Field of the Space Weather Science Camp

More from our intrepid KAIRA-reporter... Esa Turunen.

The field trip to Kjell Henriksen Observatory and EISCAT Svalbard Radar during the Longyearbyen Science Camp revealed how actual work in science is done. A vital part of research is getting your data, in this case using the highest quality ground-based instrumentation for Space Weather measurements. Professor Fred Sigernes welcomed the group at KHO with a comprehensive lecture about the the scientific quest for knowledge and understanding Nature's most beautiful light show, the Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights. He also had a very special task after introducing all the fancy optical instruments of KHO. Longyearbyen as part of Svalbard archipelago belongs to the realm of a special protected animal: Ice bear. As KHO and ESR are located outside of Longyearbyen, 10 km out of the town on gently rolling slopes of a mountain, it is important to follow the all safety regulations. These include a need of a an armed guard when moving in the field anywhere outside of the town centre. While the students arrived to KHO by bus transfer, the 1 km distance between KHO and ESR was left for a snowy walk, in -15 C temperature and moderate northern mountain wind. Prof. Sigernes followed our group carrying his rifle, securing a safe walk down to the radar.

At ESR, after a Norwegian light lunch, consisting of a cheese baguette, bottled water and a fruit, we met the ESR Site Manager Halvard Boholm. He explained what the huge 42 and 32 meter antenna dishes are used for, and showed the technical and operational details of the incoherent scatter radar. Visiting the control room and the transmitter hall of the 1.5 megawatt radar is an impressing experience, very similar to visiting the underground facilities at large particle accelerators. Returning back to UNIS Dr. Noora Partamies once more went through yesterdays radar data in lecture hall and prepared everyone for the evening exercise: Hunt for aurora using your own camera. Unfortunately the skies did not clear up enough and the evening was mostly cloudy. We saw from instruments on web that faint aurora is visible south of Longyearbyen, but the main photograph of the evening session turned out to be a light painting, where students formed the letters of the word Longyearbyen in the air. They used the illumination from their mobile phone displays. After returning back to hotel, one of the students however persistently went out to check the skies. In the end he managed to get a photograph of a weak auroral arc in the horizon. The phenomenon was named the "Sakari Arc" accordingly.

ESR control room. (Photo: E. Turunen)

Lunch at the coffee room of ESR site. (Photo: E. Turunen)

Dr. Noora Partamies explaining variations of electron density profiles during the moderate aurora on Tuesday. (Photo: E. Turunen)

The student group photo in front of the fixed-pointing ESR 42m antenna. (Photo: E.Turunen)

Walking in the snow. Visibility during the 1 km walk from KHO to ESR was not really perfect, nor was the walk not too hot. A good start of an arctic action day at ESR. (Photo: E. Turunen)

ESR transmitter hall with the 1.5 megawatt transmitter. (Photo: E. Turunen)

Day three of the Space Weather Science Camp

Another report from our KAIRA correspondent, Esa Turunen, in Longyearbyen, Svalbard.


The Finnish students Science Camp in Longyearbyen had a day of full action yesterday in the beautiful auditorium "Lassegrotta" of the University Center in Svalbard (UNIS). After hearing lectures about the the EISCAT radars and ionospheric measurement techniques as well as about the coming ESR experiment by the Finnish scientists Esa and Noora who supervise the group, the students were introduced to space physics in Norway by Kjartan Olafsson from University of Bergen, and naturally to UNIS and student life at 78 degrees north by the UNIS director Ole-Arve Misund.

But the real action started when the students produced their own space weather forecast for the coming radar experiment time at 14-16 UT on Tuesday 22 October 2013. And yes! There will be aurora, everyone concluded. Only moderate activity, but aurora should be visible in the EISCAT Svalbard radar experiment, little bit south of Longyearbyen. So one should tilt the antenna to south. Some hectic calculations were done, and the suitable antenna elevation was selected by the "PI team", which meant all the students in the auditorium. The radar experiment itself was run at the EISCAT Svalbard radar site by the "engineering team", aurora expert Noora and the main coordinating teacher Risto, while the students were seeing radar data being accumulated on the big screen plots in the auditorium. As the aurora signatures appeared on the radar plots, all possible space weather data was followed carefully. As a bonus the students could also follow the Tromso radar and the active heating experiment conducted there at the same time. A continuous Skype connection between the engineering and PI teams was connected to the loudspeakers of the auditorium and made all the discussion on data very lively. The skies were cloudy, so we did not get any visual observation of aurora.

