The Office of Naval Research and the Naval Research Laboratory have coordinated the first of a series of scientific campaigns to gather ionospheric measurements to characterize the dynamics of space weather. The campaign participants include several universities, government agencies, and private corporations. The focus of the campaign is to gather high-quality, spatial and temporal coincident data to study midlatitude ionospheric specification, compare various ionospheric measurement techniques, and lay the groundwork for validating new ionospheric monitoring instruments and models. The location of the campaign was chosen to further investigate midlatitude ionospheric depletions previously observed above Puerto Rico. In addition to direct comparisons an ionospheric specification model currently under construction will assimilate the data set collected during these campaigns. This paper presents an overview of the first campaign that occurred in the Caribbean, centered about Puerto Rico, in June 1998. The paper also includes a brief description of the variety of monitoring techniques used and the preliminary results of the comparison. ¿ 2001 American Geophysical Union