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Link to iframe content: https://www.youtube.com/embed/vaq--O0V0lo Space@VT's summer internship application is now open. Please apply using the applicable link below: VT login required: https://goo.gl/forms/ckXw76SGuvY5Vntu1 External applicants: https://goo.gl/forms/s1qdiItra6Mpik6C3 Researchers at Space@VT study the geospace environment... ...including the effects of space-weather events on the structure and dynamics of the Earth’s atmosphere and ionosphere. Using ground-based radar probes, sounding rockets, high-altitude balloons, and satellites, we investigate phenomena like the 2017 solar eclipse; effects of short and long duration solar variability on the Earth’s upper atmosphere; upper atmospheric dynamics, chemistry and radiation; coupling phenomena between the solar wind and the Earth’s magnetosphere; and polar mesospheric clouds. An ECE team installs space weather instrument station for the 40-degree magnetic meridian chain in the Antarctic. Geospace upper-atmosphere investigations ECE researchers operate six autonomous, adaptive remote data collection platforms on the East Antarctic plateau. The platforms support fluxgate and induction magnetometers, dual frequency GPS receivers, and a high-frequency radio experiment to investigate high latitude space weather phenomena. Recent research has focused on magnetohydrodynamic wave events initiated by solar wind pressure pulses and seasonal interhemispheric differences in conductivity. Exploring the upper atmosphere in the long polar night A sounding rocket program is underway to explore the upper atmosphere of the Earth’s polar night. This region is difficult to access and is relatively unobserved. We are particularly interested in the concentration of aurora-produced nitric oxide—which is a catalytic destroyer of ozone. The long polar winter nights are expected to contain large levels of nitric oxide, but with few observations, this is not well understood. To unlock mysteries of the geospace environment, ECE researchers send experiments up on sounding rockets and develop payloads for satellites. Aeronomy of ice ECE researchers are engaged in further studies of middle atmosphere gravity waves in NASA’s Aeronomy of Ice (AIM) mission. New algorithms to determine stratospheric gravity wave morphology will be applied to more than 10 years of AIM observations to form a unique dataset for studying the coupling of the Earth’s upper and lower atmosphere. Impacts of space-weather events on the ionosphere ECE researchers will be conducting atmospheric gravity wave studies via in-situ measurements of wave perturbations in the ionosphere and remote sensing of the middle atmosphere. These measurements can then be correlated with weather maps of the lower atmosphere, allowing for atmospheric coupling studies over a wide altitude range. Radiative impacts of pollutants ECE researchers are developing new instrumentation to observe the radiative impacts of pollutants. The new instruments are compact, robust, and suitable for implementation on constellations of satellites. The Virginia Tech SuperDARN HF radar facility located in western Kansas. Mapping geospace phenomena The Virginia Tech Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) operates five high-frequency (HF) radars. We are investigating cause-and-effect influences in the solar wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere system using a variety of ground- and space-based datasets. Recent research examined the north-south inter-hemispheric symmetry of the Sub-Auroral Polarization Stream (SAPS). Mapping polar ionospheric field-aligned currents An ECE investigation examined how the currents flowing in and out of the ionosphere respond to the interplanetary electric field, the product of the solar wind velocity and Earth’s magnetic field. We found that the magnetic field-aligned currents have a linear response to the level of solar wind driving, which was surprising since the electric fields in the ionosphere have been known to level off, or saturate, as the interplanetary electric increases. Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) News Highlights Space@VT Director Scott Bailey ’s sounding rocket launched this earlier this week in Alaska. Congratulations Dr. Bailey and team on your outstanding achievement! Full video Starting at launch Virginia Tech researchers contribute to upcoming NASA mission “We’re really trying to explore this connection between weather systems in our atmosphere that we might experience outside and also this environment on the edge of space,” said project scientist Scott England. England leads the team at Space@VT and across the United States to be able to better predict extreme changes from weather to GPS signal interference, read more . Space@VT Launches Precision Pointing System to Near Space Loading player for /content/dam/space_vt_edu/news/media/GSP-Launch-2019.MOV... Commonwealth of Virginia invests in aerospace industry, universities to stimulate economic growth The Virginia SmallSat Data Consortium, a research center co-led by Virginia Tech and Old Dominion University, has been awarded a $1.5 million grant by the Virginia Research Investment Fund, an initiative to position Virginia as a leader in satellite and data collection and stimulate economic growth in the aerospace sector. The two-year grant will launch the consortium, which also includes industry partners, the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority, and NASA Langley Research Center. The project has secured $1.8 million in additional funding as a condition of the grant award, read more . Space@VT alum Evan G. Thomas receives Basu United States Early Career Award for Research in Sun-Earth Systems Science, read more . Kshitija Deshpande Wins Prestigious NSF Early Career Award, news.erau.edu Virginia Tech students watch as rocket blasts off from Wallops Island For the past several years, a team of 50 undergraduate students from the College of Engineering and the College of Science developed Virginia Tech's CubeSat at the Center for Space Science and Engineering Research. The initiative began in June 2016 as part of the Virginia CubeSat Constellation, a collaborative effort between the Virginia Space Grant Consortium and four of its member universities: Virginia Tech, Old Dominion University, University of Virginia, and Hampton University, read more . Satellite built by Virginia Tech undergraduates ready for launch into space One small step closer to reaching space, a group of Virginia Tech undergraduate students recently delivered their small satellite to Houston to be incorporated into NanoRacks’ commercially developed CubeSat deployer. Virginia Tech’s satellite, along with two satellites from other Virginia universities, is scheduled to launch on the payload section of Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket and then will be headed to the International Space Station, read more . Bhuvana Srinivasan earns NSF CAREER award to study plasma physics in exploding stars, read more . SuperDARN Lab Funded for Bistatic Observations of the Ionosphere In the fall of 2018, the SuperDARN HF Radar Lab in Space@VT was funded by the Air...