The Sondrestrom Research Facility is now closed and not collecting new data; however, all historical data is available and now being maintained by the AMISR facility. Please contact the AMISR team amisr.com/amisr/requests for assistance accessing and interpreting data.

Sondrestrom ceased operations in May 2018. The information on this website has not been updated since May 2018.
Radar Operations Schedules
Radar Operations Catalogues
Data are archived at SRI, Menlo Park, and are available to qualified users by request.
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The Sondrestrom Incoherent Scatter Radar utilizes techniques which allow the direct measurement of ionospheric electron-number density, ion velocity, and electron and ion temperatures along the radar beam. Because the radar antenna is fully-steerable, these parameters can be determined as functions of distance and altitude. The radar consists of an L-band transmitter, a 32-m steerable parabolic dish antenna, low noise amplifier, receivers, and digital signal processing computers. Radar experiments are scheduled, averaging about 160 hours of operations each month. Requests for radar time should be made to the PI, Elizabeth Kendall by the 10th day of the month preceding the operations.

Summary Plots

Requesting ISR Data

Requesting Experiment Time

Radar Data Samples


Summary Plots
SRI maintains a library of all data taken with the Sondrestrom radar. Summary plots of data that have been processed recently are available in our plot archive. Please realize that not all available data have been plotted and posted to this on-line library. The catalogues of observation (listed above at right) indicate the availability of data. If you don't see what you want, just request it!

Requesting ISR Data
All of the data is available to the community and can be requested from the PI, Elizabeth Kendall or Co-PI, Asti Bhatt. The goal of your study will help determine how the data should be processed to maximize the necessary spatial and temporal resolutions.

Requesting Experiment Time
To request experiment time, please contact Elizabeth Kendall. Be prepared to discuss your scientific objectives, desirable geophysical conditions (if any, such as quiet or active), weather conditions (e.g., for simultaneous optical measurements), desired temporal and spatial resolutions, etc. The goal of your ISR measurements will help determine what operating mode will be best suited to your needs, and may help mitigate conflicting requests.
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