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The two-year prime mission of the NASA Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) is complete. The baseline operational and scientific objectives have been met and exceeded, as detailed in this report. In October of 2019, ICON was launched into an orbit that provides its instruments the capability to deliver near-continuous measurements of the densest plasma in Earth's space environment. Through collection of a key set of in-situ and remote sensing measurements that are, by virtue of a detailed mission design, uniquely synergistic, ICON enables completely new investigations of the mechanisms that control the behavior of the ionosphere-thermosphere system under both geomagnetically quiet and active conditions. In a two-year period that included a deep solar minimum, ICON has elucidated a number of remarkable effects in the ionosphere attributable to energetic inputs from the lower and middle atmosphere, and shown how these are transmitted from the edge of space to the peak of plasma density above. The observatory operated in a period of low activity for 2 years and then for a year with increasing solar activity, observing the changing balance of the impacts of lower and upper atmospheric drivers on the ionosphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present in-flight performance measurements of the Ionospheric Connection Explorer EUV spectrometer, ICON EUV, a wide field ( 17 ∘ × 12 ∘ ) extreme ultraviolet (EUV) imaging spectrograph designed to observe the lower ionosphere at tangent altitudes between 100 and 500 km. The primary targets of the spectrometer, which has a spectral range of 54–88 nm, are the Oii emission lines at 61.6 nmand 83.4 nm. In flight calibration and performance measurement has shown that the instrument has met all of the science performance requirements. We discuss the observed and expected changes in the instrument performance due to microchannel plate charge depletion, and how these changes were tracked over the first two years of flight. This paper shows raw data products from this instrument. A parallel paper (Stephan et al. in Space Sci. Rev. 218:63, 2022) in this volume discusses the use of these raw products to determine O+ density profiles versus altitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The NASA Ionospheric Connection Explorer Extreme Ultraviolet spectrograph, ICON EUV, images one-dimensional altitude profiles of the daytime extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) airglow between 54-88 nm. This spectral range contains several OII emission features derived from the photoionization of atomic oxygen by solar EUV. The primary target of the ICON EUV is the bright OII (4P – 4S) triplet emission spanning 83.2-83.4 nm that is used in combination with a dimmer but complementary feature (2P – 2D) spanning 61.6-61.7 nm that are jointly analyzed with an algorithm that uses discrete inverse theory to optimize a forward model of these emissions to infer the best-fit solution of ionospheric O+ density profile between 150-450 km. From this result, the daytime ionospheric F-region peak electron density and height, NmF2 and hmF2 respectively, are inferred. The science goals of ICON require these measurements be made in the regions of interest with a vertical resolution in hmF2 of 20 km and a 20% precision in NmF2 within a 60-second integration corresponding to a 500 km sampling along the orbit track. This paper describes the results from the ICON EUV over the first year of the mission, which occurred primarily under solar minimum conditions. It describes adjustments made to the algorithm to improve not only the quality of data products during this time, but also to improve speed and performance while simultaneously meeting the ICON measurement requirements. It also provides examples of results and an overview of key features and limitations to consider when using these products for scientific studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We provide the first comparison of the ICON-EUV O+ density profile with radio wave datasets coming from GNSS radio-occultation, ionosondes and incoherent scatter radar. The peak density and height deduced from those different observation techniques are compared. It is found that the EUV-deduced peak density is smaller than that from other techniques by 50 to 60%, while the altitude of the peak is retrieved with a slight bias of 10 to 20 km on average. These average values are found to vary between November 2019 and March 2021. Magnetic latitude and local time are not factors significantly influencing this variability. In contrast, the EUV density is closer to that deduced from radio-wave techniques in the mid latitude region, i.e. where the ionospheric crests do not play a role. The persistent very low solar activity conditions prevailing during the studied time interval challenge the EUV O+ density profile retrieval technique. These values are consistent, both in magnitude and direction, with a systematic error on the order of 10% in the data or the forward model, or a combination of both. Ultimately, the EUV instrument on-board ICON provides the only known technique capable of precisely monitoring the ionospheric peak properties at daytime from a single space platform, on a global scale and at high cadence. This feature paves the way to transpose the technology to the study of the ionosphere surrounding other planets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the earliest space‐based observations of Earth's atmosphere, ultraviolet (UV) airglow has proven a useful resource for remote sensing of the ionosphere and thermosphere. The NASA Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) spacecraft, whose mission is to explore the connections between ionosphere and thermosphere utilizes UV airglow in the typical way: an extreme‐UV (EUV) spectrometer uses dayglow between 54 and 88 nm to measure the density of O+, and a far‐UV spectrograph uses the O 135.6 nm doublet and N2 Lyman‐Birge‐Hopfield band dayglow to measure the column ratio of O to N2 in the upper thermosphere. Two EUV emission features, O+ 61.6 and 83.4 nm, are used for the O+ retrieval; however, many other features are captured along the EUV instrument's spectral dimension. In this study, we examine the other dayglow features observed by ICON EUV and demonstrate that it measures a nitrogen feature around 87.8 nm which can be used to observe the neutral thermosphere. Plain Language Summary: The ionosphere is a region of near‐Earth space made up of plasma. NASA's Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) mission seeks explore the factors influencing formation of the ionosphere and how it interacts with Earth and its atmosphere. One of the ways ICON does this is by measuring airglow: light released by the air in the upper atmosphere. This occurs with visible light, with the same shades seen in the aurora; it also occurs in the ultraviolet range, invisible to the human eye but visible to ICON instruments. An imager is included