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The polar ionosphere: Editorial
Author(s) -
Wickwar V. B.,
Meriwether John W.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/gl011i009p00881
Subject(s) - ionosphere , citation , polar , computer science , library science , physics , geophysics , astronomy
A major new ground-based facility for the study of the upper atmosphere and magnetosphere at very high geomagnetic latitudes commenced operations in Greenland in early 1983. This facility is the Sondrestrom radar. By transmitting high power pulses of UHF radiation into the atmosphere and collecting the faint incoherent echoes produced through electromagnetic scattering of the incident beam by the ionosphere, a technique with nearly 30 years of development is able to observe the properties of the upper atmosphere for altitudes ranging between the D region and the magnetosphere. Originally located at Chatanika, Alaska, this instrument was dismantled in March, 1982, and transported to Sondre Stromfjord, Greenland, by ship via the Panama Canal. Hard work saw the radar reassembled and made operational in six months. Observations were resumed with an instrument identical in