The IGERTs Explore Incoherent Scatter!

Thursday was a great day for physics in Kanger! Our mighty group was fortunate to partake in a tour of the internationally recognized research facility, known as Kellyville. Located about 16km from the KISS center in Kangerlussuaq, Kellyville is a small research community operated by SRI international in cooperation with NSF and the Danish Meteorological Institute. They specialize in upper atmospheric studies, and house a wide range of instruments installed by researchers from around the world.

Approaching Kellyville, we got a nice view of the layout of this microcommunity of small houses, one main instrument building, and the large radar with parabolic dish.

Inside the main instrument building.

Our tour began with a walk through the main research building, where an on-site electrical engineer along with research engineer in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Dartmouth, David Mcgaw, explained to us how the collection of intricate instruments housed here are currently being used for atmospheric and ionospheric projects around the world. These techniques are being used to study phenomena ranging from the physics of the auroral emissions, to the dynamics of solar storms!

The indoor instrumentation was definitely amazing, however the most impressive of these instruments stood outside of the building…

The Incoherent Scatter Radar!

Equipped with a 32m steerable parabolic dish, the Incoherent Scatter Radar collects direct measurements of the ionosphere via a radar beam into the upper atmosphere.

All in all, we had a fantastic day and learned a lot about atmospheric physics!

More updates on our next adventure to follow shortly…but until then, we’d love to hear from YOU! Is there anything in particular you would like to hear more about? We welcome suggestions!

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