History

In 1988, the Space Research Institute of Moscow requested that NASA participate in its upcoming ACTIVE (not an acronym) project. ACTIVE was a satellite launched in 1989 with a 10.5 kHz transmitter onboard to study wave particle interactions and the propagation of VLF waves. NASA responded by authorizing a group of U.S. scientists to make ground observations and theoretical calculations relevant to ACTIVE.

A volunteer organization dubbed HSGS (High School Ground Station) was quickly established by Taylor; W. Pine, a high school physics teacher; and two amateur scientists, M. Mideke and J. Ericson. The objective of HSGS was to recruit high schools to help gather data on 10.5 kHz electromagnetic (radio) waves which might be observed on the ground. A large number of ground receiving sites were needed, both to enhance the probability of receiving the radio waves from ACTIVE, and to determine the propagation paths to the ground.

HSGS was envisioned as a test bed with several objectives. The first was to see whether high school classes could successfully complete a project that included mechanical and electronic construction and a rigorous data-gathering procedure. The second was to see if high school physics teachers could integrate the instructional material into their curriculum.NASA provided moral support and TRW (now Northrop Grumman Space Technologies, http://www.st.northropgrumman.com provided financial support to defray the cost of the packages. The packages included an electronic kit and 161 pages of instructional material. The packages were developed and distributed to interested high schools in California, Ohio, Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

Many of the schools that received kits successfully operated them, recording the data on cassette tapes for analysis. The transmitting antenna on the ACTIVE satellite failed to deploy properly, however, resulting in a decrease in signal strength of about 30 dB. Even though no waves were observed on the ground, the teachers reported a very high level of enthusiasm in their students. The teachers integrated the HSGS instructional material into their units on waves, electronics, radio, and the atmosphere. The student and teacher enthusiasm proved to HSGS that continuing such a program would be very useful in stimulating interest in science in general and space physics in particular among high school students. This volunteer organization evolved into INSPIRE.

Following ACTIVE and the proof of the concept through HSGS, INSPIRE was formally organized and incorporated. The objective of INSPIRE was to incrementally increase high school participation by a factor of ten and to more or less permanently establish a set of high school physics classes (through teacher participation) around the country to make observations of radio waves in the audio region. SEPAC (Space Experiments using Particle Accelerators), a payload on the ATLAS 1 Spacelab mission, flown in March/April 1992, provided the initial enthusiasm for INSPIRE classes. SEPAC consisted of an electron accelerator and support instrumentation and performed many experiments in the ionosphere, including producing an artificial aurora and investigating the electromagnetic waves produced by a pulsed electron beam (a virtual antenna).

To publicize INSPIRE, the project sent invitation letters to "The Physics Teacher" at the 10,000 largest high schools in the U.S. (of about 20,000 total). In addition, articles publicizing INSPIRE were published in various journals [Anonymous, 1991a, b, c, d; Ericson, 1991a, b; Mideke, 1991; Pine and Taylor, 1991; Reneau, 1991; Anonymous, 1992a, b, c; Taylor et. al, 1992; and White, 1992]. More than 1,000 schools (10% of those solicited) responded with orders for the package. The package included an electronic kit, 250 pages of background and instructional material, an audio tape of expected phenomena and a promise to analyze any tapes that were sent to INSPIRE after the mission.

An elaborate information distribution network was established to inform the participants of the experiment schedule, including hourly announcements on WWV (the U.S. time and frequency shortwave radio station), announcements as needed on four electronic bulletin boards, and a toll-free telephone number with a recorded announcement that was changed as new information became available. W. Pine participated in mission simulations and the mission, to act as the INSPIRE focus during the mission at the Payload Operations Control Center. ATLAS 1 flew for about a week and the plan called for ten virtual antenna experiments over the U.S.

