Having read all these notes, it may well be that you are still stuck ! There are a great many programs and a lot of different data processing possibilities associated with EISCAT, and we are aware that documenting the whole system is rather like painting the Forth Bridge, so that it is difficult for us ever to produce a fully documented system.

Hence this last section has a few suggestions for what you could do if you are still lost !

Under Unix

If you're not sure of the syntax for any piece of RAL EISCAT software, it can be worthwhile to try typing

{program} -h

to see if any on-line help exists.

On the web

If you can't find what you're looking for on the RAL EISCAT Group website, there are a couple of other places that you could look for help.

The EISCAT Web Site

Like our web site, the EISCAT pages also use the plone document management system. The EISCAT site has a wealth of useful information, though it is not always easy to find.

A good place to start is the documentation page

The "Schedules" link allows you to query the current monthly schedule of EISCAT operations, or past schedules via a pull-down menu. Each schedule contains links to the various experiments (on the right-hand side of the page) telling you about the experiments and where (in the Tromsø archive) the data are held. (Note that the Tromsø archive is not an on-line archive. If you want a tape from this archive, you should request it from Steve Crothers at RAL, who will make sure that it is copied and sent to the UK).

The "Archive" link allows you to access and download data from Madrigal, the Grenoble database and the CEDAR database (see above).

The "Analysis" link gives information about, and downloadable versions of, the GUISDAP analysis program. It also allows you access to some real-time "space weather" monitoring facilities, and contains information about EISCAT's current experiments.

The "Papers" link lists all EISCAT publications (up to 1999).

"Rules of the Road" clarifies the conditions for using and looking at EISCAT data.

The "Cookbook" is intended to be a reference section, telling users how to use the various software modules available at the EISCAT sites. It is, however, very incomplete at the moment (note that much of the post-renovation mainland software is basically undocumented as yet).

The "Monitor" page allows you to access a range of real-time information from the EISCAT radars and elsewhere. Other useful data sources can be found via the "Data Sources" link.

The "Text Books" link provides lots of useful background about STP, while the links to "Groups", "Societies" and "Study Groups" allow access to the homepages of the various institutions working with EISCAT data.

There is a "Local Guide" with some practical information about visiting Tromsø and the other EISCAT sites.

The remaining links point to the home pages of the various EISCAT sites. (Note that the Tromsø site page is for staff only and is password protected).

1. The EISCAT Headquarters is located in Kiruna. Its website is www.eiscat.com

   This web site also has a large amount of information, much it cross-linked with the Tromsø pages. The headquarters web site tends to be the first place that documentation of new hardware, software and experiments appears, so it is worth following the link to "Documentation" to find about new things that may not have been publicised anywhere else. Some of the documentation available is in a rather preliminary state, but nevertheless it is probably better than nothing!

   One can also find information about the various advisory committees of EISCAT, and the names and contact details of all the international representatives for scheduling and data exchange.

   1. The ESR has a web page at www.esr.eiscat.no/index.html

      Note that this page is served from Svalbard, so it is often very slow because of the limited bandwidth to the mainland! Most of this information is the same as on the Tromsø site. The (Svalbard-specific) exceptions are the "Monitor", "Cookbook", "Local Guide" and "Weather" links.

Other incoherent scatter radars.

The homepages of the other major incoherent scatter radars are as follows:

Millstone Hill www.haystack.mit.edu/homepage.html

Arecibo www.naic.edu

Sondrestromfjord www.isr.sri.com

Jicamarca http://jro.ece.cornell.edu

Some users may also be interested in the web page of the HAARP heating facility at www.haarp.alaska.edu

As well as data plots, schedules etc, these web sites contain lots of background information about incoherent scatter.

Contact Details for the RAL Group

In principle most members of the EISCAT group know at least something about everything we do, so in that sense there is no "wrong" person to ask about any problem you may have. The following list of "Areas of Expertise" is just a general guide. If the person you contact can't help with your problem him/herself, then probably they will suggest another person that you can talk to.

Remember that the RAL EISCAT Group exists as a support facility for UK EISCAT Users. If nobody uses the services we provide, our "raison d'etre" ceases to exist. So please don't be shy about asking for help, or working with us. It is what we are paid for!