Application of collected data
Presentations at the DBCP Technical Workshop
Buenos Aires, Argentina, 17-18 October 2005

Theme 3: Vision and Possibilities / Technological Developments

17. Radioscience and Buoys Merge in the Southern Ocean

Authors: Rick Cole1, Noah Reddell2, Umran Inan3, Sean Kery4, James Cappellini5, Pierre Smit6 and George Greider7
¹RDSea and Associates, Inc., St. Pete Beach, Florida, ²LTJG, United States Navy, ³Stanford University, VLF Research Group, Stanford, CA, 4Oceaneering International, Inc., Upper Marlboro, MD, 5Mooring Systems, Inc., Cataumet,MA, 6Air Force Research Laboratory, 7Gilman Corp., Gilman, CT

Abstract: This paper discusses research conducted by The Very Low Frequency (VLF) Group at Stanford University introducing them and a project called the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP). This project utilizes the latest oceanographic and ocean-engineering technologies for exciting applications to space physics and radio science research. The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) jointly manage HAARP. The program’s facility is a high power transmitter located in Gakona, Alaska, capable of broadcasting powerful VLF radio waves into the Earth’s ionosphere. These waves propagate along the Earth’s magnetic field lines to the system’s geomagnetic conjugate point situated nominally 600 miles south of New Zealand in the southern Pacific Ocean. By studying the radio signals at this point, the VLF Group seeks to discover how energetic particles in the planet’s radiation belts interact with very low frequency electromagnetic waves. 

A major application of this investigation is to better understand, simulate, and control the physical processes that affect the performance of military and civil space systems. Unfortunately, the project investigators require four years of continuous observation at the conjugate point, which rests on top of 5400 meters of a rough and often violent ocean. This ambitious challenge of operating an autonomous, stationary, floating observation platform is known as the HAARP One-Hop Experiment – South Pacific Buoy. The successful design, build and deployment of the buoy were due to careful collaboration between oceanographic, engineering and ocean technology experts. 

A detailed overview will be as follows: Project Introduction, System Overview, Science Payload, Main Structure/Buoy, Mooring System, Deployment, Recovery, Conclusion and Future, Acknowledgements.