The NOAA IR serves as an archival repository of NOAA-published products including scientific findings, journal articles, guidelines, recommendations, or other information authored or co-authored by NOAA or funded partners.
As a repository, the NOAA IR retains documents in their original published format to ensure public access to scientific information.
i
The IPS data acquisition and communication system
-
1990
[PDF-167.72 MB]
Details:
-
Personal Author:
-
Corporate Authors:
-
NOAA Program & Office:
-
Description:In 1987 SEL agreed on a Joint Operations and Research Plan with the Milliard Radio Astronomy Observatory (MRAO) ofthe Cavendish Laboratory, the British Antarctic Survey, and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratories in England. The objective ofthe plan was to bring back into routine operation the MRAO Interplanetary Scintillation Observation System and carry out joint research. This system utilizes the 3.6 hectare array at MRAO to monitor disturbances in the interplanetary medium travelling out from the Sun. Earlier work by MRAO has demonstrated that it is possible to map the scintillation changes associated with the disturbances by using this large-aperture antenna to monitor 1000 or more extragalactic radio sources distributed over the sky (Gapper, G. R., A. Hewish, A. Purvis, P. J. Duffett-Smith, Observing interplanetary disturbances from the ground, Nature, 296,633,1982.) These daily maps can then be interpreted using geometrical modeling to predict whether or not a disturbance will reach the earth. In many cases its time of arrival can be predicted. The prediction will be used by the Space Environment Laboratory (SEL), the Space Environment Services Center (SESC), and other operational centers to alert users ofsystems which are sensitive to these disturbances. The data on the disturbances will be used with research data from the SOHO, CLUSTER, GGS, and other interplanetary and magnetospheric measurement systems to conduct research into the source, characteristics, and propagation of the disturbances. It is hoped to operate the system and acquire data at least through the remainder of solar cycle 22. Under the agreement, SEL provided resources for the refurbishment of the array and in addition agreed to provide computer hardware and software to MRAO to acquire and process the data from the array. This Technical Memorandum describes the hardware and software system developed by SEL for that purpose. The system, called IPS, is composed of a general purpose small computer and operating system, two special purpose hardware modules, and seven software components. Sections 1, 2, and 3 of this Memorandum provide an overview of the IPS system. Section 4 describes its operation in detail. Section 5.1 describes the Multitasking Executive Program (MT). Although developed for the IPS system, MT is a general purpose program which is used in other SELsystems as well. The remainder ofSection 5 describes the internal programming of the six IPS tasks executed by MT. The authors gratefully acknowledge the help given by Professor Anthony Hewish, FRS, and Dr. Peter Duffett-Smith and his group at MRAO, in defining system requirements and providing a critique of the design.
-
Keywords:
-
Series:
-
Document Type:
-
License:
-
Rights Information:CC0 Public Domain
-
Compliance:Library
-
Main Document Checksum:
-
Download URL:
-
File Type:
