£743k awarded to the University of Bath and the British Antarctic Survey to deploy GPS receivers in the Antarctic
Professor Cathryn Mitchell and Dr. Ivan Astin from the University of Bath and Dr Martin Jarvis of the British Antarctic Survey have won research funding totalling £743k from the Natural Environment Research Council for a project entitled " Remote GPS measurements to improve SAR ice monitoring".
This project involves equipment development, fieldwork and analysis. The objective of the fieldwork is to deploy autonomous modified GPS receivers. These will, for the first time, take measurements of total ionospheric electron content (TEC), plasma velocity and ionospheric scintillation at remote locations across the Antarctic. To achieve this, eight new GPS receivers will be deployed to undertake long-term measurements in the auroral and polar-cap regions over a two year period. Additional data from lower Antarctic latitudes will be provided by international partners. The measurements will be used to develop a multi-scale model of the Antarctic ionosphere. This model will be a critical input to SAR design that will minimize the impact on ice measurements for future satellite missions.
- British Antarctic Survey
- Natural Environment Research Council
- Centre for Space, Atmospheric & Oceanic Science
