FIN 1

I was in London the other week when I saw a car with a cool number plate... "FIN 1". The fact that it was parked outside the Finnish Embassy might not be a pure coincidence...

I wonder who gets "FIN 2"?

Border mountains

Today's photograph shows the mountains along the border between Finland and Norway. The shot was taken from atop the RF-container, looking out across the lower field.

Looking west-northwest towards Norway. (Photo: D. McKay-Bukowski)

The Finnish State Flag

Today's photograph features the Finnish State Flag flying beside the EISCAT 32m dish at Sodankylä. Finland has quite a few "flag days", when it is customary to fly the national flag. This particular photograph was taken on 24th October 2012, and the flag had been hoisted for United Nations day.

The EISCAT 32m dish and the Finnish State Flag, 24-Oct-2012. (Photo: D. McKay-Bukowski)

Link

• Flag days in Finland

Sign convention

Standing on the main road at the entrance to the KAIRA site, there are two signs. Facing north, you can see the sign to our facility. If you then turn around, there is the sign welcoming you to Kilpisjärvi.

Turn left for KAIRA (or else you'll end up in Norway!)

If you look carefully at the above photograph, you should be able to see the HBA behind the trees.

The mud-bespattered sign marking Kilpisjärvi (in Finnish and Sami).

If you continue along this stretch of road you will cross the customs point. However, KAIRA itself is still most definitely in Finland!

Corner of the site

Today we have just a nice photograph. Taken on the verge of winter, this photograph shows the northern corner of the site. In the distance the midday sun is just glinting on the summits of the Norwegian mountains. The reindeer fence is still visible and a couple of the LBA test station platforms can be seen.



Enjoy!

Nothing to declare

The KAIRA site is nominally at Kilpisjärvi. However, it is actually north of the settlement, closer to Siilasjärvi than Kilpisjärvi itself. It is very close to the border. In fact, it is actually beyond the customs station, but before the border line itself... so sort of in no-man's land. Apart from being on the border between two countries, this is also a border of the European Union itself (Norway is not in the EU).

Although the Customs and Border Patrols are aware of the project, we had a visit anyway to find out how things were going. No doubt the stream of HBA tile delivery lorries had something to do with it.

No, we've nothing to declare. (Apart from a huge radio receiver array!)

Saana's view of KAIRA

If you stand at the summit of Saana, the second highest point on the mountain obscures the view of the KAIRA site. However, if you go to there, or any of the next few ridges down on the northwest slope, there is a clear view of the road from Finland to Norway, Siilasjärvi (another lake) and KAIRA.


It's actually difficult to make out the site in the wide-angle photograph, so here's a zoomed-in view to point it out.

The cleared, flattened area just manages to stand out from the surrounding landscape. However, the stacks of timber HBA frames are very distinct.

As you can see, the site is actually closer to Siilasjärvi (although there is no town or village there, which is why it is named as it is). In fact, this image shows a piece of all three countries (Sweden, Finland and Norway). It is a very inspiring view.

Enjoy!

Kilpisjärvi Biological Station

The KAIRA project is really fortunate in that there is some convenient accommodation nearby which can be used as a base for work on the site. This accommodation is part of the Biological Research Station, which is operated by the University of Helsinki. The station was first established in 1964 and has ever since been used to promote and support Arctic biological research.

The signpost from the main road. Yes, that's part of Saana in the background.


The station belongs to the Faculty of Biological and Environmental science of the University of Helsinki.


However, apart from being very convenient and a delightful and well-serviced place to stay, we actually owe a great deal to the Biological Research Station. The reason for this goes back to August of 2010 when we were still looking for a suitable location for placing the KAIRA project. It was actually in a meeting with Prof. Antero Järvinen (the director of the Biological Research Station), where we explained about our need to find a suitable location for a LOFAR station. He was the one who then gave us a hint to look in the area near the customs station, which is exactly where the construction work is now taking place.

Kiitos!

The road goes ever on and on...

The vehicle has been packed, the trailer loaded and hitched on and the team fueled up with coffee. So, first thing after lunch (which was quite early in the scheme of things) we set off from Sodankylä on the long journey to Kilpisjärvi.

The road goes ever on and on...

and on...

Oooh! Look! Another vehicle on the road!

It's a long way, to Kilpisjärvi,
It's a long way, to go,
It's a long way, to Kilpisjärvi,
Where there'll be lots of snow!

Finally a change in the scenery.

Saana comes into view... can't be long now.

Final stretch. Are we there yet?

Finally, 6 hours after leaving the institute in Sodankylä, the team has arrived at Kilpisjärvi. Lots more to follow! Stay tuned.

LOFAR station FI609

KAIRA has been given an official LOFAR station designation: FI609.

All LOFAR stations have 5-character designations, which are used in the computer software as a shorthand to identify the station. For the Dutch stations, the first two characters are either: CS or RS for Core Station and Remote Station, respectively. For the international stations, the first two letters are a designation of the country in which the station is located.

The number that follows is the ID number. All international stations are in the 600s-range.

• LOFAR DE601 — Effelsberg, Germany
• LOFAR DE602 — Unterweilenbach, Germany
• LOFAR DE603 — Tautenburg, Germany
• LOFAR DE604 — Potsdam, Germany
• LOFAR DE605 — Jülich, Germany
• LOFAR FR606 — Nançay, France
• LOFAR SE607 — Onsala, Sweden
• LOFAR UK608 — Chilbolton, United Kingdom

And now we can proudly add:

• LOFAR FI609 — Kilpisjärvi, Finland

All we have to do now, is get it built! (More on that next week)

EISCAT-Sodankylä

If you have looked at the map showing the positions of LOFAR, EISCAT and KAIRA, it will be apparent that there is actually three EISCAT sites on the Fenno-Scandinavian mainland. Apart from the transmitter site at Tromsø and the receiver site at Kiruna (home of the EISCAT_3D demonstrator array) there is also an EISCAT site in Finland.

This is actually located at Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory, the institute behind the KAIRA project. Like the Kiruna site, the EISCAT system in Sodankylä is a receiving station (there is no transmitter). The two dishes are copies of each other, built at the same time and deployed to the two sites. They are fully-steerable, 32m-diameter, prime-focus paraboloids. Both are fitted with UHF receivers (although on occasion other receiving systems have been fitted for specific experiements). The photograph shows well the backing structure and counterweights of the Sodankylä dish.

In fact, at the time these were built, there were two other identical dishes built, which were deployed as part of the European VLBI Network in Italy (one at Medicina and one at Noto).

Apart from some of its own unique research projects, the 32m dish at Sodankylä acts as a one of the receivers for bi- or tri-static ionospheric radar observations.

Photo credit: Th. Ulich

Crossing borders

KAIRA will be built at Kilpisjärvi (hence the name!). If you have had a look at the map where this is, you will see it is not far from the international border between Norway and Finland.

Ignoring the border guards and customs station for the time being, the crossing into Norway is marked simply and to the point. 'Norge' (which is Norwegian for Norway, of course). The long road then heads on to the distant towns of Skibotn and Lyngen.

Going the other way, you are entering Finland (written in Finnish, English and Sami language) and, of course, this is shown in the livery of the European Union. After all, this is border not just with Finland, but with the entire of the EU.

The settlement of Kilpisjärvi itself is not far from the border, so there is not far to go once you've entered Finland.

However, not far away from the crossing point is the original border marker.

It is nice to see this old border marker from a bygone era.

(Note: I took these photographs at the height of summer 2006. Of course at the time I'm posting this weblog entry, these vistas are completely white.)