Sagamore Hill Radio Observatory - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Location

Sagamore Hill, Hamilton, Massachusetts, USA (Longitude: 70.82008°W Latitude: 42.63225°N)

The Sagamore Hill Solar Radio Observatory is a ground-based solar radio telescope observatory located in Hamilton, Massachusetts

Hamilton, Massachusetts

Hamilton is a town located in the eastern central portion of Essex County in eastern Massachusetts. It is primarily a suburban bedroom community, most commonly known for its equestrian estates...

that operates on a daily basis to obtain scientific observations of the sun. It is a functional component of the Radio Solar Telescope Network

Radio Solar Telescope Network

The Radio Solar Telescope Network is a network of solar observatories maintained and operated by the U.S.Air Force Weather Agency. The RSTN consists of ground-based observatories in Australia, Italy, Massachusetts, New Mexico and Hawaii.- History :...

(RSTN). The observatory is currently operated by Detachment 2 of the 2nd Weather Group

2nd Weather Group

The 2nd Weather Group, located at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., delivers timely, relevant and specialized terrestrial, space and climatological global environmental intelligence to Joint warfighters, the United States Department of Defense, US Government agencies and nations allied with the United...

of the Air Force Weather Agency

Air Force Weather Agency

The Air Force Weather Agency is a Field Operating Agency and the lead military meteorology center of the United States Air Force...

. Instruments currently located at the Sagamore Hill RSTN Site include the RIMS (Radio Interference Monitoring Sets) and the SRS (Solar Radio Spectrograph Radiometer). The RIMS system receives solar integrated flux data in the UHF, VHF, and X Band frequency ranges. It previously included a 150-foot fully steerable antenna that operated at 440 MHz, which was installed in 1963 and moved to Millstone Hill

Millstone Hill

The Millstone Hill Steerable Antenna, or MISA, is a fully steerable dish antenna, 46 meters in diameter, designed by the Stanford Research Institute in 1959. It is currently located at MIT Haystack Observatory in Westford, Massachusetts. It was originally installed at the Sagamore Hill Radio...

in Westford, Massachusetts

Westford, Massachusetts

Westford is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 21,951 at the 2010 census.-History:Originally a part of neighboring Chelmsford, West Chelmsford soon grew large enough to sustain its own governance, and was officially incorporated as Westford on September 23,...

in 1978.

History

It became apparent in the early 1960s that certain space weather

Space weather

Space weather is the concept of changing environmental conditions in near-Earth space or thespace from the Sun's atmosphere to the Earth's atmosphere. It is distinct from the concept ofweather within the Earth's planetary atmosphere...

events might interfere with the U.S. objective of putting a man on the moon. Foremost among these concerns was the possibility of a geomagnetic storm

Geomagnetic storm

A geomagnetic storm is a temporary disturbance of the Earth's magnetosphere caused by a disturbance in the interplanetary medium. A geomagnetic storm is a major component of space weather and provides the input for many other components of space weather...

of solar origin. Metric Type II radio bursts, signatures of coronal shock waves or coronal mass ejections, were known to be commonly associated with solar flares. The United States Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) was thus assigned the task of developing and validating a network of ground-based solar observatories. AFRL established a world-wide network of sweep frequency recorders from which estimates of the shock speed in the corona could be made. This network, called the Radio Solar Telescope Network (RSTN), uses a bandwidth from 25 MHz to 85 MHz. The prototype was assembled and operated at the Sagamore Hill Solar Radio Observatory during the early 1960s. The Sagamore Hill Solar Radio Observatory began operating solar patrols in 1966. The Air Force Geophysics Laboratory (AFGL, currently Phillips Lab) transferred operation of the observatory to the Air Force in October 1978. The observatory is now officially Detachment 2, 2nd Weather Squadron of the 2nd Weather Group

2nd Weather Group

of the Air Force Weather Agency

Air Force Weather Agency

The Air Force Weather Agency is a Field Operating Agency and the lead military meteorology center of the United States Air Force...

.

The RSTN is complemented in its real-time capability by a radio telescope

Radio telescope

A radio telescope is a form of directional radio antenna used in radio astronomy. The same types of antennas are also used in tracking and collecting data from satellites and space probes...

operated from 25 MHz (the ionospheric cutoff) to 1800 MHz by the Ionospheric Prediction Service in Culgoora, Australia. The USAF currently operates RSTN locations at Palehua, Hawaii; San Vito dei Normanni

San Vito dei Normanni

San Vito dei Normanni is an Italian town of 19,947 inhabitants of the province of Brindisi in Puglia. The inhabitants are called Sanvitesi and the town is sometimes referred to as San Vito....

, Italy; Sagamore Hill, Massachusetts; and Learmonth

RAAF Learmonth

RAAF Learmonth, also known as Learmonth Airport , is a joint use Royal Australian Air Force base and civil airport. It is located near the town of Exmouth on the north-west coast of Western Australia. As an RAAF base, Learmonth is one of the RAAF's three 'bare bases'...

, Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

Location

History

See also