CEDAR email: New opportunities for sounding rocket ITM studies

[Mark Conde]

CEDAR and GEM communities:

We invite attendance and presentations for the upcoming breakout 
workshop session titled "New opportunities for sounding rocket ITM 
studies" that will be held from 10:00-12:00 on  Tuesday, June 24, as 
part of the 2025 joint CEDAR-GEM meeting in Des Moines, Iowa. The 
purpose of this workshop is to inform the community of impending new 
opportunities for sounding rocket missions, and to solicit discussion of 
the scientific research that these would enable.

For example, the Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska is 
partnering with Alaska Aerospace Corporation (AAC) to allow launching 
into latitudes both equatorward and poleward of the auroral oval. These 
new sites would complement the existing auroral-zone rocket launch 
facilities at Poker Flat Research Range. Establishing new facilities at  
the Pacific Spaceport Complex Alaska (PSCA) on  Kodiak Island (57.8 
degrees north latitude) would allow studies of subauroral phenomena 
including: Sub-Auroral Polarization Streams (SAPS); Sub-Auroral Ion 
Drifts (SAID); and the newly discovered Strong Thermal Emission Velocity 
Enhancement (STEVE). Similarly,  new facilities at Oliktok Point at 70.5 
degrees latitude on Alaska's north coast on the Arctic Ocean would allow 
studies of phenomena occurring in the polar cap, and associated with the 
ionospheric footprint of the northern hemisphere magnetospheric cusp. 
Launch corridors from both of these new sites would extend out over 
large areas of open ocean with no downrange hazards, allowing safe 
opportunities for a wide range of vehicle sizes and flight trajectories. 
Opportunities may exist for synchronized simultaneous launches from more 
than one site in Alaska.

These are just two examples of possible new sounding rocket facilities 
and launch campaigns. We invite contributions discussing any of the 
potential new scientific studies or research proposals that could be 
enabled by forthcoming developments in sounding rocket technologies. 
Interested speakers are encouraged to contact the workshop convenors, as 
we compile the agenda for this session.

- Bob McCoy, Mark Conde, Doğa Ozturk, and Bea Gallardo-Lacourt