Space Science School and Radar School

The EISCAT Scientific Association participates in this year's Space Science School, in Sanya, China, 10-19 October 2018. The school is organised by the International Space Science Institute Beijing (ISSI) and the Asia-Pacific Space Co-operation Organisation (APSCO). Embedded in the school, there will be an EISCAT incoherent scatter radar school.

The school is sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the National Space Science Center, CAS (NSSC), the Sanya Institute of Remote Sensing (RADI), and the Chinese Research Institute for Radiowave Propagation (CRIRP). CRIRP is an associate of EISCAT.

For more information and registration, please visit the school's web site.

Deadline: 31st July 2018.

EISCAT Symposium and Radar School 2019

Sunset at Nallikari beach, Oulu, Finland. Photo: Th.Ulich, SGO.

The next International EISCAT Symposium 2019 will take place in Oulu, Finland, 19th to 23rd August 2019, at the University of Oulu, co-organised by the university's Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory and the Ionospheric Physics Group.

The EISCAT Radar School will take place during the week before the symposium, 12th to 17th August 2019, either in Oulu or Sodankylä. The radar school will be supported by the EISCAT Scientific Association.

Detailed announcements, and a dedicated web site, with deadlines will become available shortly.

Mark your calendars, and welcome to join us for these events!

Incoherent Scatter Radar School: Student Presentations and Conclusions

Today was the high point of our incoherent scatter radar (ISR) school, as it was the students' turn to give presentations, while lecturers would listen and ask questions. The 7 groups had half an hour each to present the results of their radar experiments, explaining their scientific motivations and experiment designs, describing the data they had obtained, and discussing on their interpretation.

The talks were really high-level ones; everybody had put a great effort into the task and played the game. Even when the initial scientific targets could not be reached – because of technical problems or too quiet ionospheric conditions – the students managed to come up with a plan B and did a great job in analysing their data sets.

Group 3 studied the polar cap convection with an ESR experiment.
Photo: M. Lavarra

Among the observed phenomena, we had beautiful polar mesospheric summer echoes, electron precipitation, polar cap convection, auroral arcs... And ISR observations were confirmed by measurements from other instruments: ionosonde, SuperDARN, GPS TEC data, satellite observations... 

After closing discussions, it was already time to say goodbye. Most participants are now on their way to Helsinki, spending the night on the train. Hopefully students and lecturers have had a great time in Sodankylä and got to know new potential future collaborators/friends. So, the ISR school is now over... until next time!

Incoherent Scatter Radar School: Analysing Experiment Data

As the end of the radar school is already approaching, a greater and greater part of the programme is dedicated to group work. Yesterday, the morning lectures were essentially focusing on analysing the incoherent scatter radar (ISR) data and fitting the ISR spectrum to extract ionospheric parameters. Other lectures had a more scientific focus and showed examples of ionospheric phenomena which can be studied with ISRs. One more lecture aimed at underlining the importance of keeping a critical view on the analysed data before drawing scientific conclusions.

In the afternoon, the group work on the analysis of Tuesday night's data was continued. Most groups managed to come up with a clear plan on how to divide tasks, which features in the data to focus on, and which additional data sets to look at.

Group 5 looking for particle precipitation signatures in their data.
Photo: C. Heinselman

This all looks very promising for the presentations of Saturday morning. It seems that each group have their own scientific focus, which makes it all the more interesting. Let's see how far they manage to get by this evening!

Incoherent Scatter Radar School: Excursion in Luosto

After the experiment night, it would have been hard to attend lectures in the morning. So instead, an excursion was organised in Luosto. Students and teachers were divided into six teams and took part to a treasure hunt around the Ahvenlampi pond. With each step came a short text about a "Finnish Fun Fact", along with a related question aimed for providing a few insights on Finnish culture.

Initially, the weather was very nice, and there were only few mosquitoes. Participants came across a lot of bilberries, and several of them could even find cloudberries. The end of the treasure hunt was however somehow precipitated by the arrival of a thunderstorm with heavy rain. Coffee was served in the small laavu where the whole party just fit, before all retreated to the restaurant of the local hotel. As a souvenir, participants were all given a small amethyst stone from the Lampivaara mine – the only active one in Europe – located a few kilometres away from Ahvenlampi.

The Red team fishing a hint.
Photo: C. Heinselman

Lectures resumed in the afternoon, and students could then download the data of their experiments and started to analyse them. In the evening, the workshop banquet allowed our guests to try poronkäristys (sautéed reindeer) and cloudberry pannacotta. Those who were not completely exhausted after the experiment night and the morning treasure hunt were also given the opportunity to experience Finnish sauna at the observatory.

And we are half-way through our radar school already!

Incoherent Scatter Radar School: Experiment Night

One of the highlights of the Radar School is the experiment night, which took place yesterday. The participants were divided into groups of 5 to 6 people and had to design a radar experiment to be run using EISCAT.

After the morning lectures providing students with some background on the incoherent scatter theory, pulse coding and experiment configuration, each group was asked to come up with a scientific focus related to the ionosphere (study of a particular region, feature, or process). Based on their topic of interest, they had then to discuss what kind of trade-off they could reach in order to obtain the best possible data. Which altitude and latitude do they want to observe? Is there a preferred magnetic local time for the features they are interested in? What time and range resolution do they need? Is there an optimal pointing direction or scanning pattern in their case?

Once the group agreed on the answers to those questions, they could write a proposal of experiment for either the EISCAT mainland VHF radar or the EISCAT Svalbard Radar (ESR), and request a 2-hour time slot between 17:30 and 01:30 local time. The proposal needed to mention which experiment code should be run, and the desired pointing direction. All those details were submitted to the lecturers, who evaluated them and notified acceptance within 10 minutes, to start with the first experiment less than 30 minutes later (as someone pointed out, this is a once-in-a-lifetime situation!).

