2025 CAP Congress / Congrès de l'ACP 2025

The many discoveries of the ICEBEAR-3D E-region coherent radar

10 Jun 2025, 11:15

15m

Oral (Non-Student) / Orale (non-étudiant(e)) Atmospheric and Space Physics / Physique atmosphérique et spatiale (DASP/DPAE) (DASP) T1-2 Ionosphere, Thermosphere, and Radio Propagation | Ionosphère, thermosphère et propagation radioélectrique (DPAE)

Speaker

Glenn Hussey (University of Saskatchewan)

Description

The Ionospheric Continuous-wave E-region Bistatic Experimental Auroral Radar (ICEBEAR) is a fully digital software defined radio (SDR) high-resolution 49.5~MHz VHF coherent E-region radar with an auroral zone field-of-view situated in western Canada (58N, 106W geographic). First light was in 2017, but in 2019 the final design of ICEBEAR was implemented with the re-configuration of the ICEBEAR receiver antenna array into a non-uniform co-planar T-shaped double interferometer layout. Applying highly advance tailored aperture synthesis radar imaging techniques, radar echoes can be unambiguously located within the ICEBEAR-3D field-of-view with a nominal resolution of 1--3~km in 3-dimensions (range, azimuth, elevation). Both the scientific and technical research discoveries of ICEBEAR-3D has been many and varied, the former being highly enhanced by the highly advanced technical abilities of ICEBEAR-3D. This presentation will survey the many varied technical and scientific discoveries of this unique E-region coherent radar.