IAP expands radar system in northern Norway
In June 2024, the IAP successfully completed a new remote radar receiving field on the island of Langoya near the village of Sto. This receiving field is part of the MAARSY3D project and complements the existing Middle Atmosphere Alomar Radar System (MAARSY), which is operated on the neighbouring island of Andoya.
MAARSY is an instrument for researching the mesosphere, particularly in the altitude range of 50 to 120 kilometres. Until now, the system worked almost exclusively in a monostatic configuration and measured parameters along the radar beam. With the new receiving array, which consists of 96 antennas and is positioned around 55 kilometres away from MAARSY, it is now possible to carry out high-resolution bistatic measurements of targets in the mesosphere. This allows a more precise investigation of spatial irregularities and tracers in the atmosphere.
The new receiving array complements MAARSY's active monostatic radar experiments to study radar echoes in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere, such as polar mesospheric summer echoes (PMSE) and meteors. It is the first remote receiver of the MAARSY3D project and will initially be used to test the concept in co-operation with the comparable instrument KAIRA at the Kilpisjärvi site of the University of Oulu in Finland.
The Leibniz Institute of Atmospheric Physics is delighted with the successful progress and future opportunities offered by the MAARSY3D project.
Photo: IAP/Ralph Latteck
The Leibniz-Institute of Atmospheric Physics is one of the German main centers for Middle Atmosphere research and maintains active cooperations with several international research organizations. The institute is located near the Baltic Sea resort Kühlungsborn, owns a separate site on the island Rügen, and is a major partner of the ALOMAR observatory in northern Norway. As associated institute of the Rostock University it is part of the teaching programme in physics. A total of about 90 persons is employed at IAP. The institute realizes an equal-opportunity and family-friendly human resource policy and is certified with the audit "berufundfamilie" ('career and family').
Contact: Director Prof. Claudia Stolle cstolle@
iap-kborn.de