DAWG Update: November 2025

Guidance on updating grid/map process

Action item for PIs: Several presentations were made at the 2025 SuperDARN Workshop with analysis on including Sym-H into our data products higher than fit-level (map/grid). Our working group has not heard any guidance on the interest of modifying these data products. So the ask is for the PIs to discuss this modification initially to be sure there is good interest in pursuing this development. The results of this discussion should be communicated back to the DAWG co-chairs and welcome to have a smaller set meeting of PIs and DAWG co-chairs if necessary.

From the Data Analysis Working Group, the processing development is still being worked on and refined. It is believed that for Kp 6 and lower, the results of this development are good. But limited sample size of conditions of Kp above 6 are limiting refining the code.

RST tutorial/documentation update

Action item for PIS: During the 2025 SuperDARN Workshop, there were some discussions about updating the documentation for using data processing algorithms/binaries within RST. However, there is confusion if updating this documentation is to provide an example set of steps to use the software or if the documentation is to provide the standard set of steps that statistfies basic SuperDARN data product needs. Can it be clarified on which of these is the goal of the PIs for us to work on?

For reference, a fairly good set of documentation currently exists on our readthedocs site. This gives a good explanation of how to process rawacf files into fitacf files and other higher level data products. Our working group has brainstormed that this documenation could be improved by providing an number of example files that would give all users a starting point. In addition, example output plots or files could be provided in this documentation to give a user the satisfaction of getting the “right answer” when using RST for possibly the first time.

RST patch release

A patch release of RST (version 5.1.1) is very near completion as of the typing of this report and may already be available by the time of the PI meeting. This patch release is being necessitated by some omissions and updates in mostly the hdw.dat files within RST. The updates to files include:

Thank you to the PIs that reviewed your respective hdw.dat files during this update.

Working Group Meetings

As a small note on recruiting, we’re hoping to have some graduate students at Virginia Tech participate in this working group. Otherwise, we welcome new members to join one of our monthly meetings that we’re continuing to hold through the next few months. Feel free to contact one of the co-chairs or someone you know in the Working Group for info on these meetings or how to pariticpate.