Mid-latitude SuperDARN radars have been observing considerable night-time scatter. Previous joint observations provided encouraging results on achieving a better understanding of the formation mid-latitude F-region nighttime irregularities.

On Thursday Feb. 10th and Friday Feb. 11th, between 21UT and 13UT the next day, Millstone Hill's ISR will be running an experiment in collaboration with SuperDARN. The plan is to point the ISR steerable antenna through Blackstone's field of view (as shown in attached figure) to get plasma parameters in correlation with SuperDARN velocity measurements.

The exact set-up of the experiment will be:
  • 'Stare' beam @ (-80 azimuth / 10 elevation) for 30 minutes
  • Slow azimuthal sweep (-90 to -60 azimuth / 10 elevation) for 5 minutes
  • Vertical profile using zenith antenna for 5 minutes

Thanks to this new collaboration with the Millstone Hill Observatory, this experiment should provide more information on the occurrence of the nighttime scatter observed with mid-latitude SuperDARN radars.

For more information, please contact me (sdelarquier_at_vt_dot_edu).

-Update on Thurs., Feb. 10th-
Millstone Hill operation started at 20UT. Real time data is available from the madrigal database at this link.(external link)

-Update on Fri., Feb. 11th-
Last night's observations revealed an interesting evening feature in the 1.5 hop F-region at Blackstone, which was also observed by Kapuskasing. Tonight's run will be modified to include Kapuskasing in the Millstone Hill's azimuthal sweep:
  • 'Stare' beam @ (-70 azimuth / 10 elevation) for 30 minutes
  • Slow azimuthal sweep (-70 to -30 azimuth / 10 elevation) for 5 minutes
  • Vertical profile using zenith antenna for 5 minutes

Millstone Hill operation started at 21UT. Real time data is available from the madrigal database at this address(external link)