Dr. Jack Doolittle is a Staff Physicist at the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center (LMATC) in Palo Alto, California, where he is currently the Deputy Program Manager for the Triana/EPIC project. EPIC is the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera which is the primary instrument for the NASA Triana SMEX mission to the L1 Lagrange point, scheduled for shuttle launch in December 2000. He has been engaged in space physics research in Antarctica since first venturing south in 1975 and has logged nearly 900 days on the frozen continent. The NSF awarded him the Antarctic Service Medal for wintering-over as Station Science Leader at Siple Station in 1977. Jack earned the Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 1982 and the BA and MA in Physics & Astronomy from the University of Montana. Joining the staff at LMATC in 1983, he led the development of the Automatic Geophysical Observatories (AGOs) which culminated in the deployment of six AGOs on the high polar plateau by 1996. As an AGO co-investigator he operates auroral all-sky cameras as part of the complement of geophysical instruments at each of the six sites. His team also has built a seventh unmanned station to serve as an Automated Astrophysical Site-Testing Observatory (AASTO) which is temporarily installed at the South Pole during trials before being deployed to a remote Antarctic site for characterization of astronomical seeing. The geologic feature ³Doolittle Bluff² (77 deg 37'S, 162 deg 38'E) was named by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names in 1998 in recognition of Jack's contributions to research in Antarctica.
Driven to Extremes: Science Rationale as a driver for Automatic Geophysical Observatories
In Space Physics research, as in other field science disciplines, experimenters are drawn to some of the most remote corners of the globe to make their observations. Where extensive facilities exist, such as at the year round manned stations in the Arctic and Antarctic, researchers take full advantage of the local infrastructure to operate increasingly elaborate instrumentation. Many of these remote outposts are ìislands of supportî which are disconnected from the global power grid and must rely on local power generation. The relative cost of providing large scale remote facilities solely to support science requires that the science rationale be truly compelling. A prime example of this is the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station whose existence is entirely justified by the important science that can only be done at this unique location.
No matter how important investigations are judged to be within the parochial view of their science discipline, the costs associated with the support of dedicated research facilities are soon limited by the capability of the supporting nation to sustain them. Scientists looking for suitable experiment sites then look to remote facilities whose existence has other basis, such as remote defense bases, mining outposts, fishing settlements and isolated indigenous population centers. Yet in many regions no facilities are available at all and the science investigations are driven to the use of remotely deployed automated facilities.
Space Physics investigations of the ionosphere and magnetosphere from Antarctica through the 1980ís was constrained to just a few widely scattered manned stations. Stations such as Siple, Halley, Syowa and Sanae provided views to the mid-latitude plasmasphere, while higher latitude stations such as McMurdo, Scott Base, Casey, Davis, Vostok and South Pole gave glimpses into the auroral oval, magnetospheric cusp and the polar cap. Yet the wide separation between these stations makes it most difficult to distinquish temporal from spatial effects during geomagnetic events. Satellites sometimes help fill the gap, but transit through the coincident regions so quickly that the temporal vs. spatial issues are not resolved.
Auroral allsky cameras provide observations of the ionospheric F-region to a practical field of view radius of about 500 km. Magnetometers and radioscience instruments are also sensitive to activity mapped through a window of similiar limited extent. Thus to provide ample overlap for comparisons, neighboring stations should be spaced about every 500-700 km. A network of six automated facilities was proposed by american space scientists in 1984 to augment the observations from the Antarctic manned stations and to provide continuous coverage from the auroral zone to deep within the magnetospheric polar cap. Four additional automated stations were planned for the sub-auroral zone by the British Antarctic Survey. The National Science Foundation committed to this endevour in 1988 with an announcement of opportunity for proposed science investigations. Lockheed Palo Alto Research Laboratory built six Automatic Geophysical Observatories (AGOs) over the next several years. Following three years of field testing, the first AGO was deployed to a remote location in December 1992. By February 1997 the full network of six AGOs was operational on the Antarctic high plateau. A seventh unit, built as an astrophysical site testing observatory (AASTO), is currently installed at South Pole Station awaiting deployment to a high altitude remote Antarctic location.
In this talk we will examine the conceptual design process that leads from science rationale, through trade study decisions, to design implementation. With each specific set of drivers and constraints a ìbest solutionî can be chosen, but it will become clear that no generic design of autonomous facilities exists as a solution to the generalized problem. The resulting design of the AGOs will be presented as a best solution obtained for its specific set of constraints. A description will be given of the field testing, science experiment integration and remote site deployment activities. Examples of will be given of science results that have been facilitated by the multi-station network. We will summarize by looking at on-going efforts to improve the AGOs and prospects for second generation replacements.
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Last modified on 3/11/00 by Maggi Glasscoe (Maggi.Glasscoe@jpl.nasa.gov)
