STARE: Technical information

The STARE system consists of two almost identical Doppler stations, one in Hankasalmi, Finland, and the other one in Midtsandan, Norway. Each radar has eight beams, which are formed by a "Butler matrix".

Transmitter

Frequency: 143.8 MHz (Hankasalmi), 140.0 MHz (Midtsandan)
Transmitter power (with 0.25 % duty cycle): 50 kW (nominal)
Range resolution: 50 microsecond (15 km)

Receiver

The receiver antenna consists of 18 Yagi antennas. 16 antennas are connected to a Butler matrix providing 8 channels with slightly different pointing directions. 2 antennas are used as outrigger antenna forming the 9th channel. The 18 antennas are provided with separate preamplifiers close to the antennas, which are connected to the main receiver section in the station container.

Antenna construction: 64 8-element Yagi antennas arranged in 16 vertical stacks
Collection area: 360 square meters
Gain: +26 dB
Elevation: 6 deg. above the horizontal, covarege +- 5 deg
Azimuth: angular coverage 58 deg.
Lobe width: 3.2 deg at half power
Lobe separation: 3.6 deg.
Range: 495-1200 km

Pulse coding

The radar integration time is 20 s, during which it can perform 210 scans (measurements). Both single-pulse, double-pulse and multipulse code sequences are used. The background noise is measured.

More information:

Greenwald, R.A., W. Weiss, E. Nielsen and N.R. Thomson, STARE: A new radar auroral backscatter experiment in northern Scandinavia, Radio Science, 13, 1021-1039, 1978.
Nielsen, E., et al., STARE: Observations of a field-aligned line current, Geophysical Research Letters, 26, 21-24, 1999.

Note: some of the information herein may be inaccurate since the radar specifications may have changed in the meantime

Pekka Janhunen (First.Last@fmi.fi), Updated 22 Dec 1999