Upper Atmospheric and Ionospheric Data

The projects that operate from instrumentation at South Pole Station,
and at the Arrival Heights Laboratory at McMurdo Station, examine
natural phenomena occurring in the earth's atmosphere, ionosphere, and
magnetosphere. The broad focus of these science programs is toward
improved understanding of the mechanisms that couple solar processes
into the terrestrial environment; these include investigations of
phenomena associated with short-term environmental effects (auroras,
induced electrical currents, radiowave communications interference),
as well as those associated with longer-term effects (changes in the
ozone layer, atmospheric composition studies, stratospheric winds,
weather, and even climate). Instruments for these tasks include
optical and radio devices for remote sensing, as well as sensors that
monitor changes in the electric and magnetic fields at the station;
the instruments that measure local fields (including VLF receivers)
are sensitive to perturbations that propagate from remote generation
regions.