The Chilbolton Observatory is a facility for atmospheric and radio research located on the edge of the village of

Chilbolton Chilbolton is a village and civil parish in Hampshire, England, near to Stockbridge. It is situated north of Southampton and south of Andover. Its most notable feature is the Chilbolton Observatory situated on the disused RAF Chilbolton airf ...

near Stockbridge in

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

, England. The facilities are run by the

STFC The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) is a United Kingdom government agency that carries out research in science and engineering, and funds UK research in areas including particle physics, nuclear physics, space science and a ...

Radio Communications Research Unit of the

Rutherford Appleton Laboratory The Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) is one of the national scientific research laboratories in the UK operated by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). It began as the Rutherford High Energy Laboratory, merged with the Atla ...

and form part of the

Science and Technology Facilities Council The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) is a United Kingdom government agency that carries out research in science and engineering, and funds UK research in areas including particle physics, nuclear physics, space science and astro ...

Overview

The Chilbolton Observatory operates many pieces of research equipment associated with

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, Marine radar, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor v ...

propagation and

meteorology Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did no ...

. , these include: * An

S band The S band is a designation by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for a part of the microwave band of the electromagnetic spectrum covering frequencies from 2 to 4 gigahertz (GHz). Thus it crosses the conventi ...

Doppler

weather radar Weather radar, also called weather surveillance radar (WSR) and Doppler weather radar, is a type of radar used to locate precipitation, calculate its motion, and estimate its type (rain, snow, hail etc.). Modern weather radars are mostly pulse- ...

with its distinctive, fully steerable, 25 metre parabolic antenna. This equipment can be referred to as CAMRa (Chilbolton Advanced Meteorological Radar). * An

L band The L band is the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) designation for the range of frequencies in the radio spectrum from 1 to 2 gigahertz (GHz). This is at the top end of the ultra high frequency (UHF) band, at the lower en ...

Clear-air radar * A

W band The W band of the microwave part of the electromagnetic spectrum ranges from 75 to 110 GHz, wavelength ≈2.7–4 mm. It sits above the U.S. IEEE-designated V band (40–75 GHz) in frequency, and overlaps the NATO designated M ban ...

bistatic zenith radar * A UV Raman

Lidar Lidar (, also LIDAR, or LiDAR; sometimes LADAR) is a method for determining ranges (variable distance) by targeting an object or a surface with a laser and measuring the time for the reflected light to return to the receiver. It can also be ...

* Multiple K_a band radiometers * Multiple

rain gauge A rain gauge (also known as udometer, pluvia metior, pluviometer, ombrometer, and hyetometer) is an instrument used by meteorologists and hydrologists to gather and measure the amount of liquid precipitation over a predefined area, over a period o ...

s The observatory also hosts the UK's LOFAR station.

Timeline of projects

* 1998 - CLARE'98 Cloud Lidar and Radar experiment, which eventually fed into the

European Space Agency , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (120 ...

EarthCARE programme * 2001 to 2004 - CLOUDMAP2 project to assist in

Numerical weather prediction Numerical weather prediction (NWP) uses mathematical models of the atmosphere and oceans to predict the weather based on current weather conditions. Though first attempted in the 1920s, it was not until the advent of computer simulation in th ...

models * 2006 - Chilbolton Observatory joined forces with several European Space Agency sites to verify the L band radio transmissions from the

GIOVE-A GIOVE (; ), or Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element, is the name for two satellites built for the European Space Agency (ESA) to test technology in orbit for the Galileo positioning system. The name was chosen as a tribute to Galileo Galilei, who ...

satellite * 2006 - NERC Cirrus and Anvils: European Satellite and Airborne Radiation measurements project * 2008 - In-Orbit Test (IOT) performed for GIOVE-B * 2008-9 - APPRAISE, during which the CAMRa and Lidar were used to direct airborne measurements in mixed-phase clouds * 2010 - LOFAR station UK608 constructed

History

Equipment rooms at Chilbolton Observatory - geograph

Construction of Chilbolton Observatory started in 1963. It was built partially on the site of

RAF Chilbolton Royal Air Force Chilbolton or RAF Chilbolton was a Royal Air Force station in Hampshire, England. The airfield was located in Chilbolton approximately south-southeast of Andover, about southwest of London Opened in 1940, it was used by t ...

, which was decommissioned in 1946. Several sites around the south-east of England were considered for the construction. The site at Chilbolton, on the edge of

Salisbury Plain Salisbury Plain is a chalk plateau in the south western part of central southern England covering . It is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group and largely lies wit ...

, was chosen in part because of excellent visibility of the horizon and its relative remoteness from major roads whose cars could cause interference. The facility was opened in April 1967. Within several months of being commissioned the

azimuth An azimuth (; from ar, اَلسُّمُوت, as-sumūt, the directions) is an angular measurement in a spherical coordinate system. More specifically, it is the horizontal angle from a cardinal direction, most commonly north. Mathematical ...

bearing of the antenna suffered a catastrophic failure. GEC were contracted to repair the bearing and devised a system to replace the failed part while leaving the 400

tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...

dish ostensibly in-place. Originally, the antenna was engaged in K_u band

radio astronomy Radio astronomy is a subfield of astronomy that studies celestial objects at radio frequencies. The first detection of radio waves from an astronomical object was in 1933, when Karl Jansky at Bell Telephone Laboratories reported radiation comin ...

, but now operates as a S and L band radar.

References

External links

Chilbolton Observatory Facilities
retrieved May 17, 2006
CLOUDMAP2 project homepage

''ESA Portal - Improving Daily Life'', March 9, 2006, retrieved May 17, 2006 {{Authority control Astronomical observatories in England Buildings and structures in Hampshire Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) Research institutes in Hampshire Science and Technology Facilities Council Space Situational Awareness Programme Test Valley Weather radars Meteorological observatories