The electron accelerator failed on its second virtual antenna operation, but many of the high schools participated in the backup listening schedule to study the changes in sferic (lightning impulse) propagation at sunrise. Approximately 300 cassette tapes were sent to INSPIRE for analysis. Each of the participant classes who sent tapes received in return at least one spectrogram of the data they had collected, a personal letter from M. Mideke, who performed all the analysis, describing what they had observed, and a Certificate of Appreciation for participating. As with ACTIVE, the teachers and students were wildly enthusiastic about INSPIRE. The project gave them a means of relating the physics they learned in class to a real, practical experiment, and one that was being done cooperatively with NASA (http://www.nasa.gov), using the Space Shuttle. Some classes also performed computer analysis of the signals they received.

After the success of INSPIRE/SEPAC, it was decided to continue the INSPIRE project. Several activities have been identified. One is the INSPIRE Journal published biannually, which, for a small subscription fee, describes INSPIRE activities and INSPIRE results. Another is a continuing coordinated observation campaign, in which participants across the U.S. make simultaneous observations to study the propagation of radio signals in the audio range. Examples are manmade signals such as the OMEGA and ALPHA radio navigation stations, and natural radio emissions such as sferics (the broadband electromagnetic impulses from lightning) and whistlers (frequency dispersed impulses from lightning).

On May 10, 1994, an annular eclipse swept across most of the U.S., with a maximum coverage of the sun of about 88 percent [Espenak, 1993]. Since the Earth's ionosphere is primarily created by solar UV, and since radio waves in the audio frequency region propagate in the Earthionosphere waveguide, it is natural to assume that the eclipse had an effect on radio propagation and that the changes might be observable with INSPIRE or ACTIVE receivers. Therefore, the INSPIRE project made INSPIRE/ECLIPSE94 a major observational objective. High school classes, observed before, during and after the eclipse. INSPIRE offered to analyze recorded data, using its network of volunteer analysts and more than 100 tapes were submitted and analyzed.

Kits and completed electric field receivers were offered for sale for about $60 (cost) to students, classes, teachers, amateur scientists and others to allow them to participate. Those with HSGS (magnetic field) or INSPIRE/SEPAC (electric field) receivers were able to use them, of course. Publicity for radio wave observations during the eclipse included Mideke [1993a; 1993b] and Taylor [1993d; 1993e]. Everywhere in the contiguous 48 states experienced at least a 48 percent coverage of the solar disk as measured by the overlap of lunar and solar diameters.

The Shoemaker-Levy Comet hit the Jovian atmosphere inJuly1994. The Italian INSPIRE team organized a special session to observe the phenomena with a widely dispersed group of VLF stations, recording from the very north to the very south of the Italian peninsula. The objective of the session was to understand if any triggered signals from Jupiter may have reached our atmosphere in the VLF range.

During the joint ASI(Italian Space Agency)/ NASA Space Shuttle Tethered Satellite mission in February, 1996, the European INSPIRE team made observations to support the electromagnetic experiments being performed with the up to 20 km long wire between the Shuttle and the satellite.

INTMINS included coordinated activities of MIR, INTERBALL (http://www.iki.rssi.ru/interball.html) , and INSPIRE. Ariel and Istochnik instrumentation on the MIR space station injected plasma blobs and beams of electrons into the ionospheric plasma. Using plasma and wave instruments of the INTERBALL project and the INSPIRE Project VLF radio wave observations, the following scientific objectives were addressed:

To meet these objectives, MIR was operated for two weekend periods each year, in April and November, from 1996 through 2000. During these periods. MIR operations were scheduled over the US, Europe and Russia. INSPIRE participants recorded their observations on cassette tapes, which were sent to INSPIRE data analysts for interpretation and to seek evidence of the MIR generated radio waves.

Yearly during the Leonids meteor shower period, a team of scientists and ham radio amateurs from MSFC fly a balloon to 30 km altitude. The balloon carries aerogels to capture micrometeoroids, a television camera to observe meteor trails, and starting in 1999, an INSPIRE receiver. Including the receiver was suggested by Flavio Gori from Italy, the INSPIRE European Coordinator. The objective was to observe VLF signals that might be generated by the meteors as they plunge through the atmosphere. Data is telemetered to the ground and streamed live over the internet.

