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Last modified 07 February 2006

Procedures for EISCAT Special Programme Experiments

Updated September 2005

The total available operating time is divided approximately equally between Common and Special Programmes. The Special Programme allocation is subdivided between the Associates according to proportions set by Council and currently based on the proportional contributions to the capital and operating costs as follows 

		Finland		 5.93 %
		France		21.03 %
		Germany 	19.90 % 
                Japan            8.03 %
		Norway		11.14 % 
		Sweden		11.03 %
		UK		22.95 %

The actual operating time available depends on many factors but a target figure is set from time to time by the EISCAT Council. At present the mainland target for 2005 is 1700 hours (750 Common and 950 Special Programme hours), whereof:

  • 200 hours (of the Special Programme) are assigned to Heating,
  • 5% (of the Special Programme) is assigned to EISCAT staff and
  • 48 hours are allocated to approve Third Party experiments.
Within these guidelines, time is freely convertible between radar and Heating operations.

The EISCAT Svalbard Radar target is 2000 hours (1000 Common and 1000 Special Programme hours) whereof:

  • 5% (of the Special Programme) is assigned to EISCAT staff and
  • 40 hours are allocated to approved Third Party experiments.
In addition there is 500 hours to be run unattended by EISCAT staff. Council also decides from time to time on mechanisms to be used for accounting radar time to the Associates (see also Article 14, Statutes of the EISCAT Scientific Association, and Section 3, Guidelines for Management of Scientific Programmes, Observing Time and Use of Data). CLUSTER and other satellite support experiments are operated as Common Programmes, but accounted as Special Programmes with the total charges being distributed amongst the Associates in the proportions above. At present different charging factors apply for the use of the various systems in different combinations. In each case, the actual charges are the product of the overall operating interval and the appropriate charging factor as follows:
  • Active use of the UHF radar alone: charge factor 1.0
  • Heating alone: charge factor 0.8
  • UHF and Heating: charge factor 1.5
  • Passive use of one UHF antenna: charge factor 0.15
  • Passive use of two or more UHF antennas: charge factor 0.25
  • Passive use of the UHF antennas with the 1.4 GHz frontend: charge factor 0.5
  • Passive use of ESR: charge factor 0.25
  • Passive use of any antenna whilst the same Associate is actively using another part of the same system is free.
  • Active use of the VHF radar is always accounted separately at a charge factor of 1.0
Accounting is performed for individual calendar years. Individual Associates may be able to exceed their notional allocations in particular years, within the overall limit on operating hours, provided that this is compensated through under-use by other Associates. Associates can increase the probability of such adjustments by informing EISCAT of their plans as far in advance as possible (such planning information should be communicated to the EISCAT's scheduling co-ordinator). Formal transfers of Special Programme accounting hours from year to year are allowed as follows (but note that these rules were suspended in 1995, and have not yet been reinstated):
  • Variation from the nominal allocation for any Associate in any year must not exceed 50 hours.
  • The mean hours used by an Associate in any consecutive three year period must approach the nominal allocation.
  • Changes must be formally announced to EISCAT, in advance, by the accredited National Representative.
  • Variation from nominal total special programme hours in any year must not exceed 150 hours.
  • These provisions apply from 1.1.92.
Associates must decide internally how to allocate their Special Programme time and must inform EISCAT of a single individual authorised to approve such allocations. Associates must file an EISCAT Scheduling Request Form, for each experiment and for each radar, regardless of whether, or not, all time previously allocated was used. Such Forms should be submitted no later than the 10th of the month preceding the desired experiment. EISCAT's scheduling co-ordinator will make up the following month's schedule following the 10th of the current month. In cases of unresolvable conflict between Associates' requests, preference will be given to the Associate whose lifetime proportion of Special Programme time is the least relative to the intended proportion detailed above.

When the schedule is ready, EISCAT's scheduling co-ordinator will contact the Scheduling Representatives for their approval of the time allocations; no response will be assumed to indicate agreement.

Where technically feasible, EISCAT will duly schedule approved Special Programmes within the available radar resources but may vary the scheduled requests in consultation with the Associate's representative. With the prior approval of the SAC, demands which cannot be met within the Special Programme allocation be fulfilled by a corresponding reduction in the Common Programme allocation.The schedule will be published on the WWW.

Associates will be charged for scheduled time subject to the following conditions:

  • Hours will normally be accounted on the basis of data recorded to permanent storage media subject to a minimum of two accounted hours for any scheduled or unscheduled use of the systems unless a technical malfunction renders operations impossible; in the case of Heater operations, accounting is based on the recorded log of transmitter usage.
  • For operations wholly outside working hours (at the Tromsø site), the minimum charge will rise to four accounted hours. This minimum charge applies separately to each such operation, even within a single shift, if the time between operations is so long that the transmitter(s) must be turned off; in practice this will occur when experiments are separated by more than about one hour.
  • The number of on-off cycles per day of the VHF radar may not exceed four.
To maximise the effective use of scheduled hours, Associates are encouraged to collect experiments into larger campaigns (possibly in conjunction with other Associates) and to ensure that alternative experiments are always prepared to accompany those which are, for example, dependent on particular geophysical or meteorological conditions.

In general, Associates may request a reasonable (say 10%) overallocation of observing time in order to allow some flexibility of operation but such overallocation depends on particular circumstances and cannot be guaranteed.

Associates may cancel scheduled observations without penalty provided that any night shift is cancelled no later than thirty minutes before the end of the working day (at Ramfjordmoen) and any evening shift is cancelled no later than thirty minutes before the end of the preceding working day, ie at least one full day must elapse between the time of cancellation and the start of the shift involved. All other cancellations, unless caused by the failure of EISCAT radar equipment, may attract full charges. Associates should try to avoid cancellations wherever possible and should limit the total number of cancellations and changes to a reasonable number (again, say 10%) of the total shifts scheduled in a campaign.

Scheduled and accounted operations, as well as the scheduling of Common Programmes and the relative proportions of Common and Special Programme operations, are considered by the SAC at each meeting. Designated Associate representatives may request copies of the current accounting totals from the EISCAT's scheduling co-ordinator.