Most advanced space weather radar to be built in Arctic
23 August, 2017
The most advanced space weather radar in the world is to be built in the Arctic by an international partnership including the UK, thanks to new investment, including in the …
The EISCAT science support group is a collaboration between the British Antarctic Survey and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, funded via the National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS)
EISCAT, the European Incoherent Scatter Association, is a scientific organization that facilitates research on the atmosphere and space weather using high power ionospheric radars in the Arctic.
The UK is one of the six members of the association, represented by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). This gives UK scientists access to the facilities operated by EISCAT and the archive of data stretching back to the mid-1980s.
The facilities include three radars: two near the Norwegian city of Tromsø and a third on the island of Spitzbergen in the Svalbard archipelago. The radars primarily measure properties of the Earth’s ionosphere (density & temperature) and can observe as low as the stratosphere (~20 km altitude) and as high as the top of the ionosphere (~2000 km altitude).
As the UK is an EISCAT Associate country, UK scientists gain access to the data taken by the radars (stretching back to the mid 1980s) and can apply for observing time to run their own experiments.
UK EISCAT science support provides expert help in developing and running experiments and in the interpretation of the measurements that are collected. They manage UK access to the EISCAT facilities via the time allocation process and provide expert advice on use of past radar data.
EISCAT UK science support provides support to all of the UK groups using the EISCAT facilities, either directly or indirectly.
Some specific objectives are to:
23 August, 2017
The most advanced space weather radar in the world is to be built in the Arctic by an international partnership including the UK, thanks to new investment, including in the …