs) and provide critical information for understanding the ionosphere, which is an electrically charged region of the atmosphere. Previous SuperDARN studies of MSTIDs have used the Multiple Signal Classification (MUSIC) algorithm to determine the size, speed, and direction of these disturbances in the ionosphere. Upon analyzing MSTID MUSIC results from ten North American SuperDARN radars over a period of twelve winter seasons (2010-2022), we found a bias in the SuperDARN MSTID MUSIC direction estimation algorithm that preferentially reports waves as traveling along the boresight direction of the radars. We demonstrate that this bias is caused by the radar Field-of-View geometry and report on the progress algorithm development for removing this bias.

}, author = {Michael Molzen and Thomas Pisano and Nicholas Guerra and Juan Serna and Nathaniel A. Frissell} } @proceedings {752, title = {A Review of "Climatology of Medium Scale Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances Observed by the Midlatitude Blackstone SuperDARN Radar"}, year = {2023}, month = {03/2023}, publisher = {HamSCI}, address = {Scranton, PA}, abstract = {

This poster is a review of Frissell et al. (2014) by undergraduate students for the purpose of learning about SuperDARN and MSTIDs as part of a
research project to study the differences between MSTIDs observed in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

Frissell, N. A., Baker, J. B. H., Ruohoniemi, J. M., Gerrard, A. J., Miller, E. S., Marini, J. P., West, M. L., and Bristow, W. A. (2014), Climatology of medium-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances observed by the midlatitude Blackstone SuperDARN radar, J. Geophys. Res. Space Physics, 119, 7679{\textendash} 7697, doi:10.1002/2014JA019870.

}, author = {Nicholas Guerra and Michael Molzen and James Fox and Juan Serna and Nathaniel A. Frissell} }