Request Radar Time

Instructions on how to make a request for an experiment to be scheduled on one of the EISCAT Incoherent Scatter Radars including EISCAT_3D and EISCAT Heating.

The EISCAT Scientific Association operates its research radar facilities on behalf of the Associate countries and Affiliate institutes.

Associates
Any scientist in an Associate country can request radar experiments through the channels in their country.

Affiliates
Affiliates are typically research institutes. Scientists from Affiliates can request radar experiments according to the arrangements within their organisation.

Non-membership scientists
Scientists from other than Associate countries or Affiliate institutes can access the EISCAT facilities either by collaborating with scientists, who do have EISCAT access, or by applying for EISCAT radar time through the Peer-Review Programme.

Deadline

Any experiment must be submitted via the Schedule Page, latest on the 10th day (UTC) of the previous month.

Cancellations

If you want to cancel an experiment after it has been scheduled, please refer to the separate instructions on Cancellations.

Scheduling Restrictions

Due to the allocation of shifts for staff, there are restrictions on the minimum duration of experiments. The minimum duration depends on whether or not the experiment runs during normal working hours or on work days.

Normal working hours refers to the time from 08:15 LT to 15:15 LT on work days, Monday to Friday (unless there are special days).

Work day means a day when the site is open for normal business, it does not include Saturdays, Sundays, National Holidays, Annual Review Meeting days, etc.

LT = Local Time is Central European Time (CET=UTC+1h) in winter, and Central European Summer Time (CEST=UTC+2h) in summer.

Minimum Experiment Duration

Any experiment will be charged for a minimum duration of 2 hours. Any experiment to be run outside Normal Working Hours will be charged for a minimum duration of 4 hours. In other words, you can run shorter experiments, but EISCAT will deduct the minimum from your allocated experiment hours.

Note: this does not apply in the rare case that the facility you want to use becomes technically unavailable.

Technical Restrictions

Please refer to the Facility Status page to see if what you want to do is currently possible.

Experiments

Responsible Experimenter

The responsible experimenter is the person responsible for the scientific aspects for the experiment. This is typically the experiment PI, or a person appointed by the PI. However, the responsible experimenter cannot be a member of the EISCAT Staff.

Experiments run by EISCAT Staff

Experiments can be run by EISCAT Staff on behalf of the PI. In this case, please enter “EISCAT Staff” in the request form as responsible experimenters. However, it is important to note, that in that case, the PI will retain responsibility for the scientific execution of the experiment. This means they are expected to monitor the real-time web displays to see that the experiment is working as they wanted it to work.

Available Experiments

Please refer to the document EISCAT Experiments to see the experiments and their specifications available for each facility.

Additionally, you need to specify a scan pattern.

Deviations

Sometimes it happens that a run cannot be executed exactly as the PI wants. In this case, we may usually choose a slightly different working mode. We will communicate any deviation in a timely manner to the PI. This is a good example when it is essential for the PI to be available by e-mail or phone before experiment start and throughout the experiment.

Backup Experiment

If your experiment depends on, e.g., rocket launches, it might be useful to specify a backup experiment to be run in the case there isn’t any launch. See “Notes” below.

Interruptions

If your experiment depends on, e.g., rocket launches with their own requirements and count-downs, it is possible that the launch window is in conflict with other experiments running at the same time. Please refer to the Interruptions page for information on how to handle such cases.

EISCAT Schedule Request Form

The schedule request form is linked from the EISCAT Schedule in the menu on the left. In order to request an experiment, you need to be registered to do so, please contact us if you have problems. If you haven’t requested an experiment yet, or haven’t done so in a long time, it’s good to test your access well before the deadline, so there’s time to fix any problems.

Experiment Name

Maximum 10 character, so find a catchy acronym for your measurement campaign. This is not the name of the radar experiment (“beata” etc).

Description

Short text on what is the purpose. Be brief. You can put longer explanations under “Notes”.

Contact, Phone, E-Mail

Usually the PI of the experiment, the person to contact at any stage during scheduling or execution of the experiment. A phone number isn’t required, but it is essential just in case. A phone number is critical if you want EISCAT Staff to run the experiment for you, and please be ready to answer a call during your experiment.

Instrument

Which facility to run your experiment on.

Start Time, End Time

Please enter start and stop times of your experiment in UTC using half-hour increments. If your experiment stops at midnight, enter “2400” as stop time (not “2359”).

Responsible Experimenter

The person at the facility, who will run the experiment. You can ask EISCAT Staff to run the experiment for you, in that case, please put “EISCAT Staff”.

Important: if EISCAT Staff are requested to run the experiment on behalf of the PI, the PI will retain responsibility for the scientific execution of the experiment. This means they are expected to monitor the real-time web displays to see that the experiment is working as they expected.

Notes

At this stage, we assume you have been granted radar time, so you do not need to make a case for your experiment anymore. Do not write a science case here.

What we need to know is the conditions you require, and if there are other activities connected to your experiment such as rocket or balloon launches (for rocket launches, see also Interruptions). Furthermore, please tell us if you want us to run a backup experiment if the conditions are not but the experiment hasn’t been cancelled.

We also need to know which experiment you want to run, and – if you know it – the runexp command needed to start your experiment, if you want EISCAT staff to run it on your behalf.

Resources

Here you enter the code for your accounting, and how many hours you have in total. E.g., if you have 20 radar hours, and you want to run four 5-h experiments, then enter your 2-letter code followed by “(20)” every time.

Example: Finland and Japan run a shared 24-h experiment. Enter: FI(12),NI(12).

Submitted by

The person, who submitted this experiment request.