Welcome to the Sondrestrom Facility


The facility, including transmitter and instrument building, power plant, and crew housing


January 1997 and April 1997 solar events

Sondrestrom Radar data associated with the January 1997 and April 1997 solar events is now online. Follow these links :


The Sondrestrom Facility

The Sondrestrom facility, funded by the NSF Upper Atmospheric Facilities Program, is operated and managed by SRI International. It is part of a global network of incoherent scatter radars. The facility is located north of the Arctic Circle in western Greenland near Kangerlussuaq (Søndre Strømfjord). The invariant magnetic latitude is approximately 74 degrees.

The principal instrument, an incoherent scatter radar with a fully steerable 32-m parabolic antenna, is complemented by a wide range of optical and radiowave instruments operated by SRI for a variety of universities and government labs. These instruments include:

As the following cartoon illustrates, these instruments cover a significant portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.



The instruments also provide measurement capabilities for a large number of ionospheric and atmospheric parameters.



A number of these instruments can provide near real-time data visualization via the Internet. This facility is providing a test bed for the NSF Upper Atmospheric Research Collaboratory (UARC)being developed at the University of Michigan.

Access to the facility can be arranged by SRI for qualified scientific users. Information regarding visits to Sondrestrom can be obtained by contacting SRI. A detailed facility description and assistance with siting additional instruments can also be provided by SRI. Requests for data from the various instruments should be directed to the specific principal investigator.

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