Behavior of the ionosphere over Europe during two geomagnetic storms which caused tongues of ionization over North America

Poster presentado en la EGU General Assembly 2015, 12-17 April, 2015, Vienna, AustriaThis work presents the effect of two geomagnetic storms on the ionospheric total electron content (TEC) over Europe. Those geomagnetic storms occurred on July 14th, 2013 and February 19th, 2014 and originated a tongue of ionization over North America. Following the criteria of Gonzalez et al.(1994), the July storm can be classified as a moderate one because the Dst index reached a value of -72nT, whereas the February storm as an intense event considering that Dst index dropped to -112nT. For this study we have used RINEX files obtained from GNSS stations belonging to International GPS Service, IGS, EUREF Permanent Network, and University Navstar Consortium, UNAVCO, networks. The data has been divided into two groups in function of the region: Europe or North America. For each group we have used all the available stations. The RINEX files have been processed using a technique developed by Ciraolo (2012) which assumes the ionospheric thin shell model to obtain the vertical total electron content (vTEC) from the slant total electron content (sTEC) at the Ionospheric Pierce Point, IPP, the point where the line-of-sight between the satellite and the ground receiver intersects the ionosphere. The data were obtained at 1 minute sampling in periods of geomagnetic storms and quiet days close to them. In both storms a tongue of ionization, ToI, appeared over North America from afternoon to dusk (between 19:00 and 3:00 GMT). The behavior of the ionosphere over Europe was very different in eachcase. In July, the TEC decreased respect the quiet days during the ToI time. In the February storm the behavior of the ionosphere over Europe was similar to that of a quiet day but the following day appeared a phenomenom similar to the ToI.Peer reviewe

The Spanish SpaceWeather Service SeNMEs. A Case Study on the Sun-Earth Chain

Comunicación presentada en el Coimbra Solar Physics Meeting, 5-9 October 2015, Coimbra, PortugalThe Spanish Space Weather Service SeNMEs, www.senmes.es, is a portal created by the SRG-SW of the Universidad de Alcalá, Spain, to meet societal needs of near real-time space weather services. This webpage-portal is divided in different sections to fulfill users needs about space weather effects: radio blackouts, solar energetic particle events, geomagnetic storms and presence of geomagnetically induced currents. In less than one year of activity, this service has released a daily report concerning the solar current status and interplanetary medium, informing about the chances of a solar perturbation to hit the Earth’s environment. There are also two different forecasting tools for geomagnetic storms, and a daily ionospheric map. These tools allow us to nowcast a variety of solar eruptive events and forecast geomagnetic storms and their recovery, including a new local geomagnetic index, LDiñ, along with some specific new scaling. In this paper we also include a case study analysed by SeNMEs. Using different high resolution and cadence data from space-borne solar telescopes SDO, SOHO and GOES, along with ionospheric and geomagnetic data, we describe the Sun-Earth feature chain for the event.MINECO project AYA2013-47735PPeer reviewe

Retrieval of ionospheric profiles from the Mars Express MARSIS experiment data and comparison with radio occultation data

Abstract. Since 2005 the Mars Advanced Radar and Ionospheric Sounding experiment (MARSIS) aboard Mars Express has acquired a unique dataset on the ionosphere of Mars made up of ionospheric soundings taken by the instrument working in its active ionospheric sounding (AIS) mode. These soundings play a role similar to those of modern Terrestrial digisondes in the analysis of our planet ionosphere and have allowed us to dramatically improve our knowledge about the Martian ionosphere. This paper describes this kind of data, which are available from the public Planetary Science Archive, and introduces the MAISDAT tool developed by the European Space Agency to analyze and derive the vertical profile of electron density. Comparisons with radio occultation profiles obtained from Mars Express Radio Science instrument are performed to validate the procedure used in this study

Survey of emission-line galaxies: Universidad Complutense de Madrid list

A low-dispersion objective-prism survey for low-redshift emission-line galaxies (ELGs) is being carried out by the University Complutense de Madrid with the Schmidt telescope at the German-Spanish Observatory of Calar Alto (Almeria, Spain). A 4° full aperture prism, which provides a dispersion of 1950 Å mm^-1, and IIIaF emulsion combination has been used to search for ELGs selected by the presence of H_α emission in their spectra. Our survey has proved to be able to recover objects already found by similar surveys with different techniques and, what is more important, to discover new objects not previously cataloged. A compilation of descriptions and positions, along with finding charts when necessary, is presented for 160 extragalactic emission-line objects. This is the first list, which contains objects located in a region of the sky covering 270 deg^2 in 10 fields near α = 0^h and δ = 20°

Topo-Iberia Project: CGPS crustal velocity field in the Iberian Peninsula and Morocco

A new continuous GPS network was installed under the umbrella of a research project called 'Geociencias en Iberia: Estudios integrados de topografı´a y evolución 4D (Topo-Iberia)', to improve understanding of kinematic behavior of the Iberian Peninsula region. Here we present a velocity field based on the analysis of the 4 years of data from 25 stations constituting the network, which were analyzed by three different analysis groups contributing to the project. Different geodetic software packages (GIPSY-OASIS, Bernese and GAMIT) as well as different approaches were used to estimate rates of present day crustal deformation in the Iberian Peninsula and Morocco. In order to ensure the consistency of the velocity fields determined by the three groups, the velocities obtained by each analysis center were transformed into a common Eurasia Reference Frame. After that, the strain rate field was calculated. The results put in evidence more prominent residual motions in Morocco and southernmost part of the Iberian Peninsula. In particular, the dilatation and shear strain rates reach their maximum values in the Central Betics and northern Alboran Sea. A small region of high shear strain rate is observed in the east-central part of the peninsula and another deformation focus is located around the Strait of Gibraltar and the Gulf of Cadiz

