{"id":390,"date":"2026-01-15T12:23:01","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T12:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.eiscat.se\/technology\/?page_id=390"},"modified":"2026-01-15T12:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T12:36:10","slug":"eiscat_3d-operation-illustration","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/eiscat.se\/technology\/eiscat_3d-design\/eiscat_3d-operation-illustration\/","title":{"rendered":"EISCAT_3D Operation Illustration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">test40legmov (Legacy)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The legacy EISCAT systems include tri-static capabilities with a transmitter\/receiver in Ramfjordmoen, Norway (Near Troms\u00f8).&nbsp; These systems utilize large, reflector-based antennas and highly sensitive receivers to measure the ionospheric plasma in and around the auroral zone.&nbsp; In the cartoon&nbsp;<em>test40legmov (Legacy)<\/em>, the Ramfjordmoen antenna is pointed vertically and the receive sites are pointed to intersect the transmitted pulse at 250 km altitude.&nbsp; In this and all the movies, the transmitted pulse is colored red, the intersection volumes are green dots, and the receive signals are green lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-embed-handler wp-block-embed-embed-handler wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"test40legmov Legacy\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rFsa_N9WjUs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Test40mov (1 User, 1 Dir)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>With EISCAT_3D, the receive sites will be able to produce multiple simultaneous beams and, thus, support multiple intersection volumes.&nbsp;<em>Test40mov (1 User, 1 Dir)<\/em>&nbsp;&nbsp;illustrates this for the stage 1 implementation.&nbsp; Here, the transmitter (in Skibotn, Norway) sends pulses vertically and the receivers in Skibotn, Norway, Karesuvanto, Finland, and Kaiseniemi, Sweden all look at a set of altitudes.&nbsp; The received signals arrive at the Karesuvanto and Kaiseniemi sites from different directions and, as such, they can be separated by forming beams.&nbsp; Note that the scattering angles for the measurements are quite different at low altitudes vs. high altitudes.&nbsp; At higher altitudes, the scattering angles are more similar and as a result the system will have a more difficult time estimating velocity vectors from the Doppler shifts.&nbsp; As a result, the stage 1 system is much more optimal for lower altitude (E-region) measurements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-embed-handler wp-block-embed-embed-handler wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"test40mov 1 User, 1 Dir\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xWXhVMfkDcw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">test41mov (1 User, 5 Dir)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Another significant improvement with EISCAT_3D is the ability to transmit sequential pulses in very different directions.&nbsp; With the legacy EISCAT systems, looking in different directions entails moving tons of antenna hardware to point differently.&nbsp; For EISCAT_3D, pointing is done electronically and, as a result, much more flexibility is obtained.&nbsp; This can be seen in the cartoon&nbsp;<em>test41mov (1 User, 5 Dir)<\/em>&nbsp;which shows sequential pulses being sent in 5 different directions.&nbsp; In this example a full sequence takes just 25 milliseconds before repeating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-embed-handler wp-block-embed-embed-handler wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"test41mov 1 User, 5 Dir\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1IRqdhXTtPM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">test42mov (2 Users)&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>With the legacy systems, experiments can, practically speaking, only be run by one user at a time.&nbsp; This is due to the fact that the antenna pointing directions cannot generally be time-sliced (shared) in a way that makes sense when the ionospheric variability is taken into account.&nbsp; This is not the case for EISCAT_3D, which can be shared as long as none of the users needs the full time resolution of the system (after integration).&nbsp; This concept is illustrated in&nbsp;<em>test42mov (2 Users)&nbsp;<\/em>in which User 1 utilizes 5 pulses (in 25 milliseconds) and then User 2 sends and receives 8 pulses (in 40 milliseconds) before returning to User 1\u2019s set.&nbsp; In principle, this can be extended to a large number of simultaneous users, though each user must sacrifice time resolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-embed-handler wp-block-embed-embed-handler wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"test42mov 2 Users\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HKeXNNWLdOA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">test43mov (Interrupt)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>EISCAT_3D will also, with some limitations, be able to react to conditions either detected externally or in its own measurements.&nbsp; Consider, for instance, a situation where Users 1 and 2 are sharing the system in a pre-determined way with User 1 receiving 35 pulses followed by User 2 receiving 40 pulses and then returning back to User 1.&nbsp; If, for instance, a meteor is measured in User 1\u2019s data, User 3 can step in and inject 12 pulses with a different pulse length, pulse repetition frequency, and look direction.&nbsp; The system is then returned to the standard sharing sequence for Users 1 and 2.&nbsp; This concept is shown in<em>&nbsp;test43mov (Interrupt)<\/em>.&nbsp; A major limitation here is that the interrupt sequences must be pre-programmed and that a detection from one of User 1\u2019s pulses cannot immediately result in User 3 taking over.&nbsp; The basic limitation is the communication time between sites \u2013 remember that the illustrated pulses are traveling at the speed of light and, thus, telling the receive sites that a new sequence is to be initiated takes some time (possibly on the order of 1 second).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-embed-handler wp-block-embed-embed-handler wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"test43mov Interrupt\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-rGh-TlMZXI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">test44mov (Grid)&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally, EISCAT_3D will look in three dimensions.&nbsp; The cartoon in&nbsp;<em>test44mov (Grid)<\/em>&nbsp;shows one way this might be done by simply scanning the transmit pulses through a grid sequence.&nbsp; The grid of green dots at the end of the cartoon show points where both scalar and vector plasma parameters are produced.&nbsp; It should also be noted that in all these cartoons the grid spacing is set intentionally large for easy viewing.&nbsp; In reality, the receive sites are capable of forming up to 100 simultaneous beams, thus yielding a much greater coverage along each transmitted beam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-embed-handler wp-block-embed-embed-handler wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"test44mov Grid\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lWJoHLipYi8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Illustrations of some of the different capabilities in the EISCAT_3D radar system.","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389,"parent":402,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12],"class_list":["post-390","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eiscat_3d","category-technology-and-infrastructure"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>EISCAT_3D Operation Illustration - EISCAT Technology<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Illustrations of some of the different capabilities in the 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