IMAGE (Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration) was launched on March 25, 2000. The Radio Plasma Imager (RPI) on IMAGE can transmit radio waves in the 3 kHz to 3 MHz frequency range, and propagation experiments have been performed from IMAGE to INSPIRE participants around the world. Operations continue with VLF transmissions to the University of Otago, New Zealand ground VLF receiving station.

In late 2000, an INSPIRE receiver was permanently installed at MSFC, and live INSPIRE data has been streamed over the internet since. Data from a second receiver, at the University of Florida Radio Observatory, has been streaming since 2001, during the non thunderstorm season, shared with Radio JOVE data. Starting in Summer 2004, data from GSFC will begin to be streamed and in the Fall of 2004, an audio/video stream will be established from Mt. Aurora, near Fairbanks, Alaska. The audio stream will be INSPIRE data and the video stream will be real time television of the aurora. See links from http://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/inspire. This streaming data will allow schools that do not have access to good observing sites, schools with restrictions on field trips, or other restrictions to make INSPIRE observations from their classrooms or homes. The data can be recorded and analyzed, just like data from receivers that the students build.

Since the summer of 2001 INSPIRE Europe has collaborated with Ostfold College of Norway, in order to record VLF data in the Hessdalen Valley , http://www.hessdalen.org. Starting in 1984, Ostfold College and, later, the Italian Committee for the Hessdalen Project (http://www.itacomm.net) and the Radio Telescope of Medicina, Italy have been researching the intriguing phenomena of the appearance of random occurrence of light in the lower atmosphere. On March 27, 2004 , a conference on Italian Research in Hessdalen was held in Cecina , Italy . F. Gori, the European Coordinator, organized the conference. W. Taylor spoke to the Conference, via a Quicktime movie.

On March 20, 2004, W. Pine, W. Taylor and S. Korgan, an avid INSPIRE observer met in Fairbanks, Alaska to assist K. Bissell and A. Fowler in recording raw material for a BBC Radio 4 show. Songs of the Sky featured VLF radio recorded during the trip, explanations of the phenomena and reports of observations of sounds heard from the aurora. These sounds have been reported by hundreds of people and are audible directly, without a receiver. They have never been recorded, but the anecdotal evidence is overwhelming. In four days of observing and recording, there was almost always chorus and at night, almost always aurora. The show aired on May 31, 2004 and it was estimated that there were five millions listeners, world wide, to the show.

INSPIRE organizes and participates in workshops to train teachers in using INSPIRE in the classroom or in after school enrichment programs. The table below lists the workshops INSPIRE has held.

Date	Location	Attendees	Notes
December, 1990	Chaffey HS, Ontario, CA	54 teachers and students	A teacher from Washington, DC attended
March, 1992	Academy for Science and Foreign Languages, Huntsville, AL	40 teachers and others	Sponsored by the University of Alabama at Huntsville
January, 1997	Gallaudet University, Washington, DC	15 teachers and students	Included deaf students
January, 1998	Gallaudet University, Washington, DC	15 teachers and students	Included deaf students
February, 2001	Northside School District, San Antonio, TX	20 teachers and students
July, 2001	GSFC, Greenbelt, MD	35 teachers	NEW Urban Program
August, 2001	Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute, Rosman, NC	30 teachers and students	Small Radio Telescopes in Modern Astronomy Workshop
September, 2001	New Orleans, LA	20 teachers	National Science Teachers Association
March, 2002	Columbus, OH	9 teachers	International Technology Educators Association
October, 2002	UMASS, Lowell, MA	40 teachers	Lowell Physics Alliance
October, 2002	Nashua, NH	25 teachers	Northeastern Association of Technology Teachers
July, 2003	GSFC, Greenbelt, MD	35 teachers	Intern Workshop