image: Polar Science special issue on "SuperDARN/ Studies of Geospace Dynamics – Today and Future" view more
Credit: Elsevier B.V. and National Institute of Polar Research
The National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR) publishes Polar Science, a peer-reviewed quarterly journal dealing with polar science in collaboration with the Elsevier B. V.. The most recent special issue was entitled "SuperDARN / Studies of Geospace Dynamics - Today and Future," which focused on studies of geospace dynamics particularly related to SuperDARN, an international high frequency radar network for collaborative scientific research.
SuperDARN (Super Dual Auroral Radar Network) is an international collaboration project by about ten countries globally, established in 1995. Under the collaboration, an international high-frequency coherent radar network is constructed. More than 35 radars are currently operated by more than 15 research institutes, among which ten radars are located in the Antarctic region, including 2 SENSU radars at the Japanese Antarctic Syowa station. These radars are distributed from middle to polar latitudes with broad longitudinal coverage. Their overall fields-of-view cover considerable portions of the global ionosphere in both hemispheres.
The primary scientific purpose of SuperDARN was to obtain global plasma convection and electric field maps in high temporal resolution in quasi real time, which had never been done before, to contribute to space weather research. In addition, SuperDARN had been designed to provide fundamental and essential physical parameters in the ionosphere. Therefore, SuperDARN has been expected to address many scientific questions on the upper atmosphere and geospace relating to a variety of ionospheric and magnetospheric phenomena as follow:
- Magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling
- The neutral atmosphere and its coupling with the ionized atmosphere
- Influence of geospace on the lower atmosphere and potentially global climate change
- Pure plasma physics and astronomy
- Practical applied physics including space weather nowcast and forecast
Since the establishment of SuperDARN in 1995, a quarter-century has passed. As the number of SuperDARN research groups, radars, and total fields-of-view grow, their scientific research areas and abundant scientific achievements continue to grow. One of the factors behind this success is the lively discussions at the annual international workshops. The workshops are held in various locations every year to share and discuss important scientific research, new findings, current issues to be resolved, and future scientific directions and collaboration.
As one of the founding members of SuperDARN, Japan became the host country for the workshop in 2019 (the 3rd SuperDARN workshop held in Japan). It was held in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi, at the foot of Mt. Fuji in Japan between the 2nd and 7th June 2019, hosted by NICT (National Institute of Information and Communication Technology), NIPR (National Institute of Polar Research), ISEE (Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research) in Nagoya University, ICSWSE (International Center for Space Weather Science and Education) in Kyushu University and the University of Electro-Communications.
"Following the success of the workshop, we proposed a special issue of the Polar Science journal, which is focused on studies of geospace dynamics particularly related to SuperDARN," said Associate Professor Akira Sessai Yukimatu of National Institute of Polar Research, the lead editor of this special issue. “The special issue aims to overview recent extensive and active research, new scientific results, and future perspectives mainly through, but not limited to, the scientific papers presented at the workshop, while contributing to the further development of geospace sciences and relevant technology.”
In this special issue, thirteen valuable papers were published covering a wide variety of scientific and technical topics related to SuperDARN. “This special issue was an opportunity to commemorate a quarter-century since the establishment of SuperDARN. We believe that these papers will contribute to the further development of SuperDARN research, geospace sciences, and relevant technology,” said Associate Professor Yukimatu. The full text of this issue is freely accessible worldwide for a limited time until 9 February 2022.
###
About Polar Science
Polar Science is a peer-reviewed comprehensive academic journal relating to the polar regions of the Earth and other planets, which the NIPR began to publish in collaboration with Elsevier B.V. in 2007. The primary purpose of this journal is to inform people about polar science. Currently, more than 150 articles are submitted per year. As a result, this journal is recognized globally as one of the few comprehensive academic journals in the field of polar science. In addition to normal issues, Polar Science publishes a special issue annually on a given topic from various fields.
The main characteristics of Polar Science are summarized as follows.
- Polar Science is an international academic journal with an impact factor of 1.389 as of 2019
- Polar Science covers 15 disciplines related to the Antarctic and the Arctic, such as:
- Space and upper atmosphere physics
- Atmospheric science/Climatology
- Glaciology
- Oceanography/Sea ice studies
- Geology/Petrology
- Solid earth geophysics/Seismology
- Marine earth science
- Geomorphology/Cenozoic-Quaternary geology
- Meteoritics
- Terrestrial biology
- Marine biology
- Animal ecology
- Environment
- Polar engineering
- Humanities and social sciences
- Polar Science has an Open Archive whereby published articles are made freely available from ScienceDirect after an embargo period of 24 months from the date of publication.
- Printed products are also published.
- After Polar Science became an open archive in 2016, the number of article downloads has increased rapidly since then. Currently, more than 140,000 papers are used (PDF download and HTML Views) annually.
About National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR)
The NIPR engages in comprehensive research via observation stations in Arctic and Antarctica. As a member of the Research Organization of Information and Systems (ROIS), the NIPR provides researchers throughout Japan with infrastructure support for Arctic and Antarctic observations, plans and implements Japan's Antarctic observation projects, and conducts Arctic researches of various scientific fields such as the atmosphere, ice sheets, the ecosystem, the upper atmosphere, the aurora and the Earth's magnetic field. In addition to the research projects, the NIPR also organizes the Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition and manages samples and data obtained during such expeditions and projects. As a core institution in researches of the polar regions, the NIPR also offers graduate students with a global perspective on originality through its doctoral program. For more information about the NIPR, please visit: https://www.nipr.ac.jp/english/
About the Research Organization of Information and Systems (ROIS)
ROIS is a parent organization of four national institutes (National Institute of Polar Research, National Institute of Informatics, the Institute of Statistical Mathematics and National Institute of Genetics) and the Joint Support-Center for Data Science Research. It is ROIS's mission to promote integrated, cutting-edge research that goes beyond the barriers of these institutions, in addition to facilitating their research activities, as members of inter-university research institutes.