During the 2011/12 Antarctic season the Moveable Atmospheric Radar for Antarctica, MARA, was moved from the Swedish research station Wasa to the Norwegian research station Troll.
Moving MARA to different locations makes it possible to study how air is transported and mixed between different heights in the atmosphere under various conditions. The measurements focus on four phenomena:
- how ice clouds, at a height of 100 km above the poles, are affected by antropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide and methane;
- how particle streams and radiation from the sun affect the atmosphere at heights of 50–100 km;
- how ozone-rich air from the polar atmosphere mixes with the air closer to the ground;
- how air from the ocean surface around Antarctica is lifted up and spread across large areas.
Principal investigator
Sheila Kirkwood
Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Kiruna