DARN SUPERDARN - A GLOBAL VIEW OF THE DYNAMICS OF HIGH-LATITUDE CONVECTION

The Dual Auroral Radar Network (DARN) is a global-scale network of I-I F and VHF radars capable of sensing backscatter from ionospheric irreg ularities in the E and F-regions of the high-latitude ionosphere. Curr ently, the network consists of the STARE VHF radar system in northern Scandinavia, a northern-hemisphere, longitudinal chain of HF radars th at is funded to extend from Saskatoon, Canada to central Finland, and a southern-hemisphere chain that is funded to include Halley Station, SANAE and Syowa Station in Antarctica. When all of the HF radars have been completed they will operate in pairs with common viewing areas so that the Doppler information contained in the backscattered signals m ay be combined to yield maps of high-latitude plasma convection and th e convection electric field. In this paper, the evolution of DARN and particularly the development of its SuperDARN HF radar element is disc ussed. The DARN/SuperDARN network is particularly suited to studies of large-scale dynamical processes in the magnetosphere-ionosphere syste m, such as the evolution of the global configuration of the convection electric field under changing IMF conditions and the development and global extent of large-scale Mi-ID waves in the magnetosphere-ionosphe re cavity. A description of the HF radars within SuperDARN is given al ong with an overview of their existing and intended locations, intende d start of operations, Principal Investigators, and sponsoring agencie s. Finally, the operation of the DARN experiment within ISTP/GGS, the availability of data, and the form and availability of the Key Paramet er files is discussed.