MSI Site Survey Trip to the Azores Island of Graciosa completed

By: miker on: Tue., Mar. 27, 2012 10:53 AM EDT (621 Reads)

An MSI/SuperDARN team consisting of Dr. Simon Shepherd (Dartmouth College) and Dr. Ray Greenwald (Virginia Tech) carried out a site survey trip to the Azores, April 10-17, 2012. They identified an area on the south end of Gracisosa Island as suitable for the construction of two radars. These radars will extend the coverage provided by the mid-latitude MSI radar chain across the Atlantic and into the European sector. The team acknowledges the generous assistance provided by the Regional Government of the Azores (RGA), in particular the involvement of Mr. Luis Santos (CCCTII - Centro Coordenador das Comunicações e Tecnologias de Informação e Inovaçãoof) and of Mr. Franciso Tavares (Advisor to the Regional Secretary for the Presidency of the RGA).

Graciosa Island is the northernmost of the Central Group of islands in the Azores. It is approximately 10 km x 7 km in area. The island is volcanic and its geography is dominated by a 1.6 km wide central caldera. The population of the island is just less than 5,000 and all inhabitants are considered citizens of the largest town, Santa Cruz da Graciosa.

For more information about Graciosa Island see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graciosa

To read the news item about the first MSI trip to the Azores see

http://vt.superdarn.org/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=70

The construction of the mid-latitude chain of SuperDARN radars is supported by the National Science Foundation under the Mid-Sized Infrastructure (MSI) program.