E3Doubt: A python package for E3D experiment planning and uncertainty estimation

by Spencer Mark Hatch

The EISCAT_3D incoherent scatter radar presents a groundbreaking opportunity
for studying a wide variety of phenomena. One of the challenges presented by
such an advanced facility is its tremendous flexibility: Given a science
question and an estimate of the the associated ionospheric conditions, how does
one begin to design an EISCAT_3D experiment? Here we present a set of
open-source tools written primarily in Python and R for estimating
uncertainties of EISCAT_3D measurements of three scalar quantities (plasma
density, electron and ion temperature) and one vector quantity (ion drift) for
arbitrary radar configurations and different combinations of beams. Using these
tools one can assess whether a candidate EISCAT_3D experiment is likely to
achieve the temporal and spatial resolution needed to study a particular
phenomenon, and vary parameters such as beam width, bit length, and duty cycle
to understand their effect on experimental uncertainties. As a demonstration we
use these tools to assess the uncertainty of maps of F-region ionospheric
convection constructed from EISCAT_3D ion drift measurements.