[LOGO]

The EISCAT Scientific Association

[ Home ] [ Search ]

The EISCAT Scientific Association is an international research organisation operating two incoherent scatter radar systems, at UHF (931 MHz) and VHF (224 MHz), in Northern Scandinavia.

It is funded and operated by the research councils of Norway, Sweden, Finland, Japan, France, the United Kingdom and Germany (collectively, the EISCAT Associates).

EISCAT (European Incoherent Scattter) studies the interaction between the Sun and the Earth as revealed by disturbances in the magnetosphere and the ionised parts of the atmosphere (these interactions also give rise to the spectacular aurora, or Northern Lights). The radars are operated in both Common and Special Programme modes, depending on the particular research objective, and Special Programme time is accounted and distributed between the Associates according to rules which are published from time to time.

The EISCAT transmitter site is located close to the city of Tromsų, in Norway, and additional receiver stations are located in Sodankylä, Finland, and Kiruna, Sweden. The EISCAT Headquarters are also located in Kiruna. Several other Incoherent Scatter facilities are distributed about the World, see, for example, the elegant introduction to the facilities of our friends at the Millstone Hill Observatory and our page of pointers to other facilities.

The Incoherent Scatter Radar technique requires sophisticated technology and EISCAT engineers are constantly involved in upgrading the systems.

The EISCAT Scientific Association is currently constructing a new incoherent scatter radar facility, the EISCAT Svalbard Radar, near Longyearbyen, on the island of Spitsbergen, far to the North of the Norwegian mainland. The first ionospheric returns were received on 16 March 1996. General and detailed hardware and software documentation of the new facility is under construction, and an evolving description of related ground based instrumentation is also available.

In addition to the incoherent scatter radars, EISCAT also operates an Ionospheric Heater facility at Ramfjordmoen (including a Dynasonde) to support various active plasma physics experiments in the high latitude ionosphere.

[ Home ] [ Search ]


Further Reading

All sorts of operational information, including colour data plots, is available as shown in the index. More material will be added as time allows.

A collection of useful pointers to other documents is available in Appendix One while Appendix Two contains pointers to documents of interest to those constructing httpd services.


Further information about EISCAT can be obtained from:

Tony van Eyken.

EISCAT accepts no responsibility for the consequences of the use of any information or data obtained through this service. Please see also the copyright notice.

The style and opinions expressed or implied in these documents are entirely my own and do not necessarily represent the views of the EISCAT Scientific Association. As time progresses more features may be added to this service and suggestions for improvements to the structure or contents are most welcome :-)


[ Home ] [ Search ]

Updated by Tony, Thursday, 24-Jul-97 12:12:26 MET DST