Super Dual Auroral Radar Network
The Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) is an international radar network for studying the upper atmosphere and ionosphere, comprising eleven radars in the northern hemisphere and seven in the southern hemisphere that operate in the High Frequency (HF) bands between 8 and 22 MHz. The radars measure the Doppler velocity of plasma density irregularities in the ionosphere.
In their standard operating mode each radar scans through 16 beams of azimuthal separation 3.24°, with a total scan time of 1 min. Each beam is divided into 75 range gates of length 45 km, and so in each full scan the radars each cover 52° in azimuth and over 3000 km in range, an area of over 4×106 km².
SuperDARN began in 1983, when the first radar installation was constructed in Labrador, Canada.[1]
[edit] SuperDARN sites
The following is a list of SuperDARN sites, based on lists maintained by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory,[2] University of Saskatchewan,[3] and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.[4] As of 2009, the network is expanding to the middle latitudes, including sites in Hays, Kansas (near Fort Hays State University), Oregon, and the Azores, in order to support mapping outside of the auroral regions during large magnetic storms.[1]
*: Part of the Southern Hemisphere Auroral Radar Experiment
[edit] References
- ^ a b "National Science Foundation constructs radar facility on FHSU grounds; internship created". Fort Hays State University. August 27, 2009. http://www.fhsu.edu/currentevents/display_event.php?id=3956. Retrieved 2009-11-04.[dead link]
- ^ "SuperDARN Radar Locations". Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. http://superdarn.jhuapl.edu/sites/index.html. Retrieved 2009-07-14.[dead link]
- ^ "About SuperDARN". University of Saskatchewan. http://radar2.usask.ca/about.html. Retrieved 2006-06-03.
- ^ "SuperDARN Technical Information". Virginia Tech. http://www.space.vt.edu/superdarn/technical.html. Retrieved 2009-07-14.[dead link]
[edit] External links
- SuperDARN Network at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
- SuperDARN at the University of Alaska Geophysical Institute
- SuperDARN at Virginia Tech
Media related to Unwin Radar at Wikimedia Commons
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
This climatology/meteorology-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
