2013 SuperDARN Workshop (hosted by the University of Saskatchewan)
May 26-31, 2013
Temple Gardens Mineral Spa
Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada

https://ocs.usask.ca/conf/index.php/superdarn/superdarn2013

Important Deadlines to Note:
Accommodation: April 10, 2013 **Extended
Early Registration: April 10, 2013 **Extended
Abstracts: May 3, 2013
For info click on 'Read More'

New this year:
SuperDARN Grad School
May 22-24, 2013 at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada
(Transportation from Saskatoon to Moose Jaw for the SuperDARN Workshop will be arranged.)

Drs. Simon Shepherd (Dartmouth College) and Raymond Greenwald (Virginia Tech) are making a visit to the island of Graciosa in the Azores to advance the plan for building the fourth and final pair of SuperDARN MSI radars. They are meeting with the mayor of Santa Cruz Da Graciosa, Sen. José Ramos Aguiar, and local contractors. Simon reports:

Feb 2: 'We had a very pleasant ceremony this morning at the future site of the Graciosa SuperDARN radars. It is perhaps one of the most spectacular sites we have built radars. Brief presentations were given by Luis Santos (Direcção Regional da Ciência, Tecnologia e Comunicações) and myself before signing the lease. A final presentation was given by the Secretary of the President of the Azores. The ceremony was attended by many citizens including the mayor of Santa Cruz Da Graciosa and several of the press.' Click here to see photos of the signing ceremony. Also see: http://www.rtp.pt/icmblogs/rtp/graciosa/?k=SuperDarn-na-Graciosa.rtp&post=43318

SuperDARN radars in the Azores will extend the coverage provided by the mid-latitude MSI radar chain across the Atlantic and into the European sector. Builds have been completed in Kansas (2009), Oregon (2010) and Alaska (2012).

The MSI team acknowledges the generous assistance provided by the Regional Government of the Azores (RGA), in particular the involvement of Mr. Luis Santos. The team also thanks Mr. Rafael A. Perez, Principal Officer to the Azores (Consulate of the United States) for coordinating activities and providing invaluable guidance.

A combined Italian and French team has announced first light at the Dome C site in Antarctica. The PI for the project, Dr. Ermanno Amata, reports:

'I am happy to announce that the SuperDARN Dome C East (DCE) radar is now in operation.

The radar was installed by a team of three French from LPC2E-CNRS - Gilles Chalumeau, Stéphane Chévrier and Frédéric Savoie - and four "Italians" - Simona Longo, Stefano Massetti, Lukazs Polanski and Jan Wiid (actually, Polanski is a Polish guy working in Italy and Wiid is from South-Africa through Saskatoon)-. The radar was funded by PNRA, INAF and CNR from the Italian side, and by IPEV and INSU from the French side. I also have the pleasure to mention that the installation was made possible by the hard work of other people belonging to the logistics of Concordia and, in general, to PNRA and IPEV.

The radar is located at 1.4 km from the Franco-Italian base Concordia, at Dome C, i.e. very close to the Antarctic geomagnetic pole, at about 3200 m above sea level. This makes it the highest geomagnetic latitude radar and the highest altitude radar. Its field of view conjugates with those of the McMurdo radar and the just installed South Pole radar.'

Congratulations to you, Ermanno, and to the build team!

A team from University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) lead by Bill Bristow has raised a SuperDARN radar at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. Here is the text of Bill's email:

'I am pleased to announce that the world's highest latitude radar is now on the air.

The newest SuperDARN radar was constructed over the later half of December and first half of January and put into operation on January 21st. The construction work was done by the Antarctic Support Contractor, Lockheed-Martin, along with Jef Spaleta, UAF Student Alex Morris, and me.
The radar is located at -89 degrees, 59 minutes, and 42.93 seconds latitude which makes it the highest latitude radar in the world. Just 17 seconds of latitude from the pole. (Another superlative for SuperDARN!)'

Congratulations to Bill and the UAF team!

On behalf of the University of Saskatchewan SuperDARN group, Prof. J.-P. St. Maurice has announced that a new PolarDARN radar is now in operation. It is located at Clyde River, Nunavut, on the east coast of Baffin Island.

In J.-P.'s words: 'The new radar, which has been completed a few months ahead of schedule, is working according to specs, if not better. Not that we want to boast, but it does hold the record for highest latitude radar in the northern hemisphere....We are very grateful to our engineering team (Jan, Kevin, and Naas) and to Pasha for a flawless installation and we thank the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and the province of Saskatchewan for having funded the construction of this radar.'

The Clyde River radar joins PolarDARN radars at Rankin Inlet, Nunavut and Inuvik, N.W.T., in extending SuperDARN coverage deep into the polar cap.

Congratulations to Jean-Pierre, Kathryn, George, the engineering crew, and all of the Saskatoon group!

Tuesday, Sep 11: Bill reports that Adak is on the air! In his words: 'I am pleased to announce that we had "first light" on both halves of the Adak system this afternoon. We brought up Adak West at about 0200 UT today and are receiving great data. I want to thank all of the MSI partners for their contributions to making this build a success. All went smoothly and we had a great time…no seriously despite horizontal rain for a good part of the time we had fun.'

Congratulations to Bill and the entire MSI build team!

View 'First Light' and Adak Island Photos Here!!!