EISCAT Tromso UHF

Near Tromsø in the far north of Norway, the EISCAT Tromsø UHF radar has been probing the upper atmosphere since 1981, using a technique unmatched anywhere else in the world.

About EISCAT Tromsø UHF

The site is run by the EISCAT Scientific Association, which operates incoherent scatter radar and ionospheric research facilities across Northern Scandinavia. The Tromsø site houses two transmitters and is built around a 32-metre steerable parabolic dish antenna used for both transmission and reception.

History

Inaugurated in 1981, the UHF system was designed as a tristatic radar, the only one of its kind in the world, with its transmitter and receiver at Tromsø working alongside passive receiving stations in Sodankylä, Finland, and Kiruna, Sweden. This arrangement lets researchers triangulate signals from multiple angles at once.

Telescopes & research

The UHF radar transmits in the 930 MHz band with up to 2.0 MW of peak transmitter power, a 12.5% duty cycle, and pulse lengths from 1 microsecond to 10 milliseconds using frequency and phase modulation. A related Heating facility at nearby Ramfjordmoen uses 4-8 MHz HF waves to study ionospheric plasma physics. Together, the facilities support research into the upper and lower ionosphere, active geophysical experiments, space debris tracking, and phenomena such as polar mesosphere winter echoes, drawing on the site's unusual tristatic observing capability.

Location & getting there

The radar site is located near Tromsø in Northern Norway, part of the EISCAT Scientific Association's wider Scandinavian network.

Visiting EISCAT Tromsø UHF

As an active research radar facility, EISCAT Tromsø is not a typical tourist site. Check with the EISCAT Scientific Association directly for any visitor or outreach opportunities before travelling.

See your named star from here

EISCAT's instruments study the atmosphere rather than distant stars, but Tromsø's far-northern skies are also known for auroras and clear winter nights, good conditions for locating a named star with an optical telescope. Find its coordinates in our star catalogue.