I'm testing reception of MAARSY radar transmissions with LOFAR radio telescope hardware. Seems to be working well enough. Something cool will happen next...
These are "first light" observations of polar mesospheric summer echoes using a bi-static radar receiver observing transmissions made by the MAARSY radar in Andenes Norway. The receiver is in Stø, about 50 km West of MAARSY. The goal is to make a tri-static system with one more receiver. The reason for a tri-static system is that this will allow observing the three-dimensional velocity of the mesosphere-lower thermosphere as a function of position. This allows studies of stratified turbulence in a part of the Earth's upper atmosphere that is considered to be the border of space. The amount of turbulence in this region affects e.g., wave propagation from the troposphere into space, heating of this atmospheric region, atmospheric drag variations experience by space craft. eddy diffusion of meteoric chemical and man made space debris pollutants.
