{"id":28834,"date":"2019-01-01T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-01-01T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/?p=28834"},"modified":"2021-05-06T13:38:22","modified_gmt":"2021-05-06T03:38:22","slug":"the-fighter-jet-of-the-ionosphere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/the-fighter-jet-of-the-ionosphere\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u201cFighter Jet\u201d of the Ionosphere"},"content":{"rendered":"

January 2019\u2019s \u201cMonthly Media\u201d is a series of observations from Dr\u00a0Chris Jordan<\/a><\/span>\u00a0that he has affectionately named \u201cThe Fighter Jet\u201d, showing the positional offset due to the ionosphere of known radio sources as they pass overhead of the\u00a0Murchison Widefield Array<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(MWA).<\/p>\n

Radio sources (such as distant galaxies) can appear to be shifted from their expected position in observations due to density lumps in the Earth\u2019s ionosphere.<\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Layers of the Earth\u2019s atmosphere. The Ionosphere ranges from the Mesosphere to the Exosphere and is where the aurora Australis and Borialis occur. This region of the atmosphere can change the apparent location of radio sources when it\u2019s \u201cpoorly behaved\u201d.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>

These density lumps refract light, causing the sources to appear shifted from where they would have been in an image if the ionosphere were not there, and are more common when the ionosphere is behaving \u201cpoorly\u201d.<\/p>\n

A \u201cpoorly behaved\u201d ionosphere can be thought of like ripples on the surface of water \u2013 when you want to image something underneath, the ripples confuse things.<\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/span><\/div><\/div>

You can see the radio sources (the dots) passing overhead through the course of the observations. The colours of the radio sources indicate which direction the source has been shifted from where it should be in the image.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>

The background waves passing through the observations are reconstructed from the source offsets, following the method published in\u00a0this paper<\/a><\/span>, in order to better visualise the ionospheric disturbances being observed.<\/p>\n

While most of the MWA observations made on the offsets of radio sources fall into the previously understood types of ionospheric disturbances, observations such as the \u201cFighter Jet\u201d do not fall neatly into those categories.<\/p>\n

