The Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska Fairbanks will hold a Polar Aeronomy and Radio Science (PARS) Summer School in late July 2008, which will provide instruction and hands-on experimental experience for students and their graduate supervisors. This school is supported by the Office of Naval Research, the Air Force Research Laboratory, and the Upper Atmosphere Program of the National Science Foundation. It will take place partly in the Fairbanks and partly in the Gakona districts of Alaska beginning July 20 and ending July 31. Instructional activities will extend throughout the period with opportunities for hands-on observational experiments at Poker Flat Research Range and at the HAARP Gakona Observatory.

Students are invited to apply for enrollment by submission of a proposal for a project that could be undertaken either at Poker Flat Research Range or Gakona Observatory. Instruments available for use and short descriptions of their capabilities are given in the paragraphs below. More detailed information can be obtained by consultation of the websites listed in the text. The maximum number of students to be accommodated is about 20. The deadline for applications is May 31, 2008. Applicants should use the online application form available here. On-line Application .

If for some reason you are unable to complete the on-line application form, an e-mail containing the exact information requested on the on-line application form may be sent to Joanna Cruzan at joanna.cruzan@gi.alaska.edu. Subject line should contain the phrase "PARS application". Successful applicants will have their tuition, fees, travel, and living expenses paid for the duration of the school.

The basis for selection will be the proposals submitted. Applications will be ranked according to merit. Credit will be given for investigations with a well defined question to be answered and a plan which offers a good chance of substantial results using the observations to be made during the school.

The motivation for this summer school is to provide an opportunity for students to study the upper atmosphere and ionosphere at polar latitudes with practical experience built into the learning process. There is a need for more trained scientists and engineers with a knowledge of the special effects that occur in the ionosphere at high latitudes. This summer school is provided to attract students with exceptional talent to become more familiar with this exciting area of study.

The theme of the school is “The Ionosphere in Geospace”. Instruction will cover the basics of the ionosphere, the magnetosphere, and the atmosphere, and will focus on the ionosphere as part of the Magnetosphere-Ionosphere-Atmosphere system. Special attention will be given to the coupling and feedbacks within the system.

Various facilities within Alaska are available for student experiments. In Fairbanks, the Poker Flat Incoherent-Scatter RADAR (PFISR), the Kodiak SuperDARN RADAR, and the Poker Flat LIDAR will be available. In Gakona the HAARP Observatory is home to a 3600 kW High-Frequency radio transmitter and a suite of optical and radio diagnostic instruments. This facility can be used to interact with the local ionosphere to produce small-scale plasma cavities and coherent modulation of the natural electrojet current. Also at Gakona, there is an ionosonde, a riometer, VLF and ELF receivers, a VHF radar, and optical imagers and photometers. A radar consisting of sixteen panels from the AMISR has recently been added to the suite of instruments at Gakona and will be available for experiments during the school.

For the previous eight years similar schools were held in Fairbanks and Gakona (and once in Arecibo, PR). The images posted throughout this website show the students and faculty at work (and play) during the school. The schedule for the school includes class time and experiment time, but provides opportunity for the participants to enjoy some of the recreational activities available in Alaska.