SuperDARN - HAARP's older brother

[Edgar 2.0 Profile]

I have to admit i've never heard of it until today while i was trying to locate the remote Kerguelen Islands.



While looking at its Wiki page ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerguelen_Islands ) i found an interesting little note :

The former sounding rocket range to the east of Port-aux-Français 49°21′S 70°16′E is currently the site of a SuperDARN radar.

So what's a SuperDARN radar?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SuperDARN

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 8.0 MHz (37m) and 22.0 MHz (14m).

The Java applets that are used as the radar data display system currently indicate the 10 MHz (30m) and 14 MHz (21m) frequency bands as being primarily used in 2012 (in the Northern Hemisphere). The radars measure the Doppler velocity (and other related characteristics) of plasma density irregularities in the ionosphere.

In the 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.

The SuperDARN radar system has never really made a mark for itself in "pop culture", in spite of the number of nations that have parts of the system. On YouTube (but rarely other video sites) there are videos that various people have upped that hint or say that SuperDARN is equivalent in functionality to the HAARP system.

It is unclear how or why SuprDARN is being lumped in with systems like HAARP that operate at 100x to 1000x more output power. Due to the advancement of receiver technology at SuperDARN sites the receiver subsystems are quite sensitive, and do not require or need HF transmitters operating above 5 kW.

And here is where these radars were located in 2006:



Fields of view of the SuperDARN radars in the northern (a) and southern (b) hemispheres.


And here's a description from Dartmouth Radar page :

During normal operation, pulses of radio waves are transmitted in a beam directed forward of the antenna arrays. The radio signal travels up into the Earth's ionosphere and is partially reflected by irregularities in the plasma that makes up the ionosphere. The reflected (backscattered) signal travels back to the radar where the Doppler shift in the signal is measured. Using the same principle as that used by weather radar to detect motions of the atmosphere, a SuperDARN radar can measure the speed at which plasma is moving. By combing observations from all of the radars in the network, a comprehensive view of the plasma motion in the polar ionospheres can be measured and used in studies of the electromagnetic coupling between the solar wind the Earth's magnetosphere.

(SuperDARNs)are part of an internationally funded global
network of radars known as the Super Dual Auroral
Radar Network (SuperDARN). There are more than 27 SuperDARN
radars currently operating in the northern and
southern hemispheres.
Each radar in the SuperDARN network is operated and maintain
ed independently by the principle investigator (PI)
of the given radar.

http://engineering.dartmouth.edu/superdarn/downloads/radar_description.pdf

And there are the complete descriptions of SuperDARN locations :

http://davit.ece.vt.edu/hdw/radartable.pdf

Now, can someone explain to me thepractical purpose of these radars, except of " the instantaneous mapping of the ionospheric convection pattern"?

[The57ironman Profile]

used in studies of the electromagnetic coupling between the solar wind the Earth's magnetosphere.

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.. ....and what else, huh..?


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[Cosmine Profile]

Kharkiv’s Institute of Ionosphere is one of the world’s leading research centers that studies near-Earth space physics and solar-terrestrial couplings with an up-to-date, most accurate and informative method of incoherent scatter (IS) of radio waves. In 2001, the scientific center named as “Ionospheric sonde” was registered as the National Property of Ukraine. There are 11 IS radar systems in the world, 5 radars belonging to the United States. They began constructing Kharkov’s IS radars in 1966. First experimental results were obtained in 1972




http://englishrussia.com/2012/03/20/ins ... n-kharkiv/
..................................................................................................


Ionospheric sounding has been conducted routinely for more than 60 years in China. A complete network of ground-based sounding sites covers the Chinese subcontinent, including vertical and oblique sounding, GPS measurement of ionospheric TEC and scintillation, VLF receivers measuring the lower ionosphere etc. In this paper, we give a picture of the sounding network, equipment situation and data acquired with emphasis on vertical ionosonde network




http://www.thelivingmoon.com/45jack_fil ... ation.html



Sorry for the pics just click the links

[Edgar 2.0 Profile]

Kharkiv’s Institute of Ionosphere is one of the world’s leading research centers that studies near-Earth space physics and solar-terrestrial couplings with an up-to-date, most accurate and informative method of incoherent scatter (IS) of radio waves. In 2001, the scientific center named as “Ionospheric sonde” was registered as the National Property of Ukraine. There are 11 IS radar systems in the world, 5 radars belonging to the United States. They began constructing Kharkov’s IS radars in 1966. First experimental results were obtained in 1972




http://englishrussia.com/2012/03/20/ins ... n-kharkiv/
..................................................................................................

[Lisko Profile]

Edgar 2.0 Good one

[Edgar 2.0 Profile]

SuperDARN was apparently one of the topics from Argentina's protest to the UN last year, regarding Falkland Islands :

Argentina’s Protest to the United Nations

8th February 2012

According to instructions received from President Cristina Fernandez of Kirchner, Chancellor Héctor Timerman met this afternoon at the UN headquarters in New York with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, who reported personally about presentation of the Argentine Government concerning the militarization the South Atlantic by the United Kingdom. Also to Ban Ki-moon stated on the violation of United Kingdom of about 40 the UN resolutions that call for the dialogue between that country and the Argentina to
peacefully resolve the conflict started in 1833 with the military invasion of the Falkland Islands
Then, Timerman held formal presentation argentina AmbassadorKodjo Menan, President of the UN Security Council, and maintained a meeting with the President of the General Assembly of the United Nations, Ambassador Nassir Abdulaziz Al - Nasser.

SUPERDARN HF RADAR

On October 22, 2010, started the installation, in PRADO DE GANSO (Islands) (MALVINAS), HF radar, with the support of the BRITISH ANTARCTIC SURVEY and the University of LEICESTER, which would have begun to operate from 10 of December. Antennas Park that makes up this system consists of SIXTEEN (16) masts of fifteen (15) feet tall.
There are five (5) such radars installed in Antarctica and Islands Sub-Antarctic. Part of the global network of high-frequency (HF) radar, known as Super DUAL series RADAR NETWOK (SuperDARN), is constituted by Twenty-eight (28) stations / recipients of waves at the frequencies mentioned, whose purpose would be to the scientific study of the upper atmosphere in the polar regions.
Countries that possess these stations are USA, RUGB, France, Japan Canada, South Africa, AUSTRALIA and New Zealand.
From the military point of view, this system is being used to run tasks surveillance, reconnaissance and maritime and air control of a large area of the South Atlantic and South America, complementing the network early warning that the United Kingdom has deployed to the Falkland Islands.

http://falklandstimeline.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/argentina-protest-feb-2012-translation.pdf

[Fourscorn Profile]

Why are they all watching the poles? Someting gonna pop out? Or dive in? Maybe that is what is melting the ice caps?