The Sura Ionospheric Heating Facility, located near the small town of Vasilsursk

Vasilsursk

Vasilsursk is an urban locality in Vorotynsky District of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia, located on the Sura River, not far from its fall into the Volga. Population:...

 about 100 km eastward from Nizhniy Novgorod in Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, is a laboratory

Laboratory

A laboratory is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. The title of laboratory is also used for certain other facilities where the processes or equipment used are similar to those in scientific laboratories...

 for ionosphere

Ionosphere

The ionosphere is a part of the upper atmosphere, comprising portions of the mesosphere, thermosphere and exosphere, distinguished because it is ionized by solar radiation. It plays an important part in atmospheric electricity and forms the inner edge of the magnetosphere...

 research. Sura is capable of radiating about 190 MW

Watt

The watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:...

, effective radiated power

Effective radiated power

In radio telecommunications, effective radiated power or equivalent radiated power is a standardized theoretical measurement of radio frequency energy using the SI unit watts, and is determined by subtracting system losses and adding system gains...

 (ERP) on short waves. This facility is operated by the radiophysical research institute NIRFI in Nizhny Novgorod. The Sura facility was commissioned in 1981. Using this facility, Russian researchers studied the behaviour of the ionosphere and the effect of generation of low-frequency emission on modulation of ionosphere current. In the beginning, the Soviet Defense Department mostly footed the bill. The American HAARP ionospheric heater

Ionospheric heater

An ionospheric heater is an array of antennas which are used for heating the ionosphere, and which can create artificial aurora.- Current facilities :...

 is similar to the Sura facility. The HAARP project began in 1993.

Technical information

The frequency range of the heating facility is from 4.5 to 9.3 MHz.
The facility consists of three 250 kW broadcasting transmitters and a 144 crossed dipole antenna-array with dimensions of 300 m x 300 m.

At the middle of the operating frequency range (4.5 – 9.3 MHz) a maximum zenith gain of about 260 (~24 dB) is reached, the ERP of the facility is 190 MW (~83 dbW).

External links

• http://sura.nirfi.sci-nnov.ru/Photogalery/Photogalery.html pictures of the facility
• http://www.copernicus.org/EGU/annales/15/ag15/935.pdf (see page 2)
• http://sura.nirfi.sci-nnov.ru/indexe.html further information in Russian
• http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/379/16227_hurricanes.html
• http://esapub.esrin.esa.it/pff/pffv5n4/kloov5n4.htm