CUTLASS GLITTERS IN THE SKY
Wednesday June 5th, 1996
Source: The Times Interface supplement
Nick Nuttall on an experiment to solve the sun's mysteries
Man-made auroras are being generated in the skies over northern Europe as part
of a unique radar-based experiment which has just been officially opened by Ian
Taylor, the space minister.
A transmitter at Tromso in northern Norway is generating mini-fireworks in the
atmosphere which are being monitored and mapped by the Collaborative UK Twin
Location Aurora Sounding System (Cutlass). Designed and built by the University
of Leicester. Cutlass sweeps its vast radar beams over an area of three million
square kilometres.
Tudor Jones of the university's radio and space plasma physics group says the
man-made auroras are detectable and might be mistaken for tiny versions of the
real aurora borealis, or Northern Lights, generated by the sun. They are part
of a long term experiment to unravel the mysteries of the sun's relationship
with Earth.
Cutlass which has 50ft high radar antennae at Hankasalmi, Iceland, can detect
these changes or ripples in the atmosphere with an accuracy of about 50 sq km.
The network which is sited on the Artic Circle, is actually a two-tiered system
of big and small antennae. The big array can work out the location and
scattering of these sun-induced electrical and magnetic events and the smaller
ones can pinpoint the height. The speed and direction of these upper atmosphere
electrical events can be worked out by combining the two readings.
Professor Jones says they have already discovered that the flows of energy in
the atmosphere are far more sophisticated than had previously been thought. The
energy flows have "eddies and whirlpools and waterfalls" with "very strong
flows of current from East to West and then suddenly from West to East".
The radars will play a vital role in the European Space Agency's Cluster
mission, scheduled for launch from French Guiana this week, which will deploy
four spacecraft that will fly in formation to detect solar wind.
Already in space is Soho, the Solar Heliosperic Observatory, which is
monitoring the sun's face for explosions and violent events.
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