Introduction of Ionosphere Observation at Zhongshan Station
The observation of space physics in north and south Polar Regions is important for the energy coupling between the solar and terrestrial globe, because the geomagnetic field lines assemble in the areas. Chinese Antarctic Station, namely Zhongshan Station (ZHS), is located at geographic coordinates 69°22´S，76°23´E and invariant geomagnetic latitude 74.5° (L=13.9), which is in the cusp for the dayside and in the polar cap for the nightside. Because large numbers of the ionospheric signs and auroral phenomenon for the energy coupling between the solar and terrestrial globe take place in these regions, ZHS is a fine place for the observation of upper atmospheric physics. The synthetically observing system of upper atmospheric physics, which includes 8 instruments for detecting the ionosphere, aurora, and geomagnetism and so on, has been building since 1995 through the international cooperation with Japan, Australia, and so on.
During the summering observation of the 11th Chinese Antarctic Research and Exploration (1994/1995), a digital ionosond (DPS-4) was installed at ZHS, and started the normal observation on 16 Jan., 1995. The digital ionosond produced by the center of atmospheric physics, Lowell University (U.S.), is a Doppler radar with high frequency pulse, which is controlled by a computer, and can record many physical parameters in the ionosphere, which the radio wave broadcasts in, i.e. the amplitude of the ionospheric echo, phase, time delay, frequency, Doppler frequency shift, angle and polarization and so on. All observing data are recorded in the magnetic tape which is 1/4’’ in the size and 150 MB in the memory.
The digital ionosond at ZHS can get the ionogram for the frequency sweeping and the plasma drift in a fixed frequency with 8 times per hour. Some ionospheric characteristics, i.e. the profile of electron density in ionosphere, the location and velocity of irregular patch and so on, can be got by the data analyzing package including ARTIST, ADEP and DDA