Understanding how the ionosphere shifts the apparent position of distant radio sources can also be used to understand how it shifts the apparent position of GPS satellites, which gives us more reliable measurements for GPS applications, and a better understanding of space weather.<\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":223,"featured_media":28840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,23,24,4,7],"tags":[25,26,27,28,30,33,34,35],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-28834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-curtin","category-monthly-media","category-mwa-eor","category-outreach","category-science","tag-curtin","tag-curtin-university","tag-early-universe","tag-eor","tag-epoch-of-reionisation","tag-monthly-media","tag-murchison-widefield-array","tag-mwa"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe \u201cFighter Jet\u201d of the Ionosphere - ASTRO 3D<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/the-fighter-jet-of-the-ionosphere\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The \u201cFighter Jet\u201d of the Ionosphere - ASTRO 3D\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/the-fighter-jet-of-the-ionosphere\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ASTRO 3D\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-01-01T01:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-05-06T03:38:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Ionosphere.gif\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Teresa Slaven-Blair\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Teresa Slaven-Blair\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/the-fighter-jet-of-the-ionosphere\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/the-fighter-jet-of-the-ionosphere\/\",\"name\":\"The \u201cFighter Jet\u201d of the Ionosphere - ASTRO 3D\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/the-fighter-jet-of-the-ionosphere\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/the-fighter-jet-of-the-ionosphere\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Ionosphere.gif\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-01-01T01:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-06T03:38:22+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/#\/schema\/person\/82c2cc26394877a4bd5ade4414788161\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/the-fighter-jet-of-the-ionosphere\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/the-fighter-jet-of-the-ionosphere\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/the-fighter-jet-of-the-ionosphere\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Ionosphere.gif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Ionosphere.gif\",\"width\":600,\"height\":450},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/the-fighter-jet-of-the-ionosphere\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The \u201cFighter Jet\u201d of the Ionosphere\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/\",\"name\":\"ASTRO 3D\",\"description\":\"Unlocking the Universe - Inspiring the Future\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/#\/schema\/person\/82c2cc26394877a4bd5ade4414788161\",\"name\":\"Teresa Slaven-Blair\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/8ba8be804b0a7caf9a2c35566888c51d\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Teresa-Slaven-Blair-2_Perth-Science-Festival_credit-Deprimo-Photography-2-150x150.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Teresa-Slaven-Blair-2_Perth-Science-Festival_credit-Deprimo-Photography-2-150x150.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Teresa Slaven-Blair\"},\"description\":\"Teresa was the Outreach Coordinator for ASTRO 3D's Curtin University node, where she created opportunities for the Curtin astronomers to talk about their research beyond academia, and invented activities and resources to help them do that. Teresa is most proud of, and most known within ASTRO 3D for, her \\\"Epoch of Bubbles\\\" activity, which uses simple soap bubbles and food dye as an analogy for the environment around the first stars and galaxies that formed in the Universe, during the Epoch of Reionisation. Teresa has a honours degree in astrophysics from Curtin University, and is currently pursuing a PhD in gravitational wave and radio wave astrophysics at the University of Western Australia, with the other astronomy ARC centre of excellence, OzGrav. Teresa loves everything space, and thoroughly loves talking about it to anyone who will listen. Luckily, most people have a passion for space, so willing listeners are easy to find. She has over a decade's worth of science communication experience, all borne on the back of her enthusiasm for talking about space.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/teresa-slaven-blair\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/member\/teresaslavenblair\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The \u201cFighter Jet\u201d of the Ionosphere - ASTRO 3D","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/the-fighter-jet-of-the-ionosphere\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The \u201cFighter Jet\u201d of the Ionosphere - ASTRO 3D","og_url":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/the-fighter-jet-of-the-ionosphere\/","og_site_name":"ASTRO 3D","article_published_time":"2019-01-01T01:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-05-06T03:38:22+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Ionosphere.gif","width":600,"height":450,"type":"image\/gif"}],"author":"Teresa Slaven-Blair","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Teresa Slaven-Blair","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/the-fighter-jet-of-the-ionosphere\/","url":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/the-fighter-jet-of-the-ionosphere\/","name":"The \u201cFighter Jet\u201d of the Ionosphere - ASTRO 3D","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/the-fighter-jet-of-the-ionosphere\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/the-fighter-jet-of-the-ionosphere\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Ionosphere.gif","datePublished":"2019-01-01T01:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2021-05-06T03:38:22+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/#\/schema\/person\/82c2cc26394877a4bd5ade4414788161"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/the-fighter-jet-of-the-ionosphere\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/the-fighter-jet-of-the-ionosphere\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/the-fighter-jet-of-the-ionosphere\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Ionosphere.gif","contentUrl":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Ionosphere.gif","width":600,"height":450},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/the-fighter-jet-of-the-ionosphere\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The \u201cFighter Jet\u201d of the Ionosphere"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/#website","url":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/","name":"ASTRO 3D","description":"Unlocking the Universe - Inspiring the Future","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/#\/schema\/person\/82c2cc26394877a4bd5ade4414788161","name":"Teresa Slaven-Blair","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/8ba8be804b0a7caf9a2c35566888c51d","url":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Teresa-Slaven-Blair-2_Perth-Science-Festival_credit-Deprimo-Photography-2-150x150.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Teresa-Slaven-Blair-2_Perth-Science-Festival_credit-Deprimo-Photography-2-150x150.jpg","caption":"Teresa Slaven-Blair"},"description":"Teresa was the Outreach Coordinator for ASTRO 3D's Curtin University node, where she created opportunities for the Curtin astronomers to talk about their research beyond academia, and invented activities and resources to help them do that. Teresa is most proud of, and most known within ASTRO 3D for, her \"Epoch of Bubbles\" activity, which uses simple soap bubbles and food dye as an analogy for the environment around the first stars and galaxies that formed in the Universe, during the Epoch of Reionisation. Teresa has a honours degree in astrophysics from Curtin University, and is currently pursuing a PhD in gravitational wave and radio wave astrophysics at the University of Western Australia, with the other astronomy ARC centre of excellence, OzGrav. Teresa loves everything space, and thoroughly loves talking about it to anyone who will listen. Luckily, most people have a passion for space, so willing listeners are easy to find. She has over a decade's worth of science communication experience, all borne on the back of her enthusiasm for talking about space.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/teresa-slaven-blair\/"],"url":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/member\/teresaslavenblair\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/223"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28834"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30111,"href":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28834\/revisions\/30111"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28834"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=28834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}