Joint NSF/EISCAT Radar School, Arecibo, Puerto Rico

Following the earlier announcement, the radar school web pages are on-line and ready to receive your registrations! The next radar school will be a joint NSF-EISCAT effort analogue to our joint Greenland radar school in 2011. The radar school will take place

21st – 26th July 2014 at Arecibo Observatory, Puerto Rico.

The school provides students with hands-on experience in designing and running experiments at incoherent scatter radar facilities. During this summer school, students will have the opportunity to run experiments with the Arecibo incoherent scatter radar (ISR) and use data from multiple ISR observatories, such as EISCAT, Poker Flat (PFISR), Millstone Hill, Resolute Bay (RISR), Sondrestrom, and Jicamarca. The school will be structured to provide presentations in the morning and hands-on experience in experiment design and analysis in the afternoon. The morning lectures will include an introduction to the theory of incoherent scatter, radar operations, ISR analysis techniques, and the Madrigal database. The afternoon exercises will involve working closely with ISR facility staff in the topic areas of proposal design, experiment execution, and data analysis. All students will have the opportunity to work one-on-one with experienced scientists from multiple institutions.

The ISR summer school is suitable for graduate and advanced undergraduate students and attendance is limited, and the deadline for application is 3rd March 2014.

For details on how to apply, please visit the individual web sites:

• ISR Summer School (students of US institutions, others considered case-by-case)
• EISCAT Radar School (participants from EISCAT countries, others considered case-by-case)

If you apply through the EISCAT side, please note the page on Location and Travel Advise.

We are looking forward to welcoming you at the Radar School! If you have any questions, contact us using the details given in the respective web pages.

Is the Sun going to sleep?

In interesting question, are we going to have beautiful Northern Lights during the rest of the century, and what implications would a dramatic change in solar activity have on Earth's climate and weather patterns?

Watch the report on the BBC News site:

"Scientists are saying that the sun is in a phase of "solar lull" - meaning that it has fallen asleep - and it is baffling them.
"History suggests that periods of unusual "solar lull" coincide with bitterly cold winters.
"Rebecca Morelle looks into the effect that this inactivity could have on our current climate, and what the implications might be for global warming.

Call for Papers: 40th COSAR Scientific Assembly, Moscow

The 40th COSPAR Scientific Assembly will be held in Moscow, Russia, from 2nd to 10th August 2014. Also at this COSPAR meeting, we will have a special session dedicated to radar:

Scientific Event C0.3 - "New Generation Middle and Upper Atmosphere Radars: Applications and Development"

Scientific organisers are Esa Turunen, Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory, Finland, and Mamoru Yamamoto, Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere of Kyoto University, Japan, and the organising committee further includes Anja Strømme, SRI International, USA, and Craig Heinselman, EISCAT Scientific Association, Sweden.

Event description:

Recent advance in radar technology has allowed deployment of modern phased-array atmospheric and ionospheric radar facilities such as the MAARSY radar in Norway and PANSY in Antarctic. Currently new atmospheric and ionospheric radar proposals appear at several continents simultaneously and phased-array incoherent scatter radars such as EISCAT_3D and AMISR in Antarctic and Ethiopia are being prepared for financing. Several existing radar facilities are expected to be or were lately upgraded for new capabilities. This session is directed to develop synergies between the user groups of these and other radars which study the middle and upper atmosphere and ionosphere. Reports on recent science achievements as well as technological development of the radar capabilities across disciplines are envisaged. Implementations of new measurement methods and multi-instrumental data interpretations are also encouraged.

Deadline of abstract submission: 14th February 2014.

Photo of Kremlin at night from Wikimedia Commons (source).

Dad sends his kids to space!

This is the amazing story of Tero Tähtinen from Finland, who set out to launch his children into space. Read more about it on the project's Facebook page, or go directly to the videos: short version (3'18") and Director's cut (11'23").

With these amazing images we wish all of you a very good weekend!

In the news:

Finnish Dad Sends 'Youngest Astronauts Ever' On A Space Odyssey

Isä lähetti lastensa kuvat kohti avaruutta heliumpallolla

2014

The Sun in the Arctic is on the rise again, and the countdown is running! There are only nine months left before the end of the FP7 Preparatory Phase Project "EISCAT_3D: A European three-dimensional imaging radar for atmospheric and geospace research". Thus a lot of effort will go into drawing all the project results together, and further decisions will be made.

In 2013 EISCAT_3D received some initial funding from Sweden, and very encouraging signals from Norway and Finland. Further applications for funding are expected to be submitted in 2014.

The EISCAT_3D User Community will have its next meeting in Uppsala, Sweden, 12th to 14th May 2014. This meeting has become somewhat of a tradition already, since it has taken place every year since 2009. We very much encourage everyone interested in the future of EISCAT and EISCAT_3D to take part in this meeting, which will be the last User Meeting during the Preparatory Phase Project.

We are looking forward to an exciting year 2014, and wish all of you a very Happy New Year!