From COST 238 To COST 296: Four European COST Actions On Ionospheric Physics And Radio Propagation

COST (Co-operation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research) is an important instrument supporting co-operation among scientists and researchers across Europe now joining 35 member countries. Scientific projects in the COST framework are called COST Actions and have the objectives embodied in their respective Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The main objectives of the COST Actions within the European ionospheric and radio propagation community have been: to study the influence of upper atmospheric conditions on terrestrial and Earthspace communications, to develop methods and techniques to improve existing and generate new ionospheric and propagation models over Europe for telecommunication and navigation applications and to transfer the results to the appropriate national and international organizations, institutions and industry dealing with the modern communication systems. This paper summarises in brief the background and historical context of four ionospheric COST Actions and outlines their main objectives and results. In addition, the paper discusses the dissemination of the results and the collaboration among the participating institutions and researchers

The European COST (Co-operation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research) Actions: an important chance to cooperate and to grow for all the international ionospheric community

The current COST (Co-operation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research) Action 296 on Mitigation of Ionospheric Effects on Radio Systems, along with previous COST238 (Prediction and Retrospective Ionospheric Modelling over Europe), COST251 (Improved Quality of Service in Ionospheric Telecommunication Systems Planning and Operation) and COST271 (Effects of the Upper Atmosphere on Terrestrial and Earth-Space Communications) Actions have addressed investigations of the different effects of the ionosphere on terrestrial telecommunication systems and on Earth-space systems. Throughout their lifetime of 20 years, these COST actions have achieved a great deal in long-term archiving of synoptic soundings of the state of the ionosphere, in enhancing understanding of the morphology of the ionosphere and its dependence on space weather and in producing ionosphere-plasmasphere as well as propagation models for terrestrial radio services available to variety of radio users. Besides the formal contributions to ITU-R and the contributions to international organisations such as URSI, COSPAR, EGU and ESA, these COST Actions have provided a forum for the establishment of collaborative European initiatives, a centre of expertise and excellence in ionosphere knowledge when none other equivalent in Europe or elsewhere exists. In this paper, we review the main achievements of the COST 238, 251 and 271 actions as developed in the past studies

COST 271 Action - Effects of the upper atmosphere on terrestrial and Earth-space communications: introduction

The COST 271 Action («Effects of the Upper Atmosphere on Terrestrial and Earth-space Communications ») within the European ionospheric community has the objectives, embodied in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU): to study the influence of upper atmospheric conditions on terrestrial and Earth-space communications, to develop methods and techniques to improve ionospheric models over Europe for telecommunication and navigation applications and to transfer the results to the appropriate Radiocommunication Study Groups of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-R) and other national and international organizations dealing with the modern communication systems. This introductory paper summarises briefly the background and historical context of COST 271 and outlines the main objectives, working methods and structure. It also lists the participating countries and institutions, the Management Committee (MC) Meetings, Workshops and Short-term Scientific Missions. In addition, the paper discusses the dissemination of the results and the collaboration among the participating institutions and researchers, before outlining the content of the Final Report

The COST 271 Action: conclusions and the way ahead

A brief summary is given of the major achievements of the COST 271 Action. New challenges have been identified that open the way for a proposal, which is outlined, for a follow-on to the COST 271 Action within the COST Telecommunications, Information Science and Technology framework

On the possible use of radio occultation middle latitude electron density profiles to retrieve thermospheric parameters

This paper investigates possible use of middle latitude daytime COSMIC and CHAMP ionospheric radio occultation (IRO) electron density profiles (EDPs) to retrieve thermospheric parameters, based on the Mikhailov et al. (2012) method. The aim of this investigation is to assess the applicability of this type of observations for the routine implementation of the method. According to the results extracted from the analysis presented here, about half of COSMIC IRO EDP observed under solar minimum (2007–2008) conditions gave neutral gas density with an inaccuracy close to the declared absolute inaccuracy ±(10–15)% of CHAMP observations, with the results being better than the empirical models JB-2008 and MSISE-00 provide. For the other half of IRO EDP, either the solution provided by the method had to be rejected due to insufficient accuracy or no solution could be obtained. For these cases, the parameters foF2 and hmF2 extracted from the corresponding IRO profiles have been found to be inconsistent with the classic mid-latitude daytime F2-layer formalism that the method relies on, and they are incompatible with the general trend provided by the IRI model. For solar maximum conditions (2002) the method was tested with IRO EDP from CHAMP and it is indicated that its performance is quite stable in the sense that a solution could be obtained for all the cases analyzed here. However available CHAMP EDP are confined by ~ 400 km in altitude and this might be the reason for the 20% bias of the retrieved densities toward larger values in respect to the observed densities. IRO observations up to 600 km under solar maximum are required to confirm the exact performance of the method