Continuous GPS stations deployment in the Topo-Iberia Project framework

Topo-Iberia es un proyecto financiado por el Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia de España. Su principal objetivo es comprender las interacciones entre los procesos profundos, superficiales y atmosféricos integrando datos geológicos, geofísicos y geodéticos. El proyecto se centrará en tres zonas principales de interés en la Península Ibérica: los bordes N y S de la Placa Ibérica (incluyendo el N de Marruecos) y su núcleo central intermedio. Presentamos las actividades preliminares realizadas por el subgrupo GPS de Topo-Iberia con el fin de desplegar una nueva red continua de GPS. La intención es complementar las redes CGPS continuas existentes (p.e. ROA; ERGPS) incrementado la cobertura espacial en España y N de Marruecos. Una vez seleccionados los emplazamientos de las nuevas estaciones, el objetivo es que se encuentren en pleno funcionamiento la primavera de 2008. Se han descargado conjuntos de datos CGPS de servidores de distintas instituciones sobre los que se ha realizado un procesado inicial que sirva como control de calidad. Como algunas de las estaciones actualmente disponibles no siguen los estrictos procedimientos de estabilidad dictados por IGS/EUREF, estamos evaluando sus resultados mediante análisis de series temporales para decidir cuales se pueden incluir como estaciones complementarias de la red Topo-Iberia.Topo-Iberia is a Spanish Research Council funded project. Its main objective is to understand the interactions between deep, shallow and atmospheric processes, integrating geological, geophysical, geodetic and geo-technological research activities. The project will focus in three main areas of interest in the Iberian Peninsula: Northern and Southern borders of the Iberian micro-plate (taking into account the Northern part of Morocco), and its central core. We present the preliminary steps that the Topo- Iberia GPS working group is undergoing in order to deploy a new Continuous GPS Network. We are trying to complement the existing and functioning CGPS Networks (e.g. ROA; ERGPS) by increasing the spatial coverage across Spain and Northern Morocco. The places for the new locations have been chosen and all stations should be working in the spring 2008. A set of available CGPS data files has been downloaded from different institutional servers. A preliminary data analysis has been performed for geodetic quality control. Since some of the existing CGPS stations have been installed without following strict IGS/EUREF procedures for the stability of the monuments, we are evaluating their performance through the time series analysis, in order to decide whether to include them as complementing stations to our network.Depto. de Geodinámica, Estratigrafía y PaleontologíaFac. de Ciencias GeológicasTRUEMinisterio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN)CONSOLIDER TOPO-Iberiapu

Effect of the geomagnetic storm of April 23, 2012, on the ionospheric total electron content over the Mediterranean Region

[ES] Las tormentas geomagnéticas son variaciones del campo magnético terrestre de varias horas de duración y de carácter planetario cuyo origen es la llegada a la Tierra de viento solar perturbado, emitido por una eyección de masa coronal, en el que la componente Z del campo magnético interplanetario tiene orientación hacia el Sur. Una tormenta geomagnética puede dar lugar a una tormenta ionosférica que se caracteriza principalmente por una variación de la densidad electrónica de la capa F2 de la ionosfera. El interés de estas tormentas ionosféricas es su gran influencia en los observables GNSS y, por tanto, su posible efecto en la precisión en el posicionamiento. Este trabajo describe los fenómenos asociados a la tormenta geomagnética del 23 de abril de 2012. Su origen fue una eyección de masa coronal ocurrida el día 19 que modificó el viento solar produciendo un incremento en su velocidad y cambios en el campo magnético interplanetario. La llegada a la Tierra del viento solar perturbado causó una tormenta geomagnética con inicio el día 23 y que duró hasta el día 27. A su vez, esta tormenta originó una tormenta ionosférica en la región Mediterránea que tuvo varias fases cuyas características dependen de la latitud, la longitud y la etapa de la tormenta geomagnética durante la que se produce.Peer Reviewe

Banco de recursos virtuales para el aprendizaje experimental en geodesia y astronomía

El portal Nuestro Almacén Virtual Experimental de Astronomía y Geodesia (NAVEGA) que se presenta en esta comunicación es el resultado final de un proyecto de innovación y mejora de la calidad educativa convocatoria UCM 2004-2005. En él el alumno encuentra una serie de recursos didácticos de ayuda para el aprendizaje y comprensión de las prácticas experimentales impartidas en la Sección Departamental de Astronomía y Geodesia de la Facultad de Matemáticas. Cualquier alumno de estas asignaturas puede beneficiarse del uso del portal que no está sujeto a la programación de una asignatura en concreto. Los temas a los que se hace referencia en las distintas partes del portal están también relacionados con materias impartidas en los planes de estudio de diversas ingenierías como la Topográfica y la Geodésica, en titulaciones como Físicas, Geológicas, etc., en distintas Universidades, por supuesto no sólo de la Comunidad de Madrid. El portal ha sido usado de forma experimental durante parte del curso 2005-06 mediante acceso directo desde las asignaturas virtualizadas en la plataforma WebCT