EISCAT_3D – Research Infrastructure for International Collaboration to Investigate the Geospace Environment

The EISCAT radar facilities are an example of long-lasting international collaboration research infrastructure in the Arctic. The new EISCAT_3D project strengthens Norway as a space and atmospheric research hub dedicated to quantifying and understanding the physics of the high-latitude upper atmosphere, its interrelation with space, and its interaction with the circulation and weather of the lower atmosphere. EISCAT_3D will be the World’s first multi-static phased-array radar facility using incoherent scatter radar techniques, providing an unprecedented opportunity for exploring the atmosphere and near-Earth space from the Scandinavian Arctic sector. EISCAT_3D will consist of three phased-array antenna fields for 233 MHz radio waves that probe the charged component in the atmosphere and return signals from its spatial structures. The core site for radio wave transmission and reception is located in Skibotn, Northern Norway. Two receive sites are located in Sweden and Finland within 250 km of the transmitter. EISCAT_3D will be operational in 2023 and, together with the radars in Svalbard, it will be operated by the International EISCAT Scientific Association. EISCAT_3D will enable continuous pre-scheduled operations and fast and automatic switching of observation modes, making it ideal for collaborative measurements with other instruments in the vicinity. Tromsø Geophysical Observatory (TGO), which is part of The Arctic University of Norway (UiT), operates and hosts many geospace instruments located near Skibotn in Northern Norway for complementary measurements with EISCAT_3D. These instruments include auroral imagers, riometers, magnetometers, Meteor radars, a Partial Reflection radar and an ionosonde. There are plans to expand the TGO infrastructure at the Skibotn site to support additional instruments.

EISCAT_3D offers the Norwegian, European and international community a state-of-the-art instrument for observations of physical processes that are important for the understanding of our geospace environment and climate. Its combination of 3-dimensional vector imaging and advanced beam-forming will allow researchers to study the ionized components of the upper atmosphere with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. EISCAT-3D will represent the next phase of operations for the EISCAT Scientific Association, which currently operates incoherent scatter radars on the Scandinavian mainland and Svalbard. EISCAT Scientific Association is registered as a Swedish non-profit organization and is currently supported by research institutions and funding organizations in China, Finland, Japan, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The Norwegian participation involves researchers from the University of Bergen (UiB), the University of Oslo (UiO), the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), the University Center in Svalbard (UNIS), and the Andøya Space Center (ASC). The Arctic University of Norway (UiT) in Tromsø is the host institution for the EISCAT instruments in Norway and leads the national EISCAT_3D Norway 2014 project. The European Union supported preparations for EISCAT_3D, and the project is included in the roadmap of ESFRI, the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures.