The Institutional Team
This project is a result of the collaboration of three institutions, the University of
Houston, the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, and FMA Research, Inc. It has been made
possible through the financial support of the Suborbital Program in Magnetosphere,
Ionosphere Thermosphere, and Mesosphere Physics, Office of Space Science, NASA. Balloon
hardware and flight operations will be provided by NASA's National Scientific
Balloon Facility, Palestine, Texas.
The University of Houston Physics Department has three faculty members working in the
area of Upper Atmospheric and Space Physics. The Space Physics group occupies 3800 square
feet of laboratory and office space. Of particular importance is the complete balloon and
rocket instrument fabrication facility operated by the Space Physics Group. The University
has also provided the Space Physics Group with two computers for data analysis. The main
Physic Department computer is a DEC AlphaServer 2000/233 with 64 MB RAM, 18 GB of disk, of
which 8.6 GB is reserved for Space Physics, a TZ87 20GB cartridge tape drive, a CD-ROM
reader, and network connections to a variety of other peripherals. The Space Science Data
Center facilities include the University of Houston Space Physics Computer, which is a
dedicated VAX 11/750 with 16 MB of main memory and 1.6GB of disk space, two tape drives
and a variety of other peripherals. In addition, the group has a total of 8 PC
workstations all connected to the Campus LAN.
The Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, is a research organization
dedicated to basic geophysical research. It has a relatively large group, about 15
academic and research faculty, engaged in auroral and space physics. Drs. Sentman and
Wescott have pioneered the work on upward lightning which may have significant
implications for the Earth's DC and AC electric environment. Of particular interest to
this proposal are the fully staffed and equipped machine and electronics shops
specializing in research support. The Geophysical Institute also has a large computer shop
which can provide programming and computer maintenance support.
The UAF proposing team have all imaging equipment required for the observations, and
they have a range of computers and special software available for the analysis of the
data. Furthermore, they have access to the Arctic Region Supercomputer Center (ARSC) for
large computing tasks.
FMA Research operates the Yucca Ridge Field Station near Ft. Collins described on the
gound station page of this Web. The group has published as prime author or contributor
several dozen papers and technical articles on sprites, lightning detection and severe
local storms.
University of Houston
Space Physics Group, Physics Department, University of
Houston
Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska, Fairbanks
FMA Research, Inc.
NASA Office of Space Science
National Scientific Balloon Facility