Professor Fred Sigernes opened the Wednesday morning at Kjell Henriksen Observatory,
having a very complete lecture about aurora research. (Photo: E. Turunen)

UNIS director Ole-Arve Misund showed us the slightly different student logistics
department at UNIS, full gear for ever field trip on Svalbard.   (Photo: E. Turunen)

During the day there was live data being taken and used in the lecture. Skype connection between the ESR site and UNIS auditorium was in a small iPod. Noora Partamies was supervising us on what we see on the data screens (shown in the background).  (Photo: E. Turunen)

Director Misund also told about student life in the real north. Here
Finnish UNIS students make a sauna sledging party in the traditional
annual Longyearbyen downhill event.    (Photo: E. Turunen)

Today the students will have their field trip day, visiting both the Kjell Henriksen observatory and the EISCAT Svalbard Radar site.

Day two of the Space Weather Science Camp

On Monday the Finnish students sat down in the lecture hall at UNIS, University Centre in Svalbard, for their first day during the Space Weather Science Camp in Longyearbyen . For 3 hours they listened to each other, instead of the teachers. The student groups had prepared as home work 4 thematic essays for learning the background and the processes leading to Space Weather events. And now these were presented to the audience, the fellow students. Of course the teachers were there, too, kind of acting as judges as if being in the Idols competition, giving their comments and remarks on the works and presentations. All groups were applauded twice for their extensive preparation. The rare cases where preparation was inadequate, were handled by stylish slides and summaries, or creativeness by the newly established stand-up comics entertainment on physics (quadruple applauds…).

Walking to UNIS for the first lecture, fresh snow in Longyearbyen. (Photo: E. Turunen)

How do bees orientate using the magnetic field of the Earth? (Photo: E. Turunen)

In their meeting afterwards, the teachers concluded that all groups had done serious work, and would have basic knowledge to handle the real action on Tuesday. Then the program of the Science Camp includes forecasting space weather for the evening and the incoherent scatter experiment using the EISCAT Svalbard Radar. Will the students get aurora in their radar beam? We will see tonight.

Space Weather Science Camp

Space Weather Science Camp for High-School students is a new activity in Finland. On Monday 21 Oct 2013 seventeen physics students from High-Schools in Oulu, Hämeenlinna, Järvenpää and Helsinki will arrive in Longyearbyen for a 5-day Science Camp. The theme space weather is not new to these students. They have already constructed their own magnetometers with the help of experts at Finnish Meteorological Institute and Aalto University. They also visited the Metsähovi Radio Telescope and Finnish Geodetic Institute before the trip to Svalbard. As the highlight of the Svalbard Science Camp, the students will run their own incoherent scatter radar experiment with the EISCAT Svalbard Radar on Tuesday, 22 October. They will be supervised by 2 scientists traveling with the group, the aurora specialist Dr. Noora Partamies from Finnish Meteorological Institute and director Esa Turunen from Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory. Naturally experts at UNIS in Longyearbyen will give introductions about arctic research, including a visit to the Kjell Henriksen Observatory.

The active teachers Risto Matveinen, Jarmo Sirviö, Pasi Ketolainen, and Ursula Ahvenisto used to bring their students to CERN for science education. Their activity with CERN is still ongoing and now enhanced by visits to Nordic Optical Telescope and from year 2012 to EISCAT Scientific Association. The Space Weather Science Camp 2012 included a visit to Andoya Rocket Range in Norway and in Sweden to EISCAT HQ, Esrange Rocket Range. A successfull remotely controlled EISCAT experiment was run from the auditorium at IRF in Kiruna, supervised by EISCAT HQ scientists Drs. Ingemar Häggström and Anders Tjulin.

This year the students will have a high chance of seeing aurora, depending on weather of course. A solar wind stream is expected to hit Earth on 21 October. We wish the students all the success in their measurements and an unforgettable experience in the high north.