on ICON to measure extreme‐ultraviolet light, almost as energetic as X‐rays. Certain atoms and molecules in the atmosphere are known to glow at specific wavelengths. By measuring the brightness of airglow at certain wavelengths, ICON is able see the structure of ionospheric oxygen. The instrument also measures dimmer emissions at other wavelengths, some of which are known to come from certain atmospheric species and others which are unknown or uncertain. Here we look at the other wavelengths and attempt to find their origins. We find that most are likely coming from oxygen. Interestingly, we find one that we think comes from nitrogen. This could be useful for measuring the abundance of molecular nitrogen in the upper atmosphere, a task currently performed by another instrument on the ICON spacecraft. We make a case for the practicality of this approach. Key Points: A comprehensive introduction to the Ionospheric Connection Explorer Extreme ultraviolet dayglow observations is presentedSome dim emission features are identified as originating from O+ from similarity to known featuresEmission near 87.8 nm follows N2 and, combined with 61.6 nm data, contains information about ΣO/N2 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In near‐Earth space, variations in thermospheric composition have important implications for thermosphere‐ionosphere coupling. The ratio of O to N2 is often measured using far‐UV airglow observations. Taking such airglow observations from space, looking below the Earth's limb allows for the total column of O and N2 in the ionosphere to be determined. While these observations have enabled many previous studies, determining the impact of nonmigrating tides on thermospheric composition has proved difficult, owing to a small contamination of the signal by recombination of ionospheric O+. New ICON observations of far‐UV are presented here, and their general characteristics are shown. Using these, along with other observations and a global circulation model, we show that during the morning hours and at latitudes away from the peak of the equatorial ionospheric anomaly, the impact of nonmigrating tides on thermospheric composition can be observed. During March–April 2020, the column O/N2 ratio was seen to vary by 3–4% of the zonal mean. By comparing the amplitude of the variation observed with that in the model, both the utility of these observations and a pathway to enable future studies is shown. Plain Language Summary: At high altitude in the atmosphere, mixing of the gas via turbulence becomes less important, and mix of atmospheric species begins to vary with altitude, depending on the mass of the atom or molecule. At these altitudes, the composition of the atmosphere can vary greatly with location and time in a manner not seen in the lower levels of the atmosphere. This same high‐altitude region overlaps with the charged particle environment known as the Earth's ionosphere. How the atmosphere and ionosphere interact is in‐part determined by the composition of the atmosphere. Measuring this composition is therefore important and is done regularly using observations in the far‐ultraviolet. These reveal much of the compositional variation, but a small contaminating signal from the ionosphere has made detecting some small changes produced by waves in the atmosphere a challenge. Here, new observations in the far‐UV are introduced and their general properties shown. By selecting a specific location and time and utilizing supporting data and a global model, we are able to show the change in the composition produced by a certain class of wave in the atmosphere. This demonstrates the utility of these new observations and provides a pathway to futures studies. Key Points: An initial overview of the Ionospheric Connection Explorer‐far‐ultraviolet sublimb observations and derived column O/N2 ratios is presentedIn the morning, away from the equatorial ionosphere, the impact of nonmigrating tides on O/N2 is shown clearly for the first timeComparison of the tidal signature with the TIEGCM highlights basic agreement, with possible discrepancy in tidal vertical wavelength [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Volunteer computing, also known as public-resource computing, is a form of distributed computing that relies on members of the public donating the processing power, Internet connection, and storage capabilities of their home computers. Projects that utilize this mode of distributed computation can potentially access millions of Internet-attached central processing units (CPUs) that provide PFLOPS (thousands of trillions of floating-point operations per second) of processing power. In addition, these projects can access the talents of the volunteers themselves. Projects span a wide variety of domains including astronomy, biochemistry, climatology, physics, and mathematics. This review provides an introduction to volunteer computing and some of the difficulties involved in its implementation. I describe the dominant infrastructure for volunteer computing in some depth and provide descriptions of a small number of projects as an illustration of the variety of projects that can be undertaken. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present 21-cm observations of four Galactic globular clusters, as part of the on-going Galactic Arecibo L-band Feed Array (GALFA) H i survey at Arecibo. We discovered a peculiar H i cloud in the vicinity of the distant (109 kpc) cluster Pal 4, and discuss its properties and likelihood of association with the cluster. We conclude that an association of the H i cloud and Pal 4 is possible, but that a chance coincidence between Pal 4 and a nearby compact high-velocity cloud cannot be ruled out altogether. New, more stringent upper limits were derived for the other three clusters: M 3, NGC 5466, and Pal 13. We briefly discuss the fate of globular cluster gas and the interaction of compact clouds with the Galactic halo gas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The I-GALFA survey is mapping HI 21 cm emission in the inner parts of our Milky Way Galaxy using the Arecibo L-band Feed Array (ALFA). Examples of various H i features such as supershells and chimneys are shown. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: A compact far ultraviolet (FUV) spectrograph has been developed and applied to space observation on a micro-satellite. The dual channel imaging spectrograph utilized two micro-channel plate (MCP) detectors with a single crossed delay line (XDL) anode to record photon arrival events. The unconventional anode design allows for the use of a single set of position encoding electronics for both detector fields, thereby reducing the size, weight, and power of the associated electronics. The ground and on-orbit performance tests verified the successful application of the system for astrophysical observations. In this note, we report the design, the development, and the test results of the system, focusing on the XDL anode system. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]