Monitoring the polar cap convection with ESR.
Photo: E. Turunen

The experiments were run from the lecture hall of the Polaria building in SGO, by the students themselves, under the supervision of lecturers with experience as EISCAT users. The experiment time slots were intertwined with "radar walks" around Tähtelä, during which the main on-site instruments were briefly presented (and local mosquitoes were properly fed).

During one of the "radar walks" at SGO.
Photo: C. Heinselman

For the rest of the week, participants will retrieve and analyse their data. More on that in the coming days!

Incoherent Scatter Radar School: Let's Get Started!

This week, Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory is hosting the Incoherent Scatter Radar School jointly organised and sponsored by EISCAT/SGO and the National Science Foundation (NSF)/SRI International. A total of 39 participants coming from institutes over 13 countries (and of 20 nationalities), are taking part in this radar workshop. The summer school also involves 15 motivated lecturers and organisers from Europe and the United States.

Most participants arrived on Sunday morning, after a night on the train between Helsinki and Rovaniemi (oh yes: to make it easier, we managed to get Rovaniemi airport closed this month). As the bus was heading to Sodankylä, most of them crossed the Arctic Circle for the first time in their lives.

Once in Sodankylä, and after having a delicious lunch and settling down at the student accommodation at Lapin Ammattiopisto, those who were interested were given the opportunity to take part in a walking tour of the village. The weather was exceptional, which certainly contributed to encourage our guests to try salmiakki icecream in front of the K-supermarket. Tervetuloa Suomeen!

The EISCAT receiver in Sodankylä (a little bit hidden behind a group of people)
Photo: T. Ulich

The official programme started yesterday morning with lectures presenting Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory and introducing ionospheric physics and basics of radar theory. In the evening, a small home-made radar demonstration showed how with relatively simple electronics and computing power it is possible to measure the speed or the range of a given target.

This has been a very promising start, and there is even more to come. To be continued...

Radar School 2016 - Extended Deadline 15.03

The deadline for submitting applications to the Incoherent Scatter Radar School jointly organised by EISCAT (Europe) and NSF (US) is extended until 15th March. The school will be held in Sodankylä from 24th to 30th July 2016.

Candidates who have not yet sent their application are invited to follow the instructions on the following webpages:

- EISCAT participants: http://www.sgo.fi/Events/RS2016/index.php

- US participants: http://www.amisr.com/workshop

For any inquiries, please contact RS2016(at)sgo.fi (EISCAT/SGO) or summerschool@esd.sri.com (US NSF).

Selected participants will be notified by 29th March 2016.

Blue and green: Sodankylä in July.
Photo: M. Grandin

International Incoherent Scatter Radar School: Sodankylä 2016

We have the pleasure to announce the upcoming International Incoherent Scatter Radar School on 24–30 July 2016. This summer school will be held in Sodankylä, and is jointly organised by the Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory and SRI International. It is sponsored by the EISCAT Scientific Association and the US National Science Foundation (NSF).

The purpose of the summer school is to provide graduate and advanced undergraduate students with a solid background on the incoherent scatter radars, from the underlying theory of incoherent scatter to the design of radar experiments and data analysis, with a strong practical component. In particular, the students will be given the opportunity to design and run their own experiments using the EISCAT radar system, and then to analyse their data sets.

The school will be organised as follows. The lectures will take place during the morning sessions, from Monday 25 until Friday 29 July. The afternoon sessions will be dedicated to hands-on work in  small groups, with the objectives of designing a radar experiment suitable to study a chosen physical phenomenon, and of analysing the obtained data accordingly. There will also be many opportunities for students to directly interact with the lecturers during these sessions. The experiments will be run during the 26-27 July night. On Saturday 30 July morning, the groups will present their results to all  the summer school participants.

The school will take place near the beautiful banks of the river Kitinen.

Photo: M. Grandin

All students will be hosted at the local vocational school in Sodankylä, and meals (breakfasts, lunches and dinners) will be provided.

The deadline for submitting an application is 6 March 2016. The selected participants will be notified by 29 March 2016.

More information and detailed instructions for application can be found on the following webpages:

- EISCAT participants: http://www.sgo.fi/Events/RS2016/index.php

- US participants: http://www.amisr.com/workshop

For any inquiries, please contact RS2016(at)sgo.fi (EISCAT/SGO) or summerschool(at)esd.sri.com (US NSF).

International Incoherent Scatter Radar School 2016

In the near future the EISCAT Scientific Association will face a major instrumental upgrade with the ESFRI Roadmap project "EISCAT_3D: A European Three-Dimensional Imaging Radar for Atmospheric and Geospace Research."

The NSF and EISCAT, in co-operation with the Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory, will run a training course for new users of the incoherent scatter radars, from 24 to 30 July 2016 (Sunday to Saturday). The training course will be held in Sodankylä, where one of the EISCAT VHF remote sites is located.

The course will cover all essential aspects of the current incoherent scatter radar systems, including the science programme. An overview of the existing hardware and software was provided and future plans will be discussed, with an emphasis on phased array radars in preparation of EISCAT_3D.

The course will have a very strong emphasis on practicals, i.e. work in groups of participants on real data. There will be dedicated radar experiments for every group, and the groups will analyse their data and present their results under the guidance of an experienced team of instructors.

For more information, please refer to the radar school web pages.

Deadlines for registration are still undetermined, and we will provide more information soon.

Photo: Craig Heinselman, EISCAT.