First international experiment

This week, KAIRA is participating for the first time in a large international experiment with baselines of several thousands of kilometres. Apart from hoping to discover some new science, this is a perfect opportunity to link EISCAT, LOFAR and, of course, KAIRA itself. As the week goes on, we will be incorporating more and more stations into this experiment network. However, on this first night of observing the following stations are involved (from North to South): 

• ESR (EISCAT Svalbard Radar, Norway)
• KAIRA (Kilpisjärvi Atmospheric Imaging Receiver Array, Finland)
• Kiruna (EISCAT receiver station, Sweden)
• SE607 (LOFAR station at Onsala, Sweden)
• DE604 (LOFAR station at Potsdam, Germany)
• UK608 (LOFAR station at Chilbolton, UK)
• FR606 (LOFAR station at Nançay, France)

 Putting them on the map, the layout is as follows:

The observations are being carried out at approximately 224 MHz (thus allowing us to use the Kiruna receiver station). The ESR is at a different frequency, but is providing concurrent observing. And both KAIRA and UK608 are using special observing modes. Kiruna and the ESR are conventional, mechanically-steered, parabolic dishes. The others are all LOFAR-design phased arrays.

People often ask if KAIRA is part of the LOFAR network. The answer to this is: "not directly". Although there are plans to one day link KAIRA directly to LOFAR via a high speed link, we are currently running as an independent station. While this gives us the flexibility to pursue our own science programme, it certainly does not preclude us from participating in large, important, observing experiment — like this one.

Oh... and we should also point out that although this particular experiment is being run by ASTRON, this work is being done by ASTRON staff at the KAIRA site!

Stay tuned as the week goes on as, no doubt, we will have some very interesting things to report!

EISCAT Svalbard Radar — Part 3

There was one last photograph to share while we're on the topic of the EISCAT Svalbard Radar (ESR). I had intended to post it at the end of yesterday's web-log entry, but it was such a beautiful photograph that I decided to save it for a Friday. (This Friday-Photo is starting to become a regular feature!) So, although yesterday's post was a bit short, hopefully this will make up for it.

The photograph is of the ESR 42m dish during polar night. The stunning green of the Aurora Borealis (northern lights) is clearly visible. The bright red glow is the aircraft warning light on the top of the dish. And, if you look carefully, you can make out some of the stars in the inky-black Arctic sky. The photograph was taken by Alan Wood from University of Aberystwyth during a radar campaign in January 2006.

ESR 42m and aurora. (Photo: Alan Wood)

Have a nice weekend.

EISCAT Svalbard Radar — Part 2

The ESR transmitter is modular in design, using 16 small klystrons based on TV transmitter technology. The transmitter has a central operating frequency of 500 MHz. At the time of writing this article, the two dishes cannot be used exactly simultaneously. However it is possible to alternate between the dishes on a timescale of approximately 5 seconds. Two receiver systems are available which (for instance) allow ion line and plasma line data to be recorded simultaneously.

The transmitter hall of the ESR. (Photo: Derek McKay-Bukowski)

EISCAT

EISCAT can sometimes be a confusing term. Sometimes it refers to the organisation, sometimes the instruments that it operates and at other times to an upcoming project, which is closely connected with our KAIRA work.

The EISCAT Scientific Association is an international research organisation operating three powerful scientific radars in Northern Scandinavia. It is funded and operated by research councils in various member countries. EISCAT itself, stands for European Incoherent SCATter, which is a reference to the radar technique that is used (more on this later!). These radars, along with an Ionospheric Heater and Dynasonde facility are used to study the ionosphere and the interaction between the Sun and the Earth (a field broadly referred to as Solar-Terrestrial Physics).

EISCAT operate several sites. The transmitters are located near Longyearbyen (Svalbard) and Tromsø (Norway). In addition, there are receiver stations located near Kiruna (Sweden) and Sodankylä (Finland) at the SGO site. The headquarters for the EISCAT Scientific Association is located in Kiruna and there are support groups in various of the institutes and universities of the member countries. The transmitter and receiver sites are all marked on the map that was recently posted.

In addition to the existing facilities, EISCAT is now undertaking a new ambitious project - EISCAT_3D. This is a new-generation radar that will provide a huge increase in capabilities of any existing scientific radars. KAIRA, in addition to its own scientific goals and close ties to the LOFAR project, is intricately connected with this EISCAT_3D development work, and there will be a lot more posted about this during the coming months.