Amateur Radio Propagation Studies

Science, research, engineering, operating

Upper atmosphere realtime data

It is much easier to access realtime data from spacecrafts travelling through the solar system than accessing ionospheric realtime data on Earth. With some exceptions though, e.g. the Digisonde/Dynasonde network providing ionograms from many places in the world. However, many national science administrations appear to believe that ionospheric research is no longer required and, in consequence, ionosondes disappear one after the other due to cuts in funding. This is very difficult to understand, because of scientific, educational and because of financial reasons (compared to other scientific projects, the operational costs of an ionosonde station is almost peanuts - in other words: with ionosondes, you may achieve a wealth of scientific results at little expenditures).

The Lowell Digisonde location list (left) is operated by the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Center for Atmospheric Research (UMLCAR).

The Dynasonde Ionosphere Explorer (right) web site is operated by the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC).

Please click maps to access that services....

Thanks to the radar working group at the Leibniz-Institute of Atmospheric Physics e.V. at University of Rostock, a variety of realtime radar soundings may be accessed via the internet.

Current results of the radar facilities at Andenes (Norway), Svalbard and at the German sites Kühlungsborn and Juliusruh, respectively, display a wealth of information on the actual Troposphere, Mesosphere and the lower Ionosphere.

Radio amateurs interested in meteor burst communication will in particular appreciate the many meteor backscatter plots measured around 50 MHz.

Legal notes (Impressum)