Oblique HF sounders such as the ones used in this dataset represent one of many tools for the multi-instrument observer and can provide direct benefit to these investigations. Today, frontier science investigations in these fields generally rely on combining observations from multiple instrument platforms, including total electron content estimations derived from the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS TEC) ( Vierinen et al., 2016), incoherent scatter radar (ISR) ( Nicolls and Heinselman, 2007 Zhang et al., 2021), Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) radar ( Nishitani et al., 2019), and vertical ionosondes ( Hunsucker, 1991 Scotto et al., 2012), among others. These data are useful to geospace scientists seeking to build a more complete picture of short-term events (lasting hours to days) which occurred during the recorded time frame, such as solar flares and geomagnetic storms. Such systems are readily supported by citizen scientists in the amateur radio and shortwave listening communities ( Collins et al., 2021 Frissell et al., 2022 b). ( 2022) or in long-term data collection such as in the dataset presented herein. These stations broadcast national standard time via AM signals with precisely controlled carriers, providing ideal signals of opportunity.Īccordingly, it is now tenable to create distributed systems of HF Doppler receivers which serve as a meta-instrument for the observation of ionospheric disturbances, either in short-term campaigns such as the one recorded in Collins et al. The price burden for this method is also reduced by the use of existing time standard stations, such as WWV, WWVH, and CHU. In particular, single-board computing greatly reduces the expense and difficulty of data logging, and readily available GPS-disciplined oscillators (GPSDOs) allow for precision timing at a price point on the order of USD 100. In recent years, enabling technologies have become prevalent which reduce the barriers to performing precise Doppler measurements. This methodology is well established in the scientific literature ( Breit and Tuve, 1925 Davies et al., 1962 Jacobs and Watanabe, 1966). Where c is the speed of light, n is the real part of refractive index for electromagnetic waves, N is the electron (plasma) density, and z R is the height of reflection. The data are archived at ( Collins, 2022). These data may be used to supplement observations made with other geospace instruments in event-based analyses, e.g., traveling ionospheric disturbances and solar flares, and to assess the accuracy of the bottomside estimates of ionospheric models by comparing the oblique paths obtained by ionospheric ray tracers with those obtained by these receivers. These tools are robust to data interruptions and to the addition, removal or modification of stations, allowing both short- and long-term visualization at higher density and faster cadence than other methods. Software tools for the visualization and analysis of this living dataset are also discussed and provided. Here, data from the PSWS network are presented for a period of time spanning late 2019 to early 2022. The primary goal of this paper is to explain the types of measurements this instrument can make and some of its use cases, demonstrating its role as the building block for a large-scale ionospheric and HF propagation measurement network which complements existing professional networks. The low-cost Personal Space Weather Station (PSWS) network is a modular network of community-maintained, open-source receivers, which measure Doppler shift in the precise carrier signals of time standard stations. These effects are straightforward to measure with low-cost equipment and are conducive to citizen science campaigns. Ionospheric variability produces measurable effects in Doppler shift of HF (high-frequency, 3–30 MHz) skywave signals.
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