A solo trip was made by Kevin Sterne to the Fort Hays radar site between April 29th and May 3rd, 2013. During this trip, a number of long outstanding issues would be taken care of as well as a pressing matter of boxing up and shipping out all of the leftover pole hardware. This pole hardware included all of the nuts, bolts, and washers necessary for putting the poles together. Other outstanding issues were a complete recalibration and reprogramming of the phasing cards for both radars as well as some other software upgrades.

Summer or Autumn, Flexible Dates, Minimum of 10 Weeks
Washington, DC

Open to: Graduate and undergraduate (completed junior year) at US Institution majoring physics, astronomy, chemistry, biology, or geology
Application Deadline: Rolling
Apply Through: http://sites.nationalacademies.org/SSB/ssb_052239
Salary: $14.50 - $18.00/hour

As part of its celebration of the 50th anniversary of its founding, the Space Studies Board (SSB) has expanded the scope of the Space Policy Intern program it has operated since 1992 by initiating the Lloyd V. Berkner Space Policy Internships. The goal of the program is to provide promising undergraduate and graduate students with the opportunity to work in the area of civil space research policy in the Nation's capital, under the aegis of the SSB. The Lloyd V. Berkner Space Policy Internships are offered twice annually.

AJ Ribeiro sat his PhD preliminary exam on Tuesday, April 30. He presented his research plan to an advising committee consisting of six professors. AJ now enters into official Ph.D. Candidate status. He is advised by Drs. Jo Baker and Mike Ruohoniemi and VT Adjunct Faculty Dr. Pasha Ponomarenko (University of Saskatchewan).

Congratulations, AJ!

AJ has crafted many of the tools that are available on the VT SuperDARN web site for plotting and analyzing ACFs and deriving radar data products. These are grouped under the 'Diagnostics' submenu. For a neat demonstration of SuperDARN ACFs see the 'ACF Applet' or click on

http://vt.superdarn.org/tiki-index.php?page=ACF_app

An article first-authored by Dr. Qing-He Zhang of the Polar Research Institute of China in Shanghai was published in the prestigious journal Science on 29 March, 2013. The title of the article is 'Direct Observations of the Evolution of Polar Cap Ionization Patches'. It draws on the work of Virginia Tech SuperDARN grad student Evan Thomas, who, in collaboration with colleagues at the MIT Haystack Observatory, developed tools for co-plotting GPS Total Electron Content (TEC) data and SuperDARN ionospheric plasma velocity data. The Virginia Tech coauthors include Evan and his supervisors, Drs. J. Michael Ruohoniemi and Joseph Baker.

To link to the home web site of Science click on
http://www.sciencemag.org/

For a direct link to the paper and access to pdf reprints click through to links provided by coauthor Prof. Michael Lockwood of the University of Reading:
http://www.eiscat.rl.ac.uk/Members/mike/publications

2013 SuperDARN Workshop (hosted by the University of Saskatchewan)
May 26-31, 2013
Temple Gardens Mineral Spa
Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada

https://ocs.usask.ca/conf/index.php/superdarn/superdarn2013

Important Deadlines to Note:
Accommodation: April 10, 2013 **Extended
Early Registration: April 10, 2013 **Extended
Abstracts: May 3, 2013
For info click on 'Read More'

New this year:
SuperDARN Grad School
May 22-24, 2013 at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada
(Transportation from Saskatoon to Moose Jaw for the SuperDARN Workshop will be arranged.)

July 29 – August 2, 2013
MIT Haystack Observatory in Westford, MA

Open to: Graduate and advanced undergraduate students.
Application Deadline: 15 March 2013
Apply Through: http://www.amisr.com/workshop
Funding: Travel, housing, and meals for most US-based students. Funding for post-docs and students outside of the US is considered on a case-by-case basis.

The 2013 ISR Summer School will be held at the MIT Haystack Observatory July 29 – August 2. The school provides students with hands-on experience in designing and running experiments at incoherent scatter radar facilities. During this summer school, students will have the opportunity to run experiments and use data from multiple incoherent scatter radar observatories, such as Poker Flat (PFISR), Millstone Hill, Resolute Bay (RISR), Sondrestrom, Jicamarca and Arecibo. The school will be structured to provide presentations in the morning and hands-on experience in experiment design and analysis in the afternoons. The morning lectures will include an introduction to the theory of incoherent scatter, radar operations, ISR analysis techniques, and the Madrigal database. The afternoon exercises will involve working closely with ISR facility staff in the topic areas of: proposal design, experiment execution, and data analysis. All students will have the opportunity to work one-on-one with experienced scientists from multiple institutions.