History of the Tromsø ionosphere heating facility

• Published in: History of Geo- and Space Sciences
• Main Authors: M. T. Rietveld, P. Stubbe
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2022
• Subjects: Science; Q; Geology; QE1-996.5; Dynamic and structural geology; QE500-639.5; Physics; QC1-999; Geophysics. Cosmic physics; QC801-809; Norway; Tromsø; EISCAT
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/hgss-13-71-2022; https://doaj.org/article/69248d056722408fa5476558f96cbb82

We present the historical background of the construction of a major ionospheric heating facility, “Heating”, near Tromsø, Norway, in the 1970s by the Max Planck Institute for Aeronomy; we also detail the facility's subsequent operational history to the present. Heating was built next to the European Incoherent Scatter Scientific Association (EISCAT) incoherent scatter (IS) radar facility and in a region with a multitude of diagnostic instruments used to study the auroral region. The facility was transferred to EISCAT in January 1993 and continues to provide new discoveries in plasma physics and ionospheric and atmospheric science to this day. It is expected that Heating will continue operating along with the new generation of IS radar, called EISCAT_3D, when it is commissioned in the near future.