The construction of EISCAT_3D, a new international research radar for space weather research, has been given a greenlight and will proceed later in June.

EISCAT_3D will be the world’s leading facility of its kind, offering a critically important window to the upper atmosphere and near-Earth space in the European Arctic.

The EISCAT Scientific Association is a partner in the second AARC (Authentication and Authorisation for Research and Collaboration) project.

“AARC will help us to set up access to the infrastructure in an easy, yet secure and safe manner,” says Ingemar Häggström, head of operations of the EISCAT Scientific Association.

“This involves access to data products for dedicated and general use as well as to the operations of the radar for more direct control.”

The EISCAT_3D facility will be distributed across three sites in Northern Scandinavia – in Skibotn, Norway, near Kiruna in Sweden, and near Kaaresuvanto in Finland. Each site will consist of about 10,000 antennas fed by a powerful 5 MW transmitter at Skibotn and a receiver at each of the three sites.

The EISCAT_3D project will start in September 2017 with site preparations to begin in summer 2018. The radar is expected to be operational in 2021.