[PEM18-02] Status of Equatorial MU Radar project in 2020
Keywords:equatorial atmosphere, atmosphere radar, SCJ Masterplan
Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere, Kyoto University (RISH) has been studying the atmosphere and ionosphere by using radars. The first big facility was the MU (Middle and Upper atmosphere) radar installed in Shiga, Japan in 1984. This is one of the most powerful and multi-functional radar, and is successful of revealing importance of atmospheric waves for the dynamical vertical coupling processes. The next big radar was the Equatorial Atmosphere Radar (EAR) installed at Kototabang, West Sumatra, Indonesia in 2001. The EAR was operated under close collaboration with LAPAN (Indonesia National Institute for Aeronautics and Space), and conducted the long-term continuous observations of the equatorial atmosphere/ionosphere. The EAR, however, had a limited sensitivity to the MU radar as the total output power is just 1/10 to the MU radar. Our new project is to establish "Equatorial MU (EMU) Radar" just next to the EAR site in Indonesia. The EMU will have an active phased array antenna with the 163 m diameter and 1055 cross-element Yagis. Total output power of the EMU will be more than 500 kW. The EMU is the "MU radar class" facility, and can detect turbulent echoes from the mesosphere (60-80 km). In the ionosphere incoherent-scatter observations of plasma density, drift, and temperature would be possible. Multi-channel receivers will realizes radar-imaging observations. Preparation for the EMU progress in many aspect including site survey for the construction, discussion with local government, etc. In March 2019, RISH and LAPAN have 1st Internal School on Equatorial Atmosphere (ISQUAR) 2019 with more than 100 participants at Bandung, Indonesia. ISQUAR aims to promote interesting studies of the equatorial atmosphere and use of the atmospheric radar including the EMU. The EMU is one of the key element in the project "Study of coupling processes in the solar-terrestrial system" that is one of the important project in the Master Plan 2014 and 2017 of the Science Council of Japan (SCJ). The project kept the same status at the SCJ Masterplan 2020.