Welcome to the AMISR web site. We have created this site to help organize
the information and feedback regarding the design of the Advanced Modular
Incoherent Scatter Radar. AMISR is an ambitious project with the goal of
creating the next-generation of incoherent scatter radar. The fundamental
concept of this new radar is the use of phased-array antenna system. Being
able to electronically steer the beam on a pulse-to-pulse basis opens up a
frontier of experiments that were not possible before.
A phased-array antenna consists of thousands of individual transmit and receive
elements. We call these an antenna element unit (AEU), and each face
of the radar can have up to 4000 of them. The ability to economically deploy
such a system means that the AEUs must be cost effective, reliable and easily
manufactured. We have spent a considerable amount of time on the AEU design,
which you can read about in the Overview section.
The phased-array approach also perimts the radar to be relocated to different
locations and to operate in a number of different configurations. Designing a
superstructure to support the radar has been an interesting challenge. The
Structure section of the Overview details the current plans.
We encourage you to participate in the design of the system by posting
feedback and comments to one of the mailing lists that we have setup. We
will be posting regular status reports regarding the project and encourage
people to ask questions on the list if you want to know more about a certain
topic.
