The 2025 HamSCI Speaker Series ends its calendar year on Thursday, December 11th with a fascinating look at high frequency beacons, producing data that is especially relevant in these times of high and unpredictable solar activity. Our presenter will be Dr. David Hysell KY2W. Dr. Hysell earned his Ph.D. in engineering from Cornell in 1992. He investigates ionospheric plasma physics with a focus on plasma instabilities, ionospheric irregularities, and their effects on radio wave propagation. Communication outages caused by ionospheric irregularities are a central component of the National Space Weather Program. The instabilities of interest are found in the equatorial and auroral electrojets, in the midlatitude E region ionosphere, and in equatorial and midlatitude spread F. The research is both experimental and theoretical and has a substantial computational component. An important research tool for studying the equatorial ionosphere is the Jicamarca Radio Observatory near Lima, Peru, the world’s largest radar. Dr. Hysell notes that “we are interested in numerical nowcasts and forecasts of the state of the ionosphere during space weather events. A comprehensive diagnostic can be derived from networks of HF beacon transmitters and receivers. Data from these are used to reconstruct the electron density in cubes extending over the network. The cubes can include the topside ionosphere when data from GNSS and radars are incorporated. This talk discusses the methods involved and shows results from the equator and the subauroral zone. The program will be on Thursday, December 11th at 4PM Eastern (2100 UTC). The Zoom link to the presentation can be found here: https://scranton.zoom.us/j/286316405?pwd=QWdwMlFPbDlYeXg5ZDg1dmYzeFdCUT09 Meeting ID: 286 316 405, Passcode: hamsci HamSCI serves as a means for fostering collaboration between professional researchers and amateur radio operators. It assists in developing and maintaining standards and agreements between all people and organizations involved. Its goals are to advance scientific research and understanding through amateur radio activities, encourage the development of modern technologies to support this research and provide educational opportunities for the amateur community and the public. For more information about HamSCI and to join our mailing list, please visit our website www.hamsci.org. ###
