Weather radar

Yesterday we described our walk up the ski slopes of Luosto on that hot summer's evening. But what was at the top?

Well, it turns out there is a large weather radar (= säätutka) there. This is operated by our colleagues at the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI).

The "blue stone". (Photo: D. McKay-Bukowski)

The FMI weather radar site. (Photo: D. McKay-Bukowski)

Lassi ignores the warning signs. (Photo: D. McKay-Bukowski)

It's a really lovely place. A bit like a lighthouse. A pity it is remotely operated, as I'd so love to work in a place like that.

Operaatio kakku -- part 2

Yesterday we described the great cake exercise, which was an attempt to have an excuse to engage in conversation with our colleagues from FMI.

Well, the cakes were all completed successfully. They were:

1. Date cake with caramel sauce
2. Sea buckthorn roullade
3. Raisin, lavender and honey roullade
4. Lemon drizzle cake

Cakes #2 (back left), #3 (front) and #4 (back right)

Cleaning up didn't take too long and the cakes were carefully transported to Polaria on the morning of 15 July 2014 (an historical occasion!). The timing was pretty good. FMI had a visiting campaign team there, so we had ample cake for everyone and to spare! So, we've had cake for the next couple of breaks as well.

The remnants of Cakes #1 and #4.

Was it a success? Most definitely. We've now established some sort of rapport to the point where (occasionally) eye-contact is made and even a murmured "hei" (*gasp*). Of course, the first comments from our own staff on returning to SGO were "Ooo... cake... great!... what's the occasion?" and, after the explanation, this was promptly followed by "What! Who authorised that?". Probably in jest, but who knows... in any case, I regard the operation as successful and will continue to extend the welcome to all our colleagues from FMI (not just to come and talk to us at morning coffee at Polaria, but also afternoon coffee at Polaria, and afternoon tea and high-tea at the EISCAT building).

What I want to know, though, is what FMI thought of all this!

Helicopter at Polaria

Being in the Arctic, we do occasionally get the odd vehicle parked outside the main building. Sometimes tractors, often off-road 4x4 vehicles, occasionally snow-mobiles.

But yesterday the carpark had a different vehicular visitor!

Look what's parked out the front of Polaria! (Photo: D. McKay-Bukowski)

I'd be nervous flying so close to those trees! (Photo: D. McKay-Bukowski)

Cool, eh? (Photo: D. McKay-Bukowski)

The helicopter is here for an FMI experiment. The payload is a series of chemical sensors which are being used to monitor gas species in the atmosphere.

Thanks for SGO100

A message from the director of SGO, Esa Turunen...

SGO is now 100 years old and the new century is here. Warm thanks to everyone supporting the arrangements, our guests gave positive feedback of the experience. The Open House event had 230 visitors, Science Day for schools 180 pupils, the Studia Generalia -lecture by Esko Valtaoja was attended by more than 200 listeners and similarly 200 persons found their way to the main ceremony at the Sports Hall ...

Esa Turunen addresses the gathering. (Photo: D. McKay-Bukowski)

We had a final kakkukahvit (= cake & coffee) event with our friends from FMI at Polaria on Monday and we will organize a similar coffee break in Oulu at the first convenient opportunity.

Weather forecasts

It is certainly useful to keep an eye on the weather and for us checking on the situation at Kilpisjärvi is no exception. In Finland, the weather service is handled by the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI). They provide an excellent online web service, with local statistics and forecasting for the region... in English, Finnish and Swedish. An easy search function allows you to find the region or place you are looking for in Finland quickly and easily.

Oh, and here is the direct link to Kilpisjärvi...

http://en.ilmatieteenlaitos.fi/weather/enontekiö/kilpisjärvi

Polaria

Just a nice photograph to finish the week. This one is of the sign at the entrance to the main building, called "Polaria". It is located near the southern end of Tähtelä and is shared by Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory and the Finnish Meteorological Institute.

Polaria... home to SGO and FMI. (Photo: D. McKay-Bukwoski)

Have a nice weekend!

Tähtelä

Occasionally you will see this place mentioned — Tähtelä.

Tähtelä is where the main Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory is located. It is also the location of a Finnish Meteorological Institute station. Tähtelä is small place with a handful of buildings belonging to the two institutes, a main shared centre (called "Polaria") and various houses, other small buildings and research equipment. It is not really a campus, but it is not really a village either. It is just a special place.

The visitor information sign for Tähtelä. (Photo: D. McKay-Bukowski)

Tähtelä is located about 6 km south of the town of Sodankylä itself on the eastern shore of the Kitinen River.

The name Tähtelä itself means "Place of the stars". Although it is true that the institutes here are not primarily astronomical facilities, we do in fact occasionally observe astronomical objects (such as radio stars, pulsars or our own sun). And certainly some of the staff are trained astronomers who sometimes carry out astronomical research.


Note that there is another Tähtelä. It is a small railway stop, just north of Ingå in the south of Finland (LINK).

Atmospheric research at Kilpisjärvi — Part 2

Today we continue our guest article series by Tero Raita.

