Instruments of European observatories

Studying the upper atmosphere and plasmasphere requires specialized and technologically advanced equipment. Many of the processes under investigation take place at considerable heights and involve parameters of the gases and plasmas that cannot be measured directly. Therefore a wide range of instruments has been designed especially for that purpose. The following instruments are installed in Europe:

• Ionosonde
• GNSS receiver network
• Incoherent scatter radar
• Low-frequency radio telescope
• VLF receivers
• Continuous Doppler Sounding System
• Field mill for the measurement of atmospheric electricity
• All-Sky Imager
• Infrasound network
  
• Meteor camera
  
• Meteor radar
  
• RIOmeter
  
• Magnetometer
• Cosmic ray detector 
• Ionospheric heating
  

Instruments on satellites sounding the atmosphere top-down supplement the observations of these ground-based instruments. Please click on one of the instrument names for an explanation of the instrument.

Research instruments for the upper atmosphere. Top and middle left: incoherent scatter radar antennas. Top right: GNSS receiver network locations. Bottom left: ionosonde antennas. Bottom right: low-frequency radio telescope locations.

For questions, please contact outreach@pithia-nrf.eu