Speaker
Prof.
Mike Hapgood
(RAL Space)
Description
Interplanetary scintillation (IPS) is one of several techniques that can track density structures propagating out from the Sun. Thus it is potentially an important space weather activity that can help to predict the onset of geomagnetic storms. That potential was recognized over twenty years ago, when a joint UK-US project sought to use the Cambridge IPS array to develop an operational system for space weather. However, the results of that project proved disappointing. This paper will (a) review the limitations that made those results so disappointing, (b) demonstrate there are many ways in which they could be overcome in a future IPS system, and (c) argue that it is timely to re-visit the use of IPS as an operational tool for space weather monitoring. The overall aim to promote discussion on how IPS should fit into the growing toolset for tracking CMEs and other solar ejecta. That tracking is one of the most critical contemporary challenges in the development of space weather service.
Author
Prof.
Mike Hapgood
(RAL Space)
