• Weatherstation – Current Sondrestrom weather conditions and webcam snapshot
• Webcam – Hourly snapshots archived by day
• Real time data from instruments at Sondrestrom
• ISR operations
• Library of plots
• Distributed Madrigal database




 
Graduate Student Research Experience Program



Eggert provides local report on Greenland goose migration for Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust/BBC Radio 4 series, "World On the Move: Great Animal Migrations."
During June 2007, a crew from Greenlandic TV station KNR visited the site for a tour and filming.
Nine members of the Committee on Science and Technology, US Congress House of Representatives, visited the site in July 2007. They were especially interested in the facility's support of research funded by NSF, NASA, and NOAA—three agencies for which they have oversight. The visitors included many spouses and aides, as well as Dr. Arlen Bement, Director of NSF.
Our lidar measurement of a noctilucent cloud showing effects of gravity waves is featured on SpaceWeather.com in August 2007.
The National Institute of Aerospace documented the recent Greenland Space Science Symposium, and has developed tools for educators to use in teaching about space weather, Greenland, the sun-earth connection, and other facets of polar research. These tools, as well as interviews with symposium participants and links to other resources, are available on the Nortel LearniT educational Web site.
Science teacher and documentarian Sharon Bowers, of the National Institute of Aerospace, attended the Greenland Space Science Symposium with a videographer, and accounts the visit in her Weblog.
In the 12 May 2007 issue of The Economist, science journalist Anna Petherick writes about the magnetosphere, space weather, and the Greenland Space Science Symposium. Anna's Greenland visit is also described in the Correspondent's Diary.
In October 2006 the site hosted a high school intern for two weeks. Emil Frederiksen, a student in Sisimiut, is shown here using an oscilloscope to look at a dual 4-bit binary counting circuit he built, with design help from one of the site engineers. He also assisted our site mechanic with maintenance of the site power plant, vehicle repairs, and heavy equipment operation. Emil wrote a report each day of his activities and made a presentation at school about his two-week stay.
A group of adventurers from Britain, Finland, and Poland crossed the ice cap on skis, traveling from Ammassalik, on the East Coast, to Kangerlussuaq in 30 days. The woman in a wheelchair used a specialized ski-chair with ski poles for power. The group enjoyed their tour of the facility on a warm day, as noted in their weblog.
Six graduate students – from Cornell University, Pennsylvania State University and the University of Colorado, Boulder – visit the facility and perform lidar and radar experiments. More...
"The Foreigner" is presented at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Gold Medal Competition for Young Artists. More...
Danish TV2 network visits Sondrestrom. More...
High school students from Colorado visit Sondrestrom and help run experiments. More...
Space weather can effect space-based technologies such as communications and navigation systems (from WITNESS THE ARCTIC) More...
Auroral studies shed light on the physics of space and provide valuable information about global change (from WITNESS THE ARCTIC) More...
Studies of noctilucent clouds and their connection to greenhouse gases are important to climate change research and atmospheric science (from WITNESS THE ARCTIC) More...
The Sondrestrom facility is featured in the IMAX movie SOLARMAX
Education & Outreach ARCHIVES

The Sondrestrom Research Facility is operated by the Center for GeoSpace Studies at SRI International under the auspices of the National Science Foundation and in joint cooperation with Denmark's Meteorological Institute.

