The Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) is an international radar network for studying the upper atmosphere and ionosphere, comprising eleven radars in the northern hemisphere and seven in the southern hemisphere that operate in the High Frequency (HF) bands between 8.0 MHz (37m) and 22.0 MHz (14m).
The Java applets that are used as the radar data display system currently indicate the 10 MHz (30m) and 14 MHz (21m) frequency bands as being primarily used in 2012 (in the Northern Hemisphere). The radars measure the Doppler velocity (and other related characteristics) of plasma density irregularities in the ionosphere.
In the standard operating mode each radar scans through 16 beams of azimuthal separation ~3.24°, with a total scan time of 1 min. Each beam is divided into 75 range gates of length 45 km, and so in each full scan the radars each cover 52° in azimuth and over 3000 km in range, an area of over 4×106 km².
Read more about Super Dual Auroral Radar Network: History, SuperDARN Sites, Coverage, In Popular Culture
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