Stokkseyri Info : Virginia Tech SuperDARN

Stokkseyri, Iceland (63.86 N, -21.031 E)

The SuperDARN radar at Stokkseyri was built by Jean-Paul Villain and colleagues from CNRS, France and saw first light in June, 1994. Hardware from the dismantled SuperDARN radar at Schefferville was used to support construction. One of the longest-running SuperDARN radars, the transmitters and other electronics were refurbished in 2010 with support from the Radio and Space Plasma Physics group at the University of Leicester.

After the passing of Jean-Paul, Dr. Aurélie Marchaudon assumed the PI-ship of the Stokkseyri and Kerguelen radars in 2008. Aurélie moved to IRAP (Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie) in 2012. In 2014, radar ownership and operations were formally transferred from CNRS to the Space Plasma Environment and Radio Science Group at Lancaster University in the UK, with Jim Wild assuming the role of Principal Investigator.

At the SuperDARN Workshop in Leicester in June 1-5, 2015, Jim reported the following errors in the Stokkseyri hdw.dat file: (i) in position, where longitude was stated as -22.020E but should have been -21.031E (ii) in the specification of the interferometer array which is behind the main array so its Y position should have been listed as negative (not positive)

On May 17, 2021 Jim announced that the radar has been off the air since March 2019 and was being handed over to a group of Icelandic ham radio entusiasts in lieu of decommisioning. The committment of Lancaster University to the site ended with the signing of paperwork to complete the transfer. It is hoped that the capabilities of the Stokkseyri radar will be largely recovered with the construction of a new dual radar at the Þykkvibaer site. Antenna drone view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq5VZSr7-Kw

Stokkseyri (code: STO, ID: 8)
Geog. Position: (+63.860°, -21.031°, 0.0m)
Configuration valid from	Configuration valid until	Scanning Boresite [°]	Beam Separation [°]	Velocity Sign	Attenuation Step* [dB]	Time Difference [μs]	Phase Sign	Interferometer Array Position [m]			Receiver Rise Time* [μs]	Stages of Attenuation*	No. of Gates	No. of Beams
	Current	-59.0	3.29	+1	10	+0.000	+1	+0.0	-100.0	+0.0	100.0	7	75	16
* Only valid for analog receivers, 0 for digital receivers								Last Updated: Mon Jul 8 07:25:01 2019

Position in Line	Parameter Name	Description
1	Station ID	The unique numeric ID of the radar. Assigned by Rob Barnes.
2	Year	This and the next parameter describe the date up until which the radar configuration described in that line was valid.
3	Seconds in Year	This and the previous parameter describe the date up until which the radar configuration described in that line was valid.
4	Geog. Latitude	The geographic latitude of the radar location, given in decimal degrees to 3 decimal places. Southern hemisphere values are negative.
5	Geog. Longitude	The geographic longitude of the radar location, in degree given in decimal degrees to 3 decimal places. West longitude values are negative.
6	Altitude	The altitude above sealevel of the radar location, in meter.
7	Scanning Boresite	The direction of the center of the field-of-view of the radar, in degree, relative to geographic North, positive clockwise. Traditionally, this direction was the same as the direction of the main antenna array normal.
8	Beam Separation	The angular separation of two adjacent beams, in degree. Normally 3.24 degrees.
9	Velocity Sign	The sign of the velocity direction, either +1 or -1, usually +1.(At the radar level, backscattered signals with frequencies above the transmitted frequency are assigned positive Doppler velocities while backscattered signals with frequencies below the transmitted frequency are assigned negative Doppler velocity. This convention can be reversed by changes in receiver design or in the data samping rate. This parameter is set to +1 or -1 to maintain the convention.)
10	Attenuation Step*	The step size of the receiver attenuation in dB.
11	Time Difference	The relative time delay of signal paths from the interferometer array to the receiver and the main array to the receiver, in microseconds. tdiff = signal_travel_time_from_interferometer_to_receiver - signal_travel_time_from_main_to_receiver If tdiff is positive, the signal travel time from the interferometer array to the receiver is longer than the travel time from the main array to the receiver.
12	Phase Sign	The sign of the phase shift between interferometer and main array, either +1 or -1, usually +1. (Cabling errors can lead to a 180 degree shift of the interferometry phase measurement. +1 indicates that the sign is correct, -1 indicates that it must be flipped.)
13	Interferometer Array Position X	The offset distance between the mid points of the interferometer and main array, in the direction along the main array, positive towards higher antenna numbers, in meter.
14	Interferometer Array Position Y	The offset distance between the mid points of the interferometer and main array, in the direction perpendicular to the main array, positive values indicate that the interferometer array is in front of the main array, in meter.
15	Interferometer Array Position Z	The offset distance between the mid points of the interferometer and main array, in the vertical direction, positive up, in meter.
16	Receiver Rise Time*	The rise time of the analog receiver, in microseconds. (Time delays of less than ~10 microseconds can be ignored. If narrow-band filters are used in analog receivers or front-ends, the time delays should be specified.)
17	Stages of Attenuation*	The maximum number of steps of analog attenuation in the receiver. (This is used for gain control of an analog receiver or front-end.)
18	No. of Gates	The maximum number of range gates from which the radar can receive data. Usually 75. (This is used for allocation of array storage.)
19	No. of Beams	The maximum number of beams the radar can form. Usually 16. Together with the scanning boresite, this parameter defined the direction of each beam relative to geographic North. (It is important to specify the true maximum. This will assure that a given beam number always points in the same direction. A subset of these beams, e.g. 8-23, can be used for standard 16 beam operation.)
* Only valid for analog receivers, 0 for digital receivers		Last Updated: Sun Mar 26 07:25:02 2023

Stokkseyri, Iceland (63.86 N, -21.031 E)

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