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 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

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 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 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

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

Testing the three-dimensional IRI-SIRMUP-P mapping of the ionosphere for disturbed periods

This paper describes the three-dimensional (3-D) electron density mapping of the ionosphere given as output by the assimilative IRI-SIRMUP-P (ISP) model for three different geomagnetic storms. Results of the 3-D model are shown by comparing the electron density profiles given by the model with the ones measured at two testing ionospheric stations: Roquetes (40.8 °N,0.5 °E), Spain, and San Vito (40.6°N,17.8 °E), Italy. The reference ionospheric stations from which the autoscaled foF2 and M(3000)F2 data as well as the real-time vertical electron density profiles are assimilated by the ISP model are those of El Arenosillo (37.1 °N,353.3° E), Spain, Rome (41.8 °N,12.5 °E), and Gibilmanna (37.9° N,14.0 °E), Italy. Overall, the representation of the ionosphere made by the ISP model is better than the climatological representation made by only the IRI-URSI and the IRI-CCIR models. However, there are few cases for which the assimilation of the autoscaled data from the reference stations causes either a strong underestimation or a strong overestimation of the real conditions of the ionosphere, which is in these cases better represented by only the IRI-URSI model. This ISP misrepresentation is mainly due to the fact that the reference ionospheric stations covering the region mapped by the model turn out to be few, especially for disturbed periods when the ionosphere is very variable both in time and in space and hence a larger number of stations would be required. The inclusion of new additional reference ionospheric stations could surely smooth out this concern