The demolition of the Sodankylä antenna

Last Wednesday, 23 April 2025, the Sodankylä antenna was demolished.

The Sodankylä antenna was part of the EISCAT mainland system, which consisted of antennas in Kiruna, Sodankylä and Tromsø, for almost 44 years. The mainland system was inaugurated on 26 August 1981. This marks the end of an era of near-Earth space exploration. The Sodankylä antenna, together with its counterparts, has provided scientists with important data and contributed to research in a wide range of fields: GPS, aurora, space weather, climate and much more. The demolition of the antenna is part of EISCAT’s development of new and more advanced radar systems.

Our antennas have become landmarks, standing almost 35 metres tall and jutting out into the surrounding landscape. For safety reasons, we cannot leave the antennas standing without maintaining them. These old satellite dishes are in need of a large amount of maintenance and improvements to function as needed in today’s research. This is both costly and labour intensive. Therefore, it has been decided to demolish them. It is sad to se them go.

The EISCAT mainland system will be replaced by the EISCAT 3D system.