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Common Programme

Approximately half of EISCAT operations consist of Common Programmes. The Common Programme (or CP) experiments currently comprise six generic modes, each of which should be run a few times per year. The purpose of the Common Programme is to enable EISCAT to obtain, over a period of years, a high-quality synoptic database of homogeneous observations, suitable for statistical studies and for the identification of seasonal, annual and solar cycle effects.

The Mainland Common Programmes
Three UHF Common Programmes and three VHF Common Programmes are run about thirty times each year, for at least twenty-four hours, to provide a data base for long term synoptic studies. In addition, three Unusual Programmes (UP) can be started at short notice during particular, less predictable geophysical conditions and EISCAT is a member of a world-wide network which co-ordinates the activities of Incoherent Scatter radar facilities to cover such events.

Common Programmes since 2001
A listing of EISCAT's Common Programme operations since the radar renovation in 2000.