SuperDARN radar now operating at Dome C in Antarctica!

By: miker on: Sat., Jan. 26, 2013 11:47 PM EST (16023 Reads)

A combined Italian and French team has announced first light at the Dome C site in Antarctica. The PI for the project, Dr. Ermanno Amata, reports:

'I am happy to announce that the SuperDARN Dome C East (DCE) radar is now in operation.

The radar was installed by a team of three French from LPC2E-CNRS - Gilles Chalumeau, Stéphane Chévrier and Frédéric Savoie - and four "Italians" - Simona Longo, Stefano Massetti, Lukazs Polanski and Jan Wiid (actually, Polanski is a Polish guy working in Italy and Wiid is from South-Africa through Saskatoon)-. The radar was funded by PNRA, INAF and CNR from the Italian side, and by IPEV and INSU from the French side. I also have the pleasure to mention that the installation was made possible by the hard work of other people belonging to the logistics of Concordia and, in general, to PNRA and IPEV.

The radar is located at 1.4 km from the Franco-Italian base Concordia, at Dome C, i.e. very close to the Antarctic geomagnetic pole, at about 3200 m above sea level. This makes it the highest geomagnetic latitude radar and the highest altitude radar. Its field of view conjugates with those of the McMurdo radar and the just installed South Pole radar.'

Congratulations to you, Ermanno, and to the build team!

Ermanno continues:

'I wish to pay a tribute to Jean-Paul Villain, who, after we installed together the Kerguelen radar, suggested that we submit two parallel proposals to the French and Italian funding agencies for building two SuperDARN radars at Dome C. It has taken many years to overcome a number of difficulties, starting from the tragedy of Jean Paul's illness and premature death.'

Information about Dome C Station:

Dome C is a French-Italian scientific station located on the East Antarctic ice sheet.

Concordia Research Station opened at Dome C in 2005.

The geographic coordinates of Dome C are 75.1000° S, 123.3333° E.

Dome C is also known as Dome Circe or Dome Charlie. It is one of several summits or "domes" of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Dome C is located on the Antarctic Plateau.

Dome C is one of the coldest places on Earth. Temperatures hardly rise above −25 °C (−13 °F) in summer and can fall below −80 °C (−112 °F) in winter.

In the 1970s, Dome C was the site of ice core drilling by field teams of several nations.

Most of the cargo is moved to Dome C by traverse from Dumont d'Urville Station, covering 1,200 km in 7 to 12 days depending on weather conditions. Station personnel and light cargo arrive by air, using Twin Otter aircraft from DDU or Mario Zucchelli Station at 1200 km.

IPEV (Institut Paul Emile Victor) is the French agency in charge of logistics for the French Antarctic program. PNRA (Programma Nazionale Ricerche in Antartide) is the corresponding agency in Italy.

For more information about the station, see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dome_C

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concordia_Station

''The construction of the SuperDARN Dome C East (DCE) radar at Concordia Research Station is supported by the following agencies:

Italy -
Programma Nazionale di Ricerche in Antartide (PNRA)
Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF)
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR)

France -
Institut Polaire Francais (IPEV)
Institut National des Sciences de l'Univers (INSU)''