Ionospheric Observatory Development At Mario Zucchelli Station

Since 1995 Italian Ionospheric Antarctic Observatory at Terra Nova Bay, now “MARIO ZUCCHELLI”, station (geographic coordinates: 74.70°S, 164.11°E) performs continuous and systematic ionospheric vertical soundings. Long time series of continuous and accurate ionospheric observations (more than one solar cycle) are necessary for a deeper understanding of the complex phenomena occurring in the upper atmosphere at high latitude; furthermore high rate soundings (at least four soundings per hour or more) contribute to the short-time prediction of the radiopropagation conditions and to the Space Weather. During 2003–2004 Antarctic campaign a new digital ionosonde, recently developed at the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) in Rome, (Italy), has been installed the Ionospheric Observatory and preliminary tests have been carried out. This new Advanced Ionospheric Sounder-INGV, briefly AIS, is integrated in a stand alone system during winter time: the sounding, device settings and data sending to Rome are completely automatic and remote programmable. Ionograms are available on line at the INGV web and ftp server. The new features of the Ionospheric Observatory are presented and preliminary statistics on the reliability and validation of the experimental observation are shown and discussed