 
2008 Sondrestrom Site Crew
Left to right: Christian H. Pedersen, Ulla Sandin, Henrik Sandin, Emil Frederiksen, Eggert Gudmundsson.
MAY2008
Martin Langteigen, engineer from the EISCAT Svalbard Radar, visits for two weeks as part of the engineer exchange initiated with Eggert's earlier visits to Svalbard and Tromsø. At right, Martin helps with adjustments to the antenna waveguide neccessitatied by the Spring thaw.
APR2008 Perform first of three world day runs to study quasi-periodic medium-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances (QP TIDs).
MAR2008 Continue biweekly IPY runs, beginning the second year.
FEB2008 Another record broken! This time for the coldest temperature on this date in town: –46.8° C (–52.2° F).
Continue "usual" runs: biweekly IPY support; coordinating with THEMIS, GeoTAIL, and REIMEI satellites; supporting daytime optics (HIRISE) for cusp detection; and supporting the GUVI/TIMED satellite.
JAN2008 Steve Mitchell, graduate student at University of Colorado, Boulder, visits the site for a week to work with the lidar system.
Significant Stratospheric Warming event happens during scheduled StratWarm world day. We run for 10 days, and the antenna survives record wind! During the Stratospheric Warming world day run, local wind was measured at 105 knots (121 mph, 195 km/h). Before the wind reached its peak, the antenna stow pin was engaged and the mode altered slightly to continue height-resolved measurements of the neutral- and electro-dynamics. The worst damage was a broken window in a site crew house.
DEC2007 Begin routine runs for the THEMIS satellites. Excellent orientation for the next few months.
Perform seven-day world day run in support of the Stratospheric Warming study. These data will be used as background measurements as there was not stratospheric warming during this time.
NOV2007 Eggert makes presentation describing our mission to authorities from Sisimiut Kommune. They wanted a better picture of our project to ensure their plans for expansion (e.g., a road between Kangerlussuaq and Sisimiut) don't negatively impact us.
Convection measurements during five evenings leading up to the Rosetta satellite fly-by.
Two infrared channels are added to the lidar system. When finalized next spring, this will enable elastic backscatter detection for stratospheric and mesospheric aerosol detection and inelastic backscatter detection to determine temperature and aerosol extinction in the troposphere and stratosphere.
OCT2007 We take over IPY measurements for two extra days while ESR is lacking power from town.
SEPT2007 Measurements to detect meteor head echoes.
Supplemental radiator installed to augment cooling for the generator used to drive the radar transmitter. This should solve the chronic problem of engine overheating during the hottest summer days.
AUG2007 After fulfilling his two-year assignment, Tomasz Moczadlowski and his wife, Sylwia, return home to Warsaw. They will be missed.
Begin measurements of velocities near auroral arcs, coordinated with the REIMEI satellite.
More measurements to detect Polar Mesospheric Summer Echoes.
ESR down; we take the IPY hand-off for two extra days.
JULY2007 ISR preforms a series of calibration and validation runs for the new DMSP-F17 satellite.
Olivier Francis, University of Luxembourg, returns for annual absolute gravity measurements associated with determining the ice cap mass balance.
John Kelly returns to the site to host NSF Director, Dr. Arlen Bement, and nine members of the US Congress House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology, chaired by Rep. Bart Gordon of Tennessee. The Chairman's thank you letter specifically mentions the "radar cake" that Ulla Sandin prepared for their visit!
JUNE2007 ESR down; we take the IPY hand-off for two extra days.
Welcome aboard, Emil Frederiksen! Emil begins a one-year internship performing various jobs around the site and being mentored by our Master Mechanic, Henrik Sandin. This internship typical for Greenlandic students' "after school year"— after graduating from high school, a year is often spent at work to help determine career paths.
MAY2007 ESR down; we take the "IPY hand-off" for three days until ESR is back on the air.
Greenland Space Science Symposium was held in Kangerlussuaq. It included 70 scientists from 14 countries, and celebrated the history and future of Greenland as a platform for space science research. Opening remarks by Minister for Research and Education, Mr. Tommy Marø, were broadcast on Greenland TV, as were portions of the Historic and Outreach talks of the first two days. During the off-day, attendees toured the site—although that may not have been as exciting as their expedition onto the inland ice!
APR2007 Normal runs continue in addition to biweekly IPY runs.
MAR2007 International Polar Year (IPY) kick-off for ISRs with a five-day world day run beginning 1 March. High-latitude ISRs Poker Flat, Sondrestrom, EISCAT Svalbard (ESR), EISCAT Mainland, and Millstone Hill begin a year of coordinated runs, contributing to the IPY measurements. Specifically:
• ESR will run continuously (except during maintenance, when Sondrestrom will take over)
• Poker Flat AMISR (PFISR) will run continuously in a low-duty cycle mode when not doing other experiments
• Sondrestrom, Millstone Hill, and EISCAT Mainland will run for 30+ hours every fortnight.
FEB2007 Experiment to detect meteor head echoes.
Later in the month, the radar transmitter generator failed. The radar was down for two weeks for troubleshooting, shipping, and installation of replacement parts.
JAN2007 New IPA installed with successful solution for interference problem.
SEPT2006 Three days of measurements taken for Global Plasma Structuring world day.
AUG2006 Asti Bhatt continues ISR experiments during various geomagnetic conditions.
Two infrared channels are added to the lidar system. When finalized, this will enable elastic backscatter detection for stratospheric and mesospheric aerosol detection and inelastic backscatter detection to determine temperature and aerosol extinction in the troposphere and stratosphere.
Alan Weathwax, Siena College, and two students repair the HF Imager.
JULY2006 Asti Bhatt, a graduate student at Cornell University, returns to the site for further attempts to detect gyro-lines. Interesting returns are puzzling.
Steve Capozzi continues ISR measurements and tries to detect small-scale density depletions in the upper E region produced by field-aligned current systems produced by Alfven waves.
JUNE2006 Steve Capozzi, a graduate student at Boston University, has arrived on site for a two-month stay as part of our Graduate Student Research Experience program. Steve is using the ISR to study spatial and temporal features in the E region near the poleward auroral boundary.
Jason Reimuller, a graduate student at the University of Colorado at Boulder, has arrived on site for a two-month stay to help with lidar operations during the Polar Mesospheric Summer Echo season.
Five-day run for CVS and CAWSES world days goes smoothly.
MAY2006
Eggert Gudmundsson, Sondrestrom site supervisor, travels to the EISCAT Svalbard and Tromsø facilities as part of an engineering swap. He is shown here assisting Dr. Tom Grydeland (on the right) with digging out Tom's interferometric array near the steerable ESR antenna.
APR2006 Successful end of 31-day run. Our new data acquisition system, RADAC, took data on three channels concurrently with the MUSCOX2 system that has been in use since December 1999. The data are being carefully validated before switching exclusively to the new system.
MAR2006 Began 31-day run dedicated to CAWSES, LTCS, CVS, and M-I coupling.
FEB2006 Continued measurements for various studies:
• Shin Oyama's (U. of Alaska, Fairbanks) study of the vertical structure of E-region neutral wind.
• D. Pallamraju's (Boston U.) ISR runs coordinated with his HIRISE spectrograph measurements of daytime emissions.
• Detection of ion up-flow coordinated with ISTP satellite measurements.
• ISR runs in support of the Cluster satellites.
• Measurements of Ne and conductance in support of the GUVI instrument on the TIMED satellite.
• Measurements of the Ne profile coordinated with optical measurements of nighttime emissions.
• Experiment for Hasan Bahcivan (SRI) to detect evidence of parallel electron streaming in the E region during large electric fields.
JAN2006 Began measurements for Larry Lyons, UCLA, coordinated with the Jicamarca ISR and satellite images to relate dayside convection to prompt penetration electric fields and changes in IMF and solar wind dynamic pressure.
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