SAMBA-AMBER

To gain a more complete global understanding of equatorial ionosphere motions, deployment of ground-based magnetometers in Africa is essential. The currently funded African Meridian B-Field Education and Research (AMBER) magnetometer array comprises seven magnetometers stationed in Adigrat, Ethiopia; Medea, Algeria; Yaounde, Cameroon; Tsumeb, Namibia; Abuja, Nigeria, Conakry, Guinea; and Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. The network has been extended equatorially to Asia with stations at Bangkok and Phuket, Thailand, Manila and Davao, Philippines, and to South America with stations in Belem and Petrolina, Brazil.

AMBER stations are used to connect the European IMAGE-SAMNET-SEGMA arrays to low and dip-equator latitudes, and link up with South African Intermagnet and Antarctic magnetometers in the southern hemisphere.

While providing complete meridian observation in the region and filling the largest land-based gap in global magnetometer coverage, the AMBER array addresses two fundamental areas of space physics: first, the processes governing electrodynamics of the equatorial ionosphere as a function of latitude (or L-shell), local time, longitude, magnetic activity, and season, and second, ULF pulsation strength and its connection with equatorial electrojet strength at low/mid-latitude regions.

In coordination with GPS receivers in Africa, the AMBER magnetometer network provides a great opportunity to understand the electrodynamics that governs equatorial ionosphere motions. While magnetometers routinely observe the F region plasma drift mechanism (ExB drift), GPS stations monitor the structure of plasma at low/mid-latitudes in the African sectors. Combined observations provide enormous opportunity to understand the unique equatorial ionospheric structures in the African sector.

The AMBER project creates sustainable research/training infrastructure within the African universities, enabling opportunities for space science undergraduate students to perform further research activities within their own countries..