Monitoring of cosmic radio noise absorption in the D-region ionosphere (50-90km) by riometers (relative ionospheric opacity meter) started in 1980. Since 1997 SGO has operated Imaging Riometer for Ionospheric Studies (IRIS) together with University of Lancaster (for more details see: http://spears.lancs.ac.uk/iris/ ). 64 antenna elements forms 49 beams, which are sampled once per second. Beams of IRIS Kilpisjärvi overlap with present EISCAT radar range and EISCAT heater beam. And, of course, they will also overlap with the KAIRA project.

Antennas of the IRIS array. In the background are
the observatory buildings. (Photo: Tero Raita)

Geomagnetic field variations in Kilpisjärvi have been measured with variometer and three component search coil magnetometer. In 1983 Kilpisjärvi received an EISCAT cross magnetometer station. Today the variometer is part of the wider IMAGE magnetometer network. Search coil magnetometer, which are able to see higher frequencies of the field variations like Pc1 magnetic pulsations, was deployed for the support of Swedish satellite projects (FREJA and POLAR) and the instrument was operated by Department of Physics (University of Oulu). Today the whole Finnish pulsation network is operated by SGO.

Atmospheric research at Kilpisjärvi — Part 1

Despite what one might think, KAIRA is definitely not the first atmospheric or astronomical project to be established in the Kilpisjärvi area. For the next few days, we'll be featuring a multi-part series on the other instrumentation located in the region. Thanks go to Tero Raita for providing the text and photographs.

Kilpisjärvi has long history of over 30 years of scientific observation, mostly related to the Northern Lights and ionospheric processes. The Finnish Meteorological Institute has operated an all-sky camera in Kilpisjärvi since 1978. Combined with other all-sky cameras in the region, it has given good statistical information about the occurrence of the Aurorae Borealis throughout Northern Finland.

Measurements of absolute luminous intensity of the aurora emissions by photometers over winter periods started in 1979 in co-operation with the Swedish and the Canadian scientific communities. Meridian scanning and zenith photometers, developed by Department of Physics, University of Oulu, have been used in Kilpisjärvi since 1986. Also aurora TV-cameras and recently developed digital spectrograms are used today to monitor aurora processes.

The scientific observatory at Kilpisjärvi. In the background,
you can see the Saana mountain. (Photo: Tero Raita)

We'll continue with a more detailed description of some of the instruments tomorrow.

Finnish Meteorological Institute

Co-located with SGO is Ilmatieteen laitos — the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI). Today we are delighted to be able to give a small presentation of the work done by them.

Space weather research at FMI includes both modelling and monitoring activities. The Institute owns and operates the only global Magneto-Hydro-Dynamic (MHD) simulation code in Europe and has conducted pioneering work in the theoretical modelling of Geomagnetically Induced Currents (GIC). On the observational side the main asset is the MIRACLE network of auroral cameras and magnetometers which is operated in the Northern Fennoscandia as international collaboration project where FMI serves as the PI-institute. Ionospheric researchers of the Institute have developed several methods for extracting value added data products from the network observations (e.g. latitude-longitude maps of equivalent ionospheric currents and auroral precipitation flux). These tools have been used in several research projects which typically utilise also EISCAT Incoherent Scatter data and various satellite observations in the research of meso-scale magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling processes.

During recent years the trend in MIRACLE research has been to move from the two-dimensional picture to three dimensional imaging of ionospheric conditions. For this reason, FMI has started closer collaboration with SGO in a project (TOMOSCAND) which will develop tomographic analysis methods for ionospheric electron density reconstructions. The aim is to use data from both GPS and Beacon receivers in the analysis and in a later stage perhaps also the standard MIRACLE observations can be integrated to the system. The future vision is to use TOMOSCAND measurements together with EISCAT_3D for monitoring radiowave propagation conditions in the Northern Europe. FMI participates as an associate member to the EISCAT_3D Preparatory Phase activities. The KAIRA project is of particular interest to FMI because the technical development of the system has synergy with the TOMOSCAND work and the array in Kilpisjärvi is located in the core area of the current MIRACLE and forthcoming TOMOSCAND field-of-views.

Links:

• http://www.space.fmi.fi/MIRACLE
  
• http://aurora.fmi.fi

With thanks to Kirsti Kauristie and FMI.

Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory

Although KAIRA will be built at Kilpisjärvi, the project is administered by the Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory (SGO). This world-class facility was established in 1913 by the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters to perform geophysical measurements and research. Now an independent research department of the University of Oulu, SGO maintains its continuous measurements of the Earth's magnetic field, cosmic radio noise, seismic activities, and cosmic rays.

Since the first measurements began on 1st January 1914, SGO has spread its range and location of sensors over multiple sites stretching from the south of Finland to Svalbard. KAIRA will be the latest in this proud tradition. However, the institute remains based near Sodankylä itself on the banks of the river Kitinen and this is where most of the KAIRA team are based.

The photograph (taken a few weeks ago) shows the main institute building in the dead of the Arctic night. It is one of many buildings scattered around the site. In actual fact, this building is shared with the Finnish Meteorological Institute. More on that later!