19th International EISCAT Symposium and 46th Annual European Meeting on Atmospheric Studies by Optical Methods : abstracts

Abstract

<div lang="en" class="abs"><p class="abs_header">Foreword</p><p>The 19th International EISCAT Symposium and 46th Annual European Meeting on Atmospheric Studies by Optical Methods in 2019 is the second time these two conferences have been combined; the first time took place in 2015 in Hermanus, South Africa. While the EISCAT Symposium is organized every second year, the optical meeting (46AM) takes place every year. We expect great synergy by combining these two communities, which already have a large overlap.</p><p>At the moment, we are living in very exciting times, since construction of the EISCAT_3D facility in Norway, Finland, and Sweden has been started by the EISCAT Scientific Association. The plan is to have all three radar sites operational in 2022 for studying the upper ionized atmosphere in the Arctic region. Now it is time to plan future joint activities and collect new ideas, so that when the new facility starts operations, we can utilize its potential to the full extent, together with complementary instruments.</p><p>The conference has about 100 oral and poster presentations, covering a broad range of topics that can be studied by using incoherent scatter radars, optical instruments and other scientific instruments for geospace research. The contributions are divided into five sessions, with the aim to foster collaboration between both communities around joint science topics; the first session focusing on the development of new innovative instruments and analysis methods.</p><p>We are very happy to host this meeting in Oulu, Finland. The University of Oulu together with its independent department Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory (SGO) lead the EISCAT efforts in Finland and participate in building the Karesuvanto EISCAT_3D site. We thank the University of Oulu for providing the conference facilities and the City of Oulu for hosting the welcoming reception at Tietomaa Science Center.</p></div>