EISCAT Radar

The EISCAT Scientific Association is an international research association with the participation of a European countries such as Finland, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom and other countries such as Japan. France left the association at the end of 2006, and China joined at the same time.
EISCAT (European Incoherent Scattter) operates three incoherent scatter radar systems, UHF (931 MHz) and VHF (224 MHz), in northern Scandinavia, and VHF (500 MHz), in Svalbard. The continental EISCAT transceiver site is located in Norway, and additional receiving stations are in Finland and in Sweden. The Svalbard radar (Picture) is located near the town of Longyearbyen. EISCAT 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 (Northern Lights).
EISCAT radars operate about 1500 hours per year for the mainland and about 1000 hours for the Svalbard site, half of which is reserved for special programs for associates, and the remaining time is run under a predefined mode as common programs, broadcast regularly according to schedules defined by the EISCAT Scientific Committee. Since 2007, the distribution of observation time between common and special programs has been modified, as well as the total number of observation times, but the general philosophy remains the same.

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