PANSY

PANSY is a new plan to introduce the first MST (Mesosphere-Stratosphere-Troposphere) /IS (Incoherent Scatter) radar, which is a VHF monostatic pulse Doppler radar, in the Antarctic to Syowa Station as an important station observing the earth's environment with the aim to catch the climate change signals that the Antarctic atmosphere shows. We call this radar the PANSY radar. The interaction of the neutral atmosphere with the ionosphere and magnetosphere as well as the global-scale atmospheric circulation including the low and middle latitude regions are also targets of PANSY.

Specifications of the PANSY Radar

Radar System	Monostatic pulse Doppler radar
Location	Syowa Station in the Antarctic (69°00' 22''S, 39°35' 24''E)
Center Frequency	47.0 MHz
Antenna	A quasi-circular array consisting of 1045 crossed Yagi antennas with 3 elements
Aperture	about 18000m2
Beam directions	arbitrary zenith angles less than 30 degrees
Transmitter	1045 solid-state TR modules
Peak power	> 500kW
Average power	> 25kW
Polarization	Circular polarization
Receiver	55 systems of synchronous quadratic detection

The beam direction of the PANSY radar is easily controlled by changing the phase of radio waves emitted from each antenna element. The three dimensional structure of atmospheric phenomena can be examined.

Atmospheric Observation at Syowa Station

A strong advantage of Syowa Station is the possibility to use a variety of preinstalled observational tools measuring various aspects of the atmosphere. Vertical profiles of winds and temperature in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere are measured by an MF radar and a sodium lidar, respectively. Air glow measurements are made by an all sky imager and a Fabry-Perot interferometer. A micro-pulse lidar is used to detect clouds in the troposphere and lower stratosphere. Simultaneous observation by the PANSY radar as well as these instruments will promise significant progress of polar middle atmosphere science.

Observations in the Arctic Region

Each atmospheric layer is being observed by various radars in the Arctic. Comparative study of the Arctic and Antarctic atmosphere will be made possible by constructing the PANSY radar at Syowa Station.

Meridional Chain of MST/IS Radars

The PANSY radar at Syowa Station as well as pre-exsiting EISCAT radars, the Middle and Upper atmosphere Radar (MUR) in Japan and the Equatorial Atmosphere Radar (EAR) in Indonesia operated by Kyoto University, Japan compose a meridional chain of MST/IS radars. PANSY will promote environmental studies of the earth's atmosphere to higher levels.