COST 296 MIERS: conclusion

The need for more reliable and efficient communications services, especially those involving ionospheric HF communications and navigational systems, imposes increasing demand for a better knowledge of the effects imposed by the Earth’s upper atmosphere and ways to mitigate disturbing effects. Temporal and spatial changes in the upper atmosphere act to limit and degrade the performance of terrestrial and Earth-space radio systems in many different ways and this is why mitigation activities must involve several topics like ionospheric monitoring and modeling, development of new hardware for communication systems and new propagation simulator, measurements and modeling of ionospheric Total Electron Content (TEC) and ionospheric scintillations, using in particular the Global Positioning System (GPS). The European ionospheric community has long been aware that cooperation research on an international basis is essential to deal with such complex issues. In particular, international cooperation is required for the collection of data, in both the real-time and in retrospective modes, the development and verification of new methods to improve the performance of both operational and future terrestrial and Earth-space communication systems and the exchange of expertise on space plasma effects on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). In this context the COST 296 Action MIERS on the «Mitigation of Ionospheric Effects on Radio Systems» has made a significant impact in a number of areas

COST 296 MIERS: Mitigation of Ionospheric Effects on Radio Systems

The COST 296 Action MIERS (Mitigation of Ionospheric Effects on Radio Systems) within the ionospheric community has the objectives, embodied in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), to develop an increased knowledge of the effects imposed by the ionosphere on practical radio systems, and the development and implementation of techniques to mitigate the deleterious effects of the ionosphere on such systems. This introductory paper summarizes briefly the background and historical context of COST 296 and outlines the main objectives, working methods and structure. It also lists the participating countries and institutions, the Management Committee (MC) Meetings, the Workshops, Short-term Scientific Missions. In addition, the paper discusses the dissemination activities and the collaboration among the participating institutions and researchers, before outlining the content of the Final Report

Collaboration between two COST actions. Ionosphere and space weather

In this paper, we describe the collaboration between two COST action: COST 724 devoted to space weather and COST 296 devoted to the study of the ionosphere and its impact on communication and positionning. Several colleagues work in the two actions. This resulted in an important input on ionospheric models provided by the COST 296 action to COST 724

foF2 prediction in Rome observatory

A prediction procedure of the hourly values of the critical frequency of the F2 ionospheric layer, foF2, based on the local geomagnetic index ak, is presented. The geomagnetic index utilised is the time-weighted accumulation magnetic index ak(τ) based on recent past history of the index ak. It is utilised an empirical relationship between the log(NmF2(t)/ NmF2M), where NmF2(t) is the hourly maximum electron density at the F2 peak layer and NmF2M is its 'quiet' value, and the time weighted magnetic index. The prediction of foF2 is calculated during periods of severe magnetic activity in the current solar cycle 23 in Rome observatory

L'osservatorio ionosferico in Artide e Antartide: osservazioni sperimentali e risultati scientifici

The Italian Upper Atmosphere Observatory at polar latitude was firstly established during the Antarctic campaign 1990-1991 to support the telecommunication logistic activity of the National Program for Antarctic Research (PNRA). The Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), formerly Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica (ING), was involved in this action as the long time experience in HF radar, ionospheric sounding and ionospheric prediction services for radio communication purposes, managing two of the most important and historical ionospheric observatories all over the world: Rome (41.8N, 12.5E) and Gibilmanna (37.9 N, 14.0 E). Since that time, starting from 1993 up to now, several research projects have been carried on focusing on the multi instruments upper atmosphere observations in Arctic and Antarctica with the aim to study the polar ionosphere in different time and space domains, contributing both to the Global Change and to the emerging Space Weather needs. Here we briefly report on the experimental activities as well on the main scientific results obtained highlighting the latest findings in the field of bipolar GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems) ionospheric scintillation measurements and investigation