Overview on Chinese Meridian Project – Solar and Heliospheric Radio Studies at Mingantu Observing Station

Abstract:

The Chinese Meridian Project (CMP) is a Ground‐based Space Environment Monitoring Network which includes the Space Environment Monitoring System. The system adopts a well‐designed monitoring architecture, known as “One Chain, Three Networks, and Four Focuses” to achieve stereoscopic and comprehensive monitoring of the entire solar-terrestrial space. The “One‐Chain” component utilizes optical, radio, interplanetary scintillation, and cosmic ray instruments to cover the causal chain of space weather disturbances from the solar surface to near‐Earth space. For the ionosphere, middle and upper atmosphere, and geo-magnetic field, instruments are deployed along longitudes of 120 and 100 degrees East, and latitudes of 30 and 40 degrees North, forming the “Three Networks”. Furthermore, more powerful monitoring facilities or large‐scale instruments have been deployed in four key regions: the high-latitude polar region, mid‐latitude region in northern China, low‐latitude region at Hainan Island, and the Tibet region. These four regions are crucial for disturbances propagation and evolution, or possess unique geographical and topographical characteristics.

The Mingantu Observing Station, which is located about 400km northwest of Beijing with the wide‐band spectral radioheliographs and the interplanetary scintillation telescopes, constitutes a key component of CMP for tracking and monitoring solar eruptions from the Sun’s atmosphere into interplanetary space. Here we give an overview on CMP and introduce the progress on solar and heliospheric radio studies at Mingantu Observing Station. In the image above, the cylinders in the foreground are a dedicated Interplanetary Scintillation (IPS) instrument. The interferometer in the background is for solar observing called the Mingantu Spectral Radiograph (MUSER).