Goose Bay Info : Virginia Tech SuperDARN

Goose Bay, Canada (53.32 N, -60.46 E)

The SuperDARN radar at Goose Bay is the grand old dame of all SuperDARN radars. It was the first HF radar to be constructed and saw first light in October, 1983. Ray Greenwald was PI of the radar until 2008 when he was succeeded by Mike Ruohoniemi.

The Goose Bay radar is maintained locally by Mr. Kent White of Labrador Specialty Services, Inc.

Historical notes:

Synposis: The site at Goose Bay was originally selected for proximity to the airport and to an AFRL geophysical observatory. The site was shared for many years with a Lowell sounder until this was relocated to the other side of the airfield in 2009. Currently, there is a THEMIS-derived imager on the site that is operated by the University of Alberta.

The radar was built by Ray Greenwald and Kile Baker, with substantial assistance from French and UK colleagues and the U.S. Air National Guard. It has experienced several upgrades in transmiters and control control electronics.

Transmitters: In 1986 the original 100 watt transmitters (from where?) where replaced by Ray, Kile, Jean-Paul Villain, and Mike Ruohoniemi with transmitters capable of producing 2 kW into dummy loads. However, the rf interference between antennas at these power levels was too fierce, causing tx electronics to blow within minutes of transmitters operating on adjacent antennas. The problem was only solved by throttling down to 1 kW output power into the antennas. In 2005 the transmitters were dismounted from the bases of the poles and brought indoors.

Antennas: The antennas are still the originals provided by Sabre Corp.

Phasing Matrix: This was provided by French colleagues and upgraded by them in 199x. This equipment was originally housed in a small shed in the middle of the radar field. The phasing matrix was brought indoors when the computers were re-located from a distant AFRL building to a trailer positioned at the middle of the array in 199x. The phasing electronics were eventually superseded by electronics provided by Leicester University.

Control electronics: We are currently using control electronics and phasing matrices provided by Leicester University (input needed).

Interferometer array: Regarding the solution for angle of arrival using the interferometer array, I (Ray) recall, Kile was unable to come up with an analytic solution when the two arrays were displaced in the y and z directions. He was able to get an iterative solution, but did not like it. The reason that the arrays were displaced by ~50 m is that we a had requested some air force reservists to install a second 16 antenna array without looking at antennas that were being used by other users of the site. Bodo Reinish had a vertical log periodic antenna and we placed our 16th antenna right in front of it. Bodo screamed so we moved the 16th antenna to the far left end of the array creating a ~15m displacement. We probably should have just removed the antenna and worked with the remaining 15. Eventually we removed 12 of the antennas and sent them to Kap where someone stole all of the aluminum antennas and sold them for scrap metal. The towers were eventually sent to Prince George or Kodiak (I forget which site).

Goose Bay (code: GBR, ID: 1)
Geog. Position: (+53.320°, -60.460°, 50.0m)
Configuration valid from	Configuration valid until	Scanning Boresite [°]	Beam Separation [°]	Velocity Sign	Attenuation Step* [dB]	Time Difference [μs]	Phase Sign	Interferometer Array Position [m]			Receiver Rise Time* [μs]	Stages of Attenuation*	No. of Gates	No. of Beams
	01/Mar/1987 00:00:00.0	5.0	3.24	+1	20	+0.498	+1	-15.5	+100.0	+0.0	200.0	2	75	16
01/Mar/1987 00:00:00.0	08/May/1987 00:00:00.0				10						100.0
08/May/1987 00:00:00.0	15/Jun/1987 19:50:00.0			-1			-1
15/Jun/1987 19:50:00.0	03/Dec/1992 00:00:00.0			+1		+0.478
03/Dec/1992 00:00:00.0	01/Nov/2003 00:00:00.0						+1	+1.5
01/Nov/2003 00:00:00.0	Current	5.0	3.24	+1	0	+0.478	+1	+1.5	+100.0	+0.0	0.0	0	100	16
* Only valid for analog receivers, 0 for digital receivers								Last Updated: Mon Jul 8 07:25:01 2019

Position in Line	Parameter Name	Description
1	Station ID	The unique numeric ID of the radar. Assigned by Rob Barnes.
2	Year	This and the next parameter describe the date up until which the radar configuration described in that line was valid.
3	Seconds in Year	This and the previous parameter describe the date up until which the radar configuration described in that line was valid.
4	Geog. Latitude	The geographic latitude of the radar location, given in decimal degrees to 3 decimal places. Southern hemisphere values are negative.
5	Geog. Longitude	The geographic longitude of the radar location, in degree given in decimal degrees to 3 decimal places. West longitude values are negative.
6	Altitude	The altitude above sealevel of the radar location, in meter.
7	Scanning Boresite	The direction of the center of the field-of-view of the radar, in degree, relative to geographic North, positive clockwise. Traditionally, this direction was the same as the direction of the main antenna array normal.
8	Beam Separation	The angular separation of two adjacent beams, in degree. Normally 3.24 degrees.
9	Velocity Sign	The sign of the velocity direction, either +1 or -1, usually +1.(At the radar level, backscattered signals with frequencies above the transmitted frequency are assigned positive Doppler velocities while backscattered signals with frequencies below the transmitted frequency are assigned negative Doppler velocity. This convention can be reversed by changes in receiver design or in the data samping rate. This parameter is set to +1 or -1 to maintain the convention.)
10	Attenuation Step*	The step size of the receiver attenuation in dB.
11	Time Difference	The relative time delay of signal paths from the interferometer array to the receiver and the main array to the receiver, in microseconds. tdiff = signal_travel_time_from_interferometer_to_receiver - signal_travel_time_from_main_to_receiver If tdiff is positive, the signal travel time from the interferometer array to the receiver is longer than the travel time from the main array to the receiver.
12	Phase Sign	The sign of the phase shift between interferometer and main array, either +1 or -1, usually +1. (Cabling errors can lead to a 180 degree shift of the interferometry phase measurement. +1 indicates that the sign is correct, -1 indicates that it must be flipped.)
13	Interferometer Array Position X	The offset distance between the mid points of the interferometer and main array, in the direction along the main array, positive towards higher antenna numbers, in meter.
14	Interferometer Array Position Y	The offset distance between the mid points of the interferometer and main array, in the direction perpendicular to the main array, positive values indicate that the interferometer array is in front of the main array, in meter.
15	Interferometer Array Position Z	The offset distance between the mid points of the interferometer and main array, in the vertical direction, positive up, in meter.
16	Receiver Rise Time*	The rise time of the analog receiver, in microseconds. (Time delays of less than ~10 microseconds can be ignored. If narrow-band filters are used in analog receivers or front-ends, the time delays should be specified.)
17	Stages of Attenuation*	The maximum number of steps of analog attenuation in the receiver. (This is used for gain control of an analog receiver or front-end.)
18	No. of Gates	The maximum number of range gates from which the radar can receive data. Usually 75. (This is used for allocation of array storage.)
19	No. of Beams	The maximum number of beams the radar can form. Usually 16. Together with the scanning boresite, this parameter defined the direction of each beam relative to geographic North. (It is important to specify the true maximum. This will assure that a given beam number always points in the same direction. A subset of these beams, e.g. 8-23, can be used for standard 16 beam operation.)
* Only valid for analog receivers, 0 for digital receivers		Last Updated: Thu Sep 21 07:25:01 2023

Goose Bay, Canada (53.32 N, -60.46 E)

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