About the UAF Program

The National Science Foundation supports four large incoherent-scatter radar facilities and the SuperDARN coherent scatter radar system. The major goal of the Upper Atmospheric Facilities (UAF) is to promote basic research on the structure and dynamics of the Earth's upper atmosphere. Research efforts utilizing these facilities have strong links to the NSF Aeronomy Program and the NSF Magnetospheric Physics Program. The incoherent-scatter radars are located along a longitudinal chain from Greenland to Peru. Each of the incoherent-scatter facilities is also equipped with powerful optical diagnostic instruments. The SuperDARN radar network consists of a number of coherent-scatter HF radars in both the northern and southern hemispheres. SuperDARN is used to provide realtime maps of ionospheric convection over the polar caps.