Project Website http://www.haystack.mit.edu/atm/arrays/amisr/index.html
Advanced Modular Incoherent Scatter Radar (AMISR) is a modular, mobile radar facility that will be used by scientists and students from around the world to conduct studies of the upper atmosphere and to observe space weather events. SRI International, under a grant from the National Science Foundation, is leading a collaborative effort in the development of AMISR, whose novel modular configuration is designed to allow relative ease of relocation for studying upper atmospheric activity around the globe. Remote operation and electronic beam steering will let researchers operate and position the radar beam instantaneously to accurately measure rapidly changing space weather events.
The AMISR consists of three separate radar faces, with each face comprised of 128 building block-like panels over a 30x30 meter roughly square surface. AMISR will be constructed in two stages over the next four years. The first face will be constructed in Poker Flat, Alaska over the next 18 months. Following completion of the first face, the remaining two faces will be built in Resolute Bay, Nunavut, Canada. Subsequent locations will be determined by a scientific advisory panel. Since each face of the AMISR functions independently, the AMISR can be deployed in up to three separate locations at the same time.