The scientific aim of the ICI-1 sounding rocket -Investigation of Cusp Irregularities - is to identify the physical mechanism(s) in the cusp ionosphere that generates backscatter irregularities for coherent HF radars. The gradient drift instability is regarded as the dominant mode for producing backscatter targets under IMF B_z south conditions. recently made an attempt to test the potential role of gradient drift instability by combining CUTLASS observations with tomographic imaging of the electron density distribution, but concluded that such a test would require experimental observations on much finer scales than can be achieved by ground-based and satellite measurements. Sounding rocket measurements with meter scale spatial resolution is needed to resolve this problem. ICI-1 will be launched into the cusp ionosphere above Svalbard in December 2003.
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