CEDAR: An aeronomy initiative

A 3‐year process of committee deliberations and community‐wide annual workshops by scientists involved in aeronomical studies has led recently to the presentation of a final report to the National Science Foundation, outlining a comprehensive 7‐year plan for the ground‐based study of the earth's upper atmosphere. The two‐volume report, entitled “CEDAR: Coupling, Energetics, and Dynamics of the Atmospheric Regions,” was assembled under the aegis of the Aeronomy Program of NSF and involved the efforts of a team of 66 active researchers from 32 U.S. and Canadian institutes. The volumes, taken together, contain a review of the present state of the art in current and projected experimental and theoretical capabilities for the field, ranging from the middle atmosphere (mesosphere) through the thermosphere and ionosphere and into the exosphere and protonosphere of the earth. The first volume contains the scientific rationale for a program of careful, measured instrumental development and deployment activities, coupled with related theoretical modeling work using a fully coordinated approach to a series of major outstanding scientific questions.