Samstag, 24. April 2010

Almost 24h coverage with e-Callisto


















By now, we have almost 24h of coverage. Ellipses represent roughly the antenna beam of the individual stations.
Red: working stations with significant science data contribution
Orange: installed stations with no significant science data yet.
Purple: further requests for a spectrometer

IHY award















I got an award for my "creative, outstanding leadership, and significant contributions to the success of the Observatory Development Program of the International Heliophysical Year".

Donnerstag, 22. April 2010

15th installation of Callisto in Perth, Australia














The 15th installation of Callisto in Perth, Australia took place on 14.03.2010 at the private location of Hans Michlmayr, VK6ZT. http://wavelab.homestead.com/

1st light: type III solar radio burst.
Report from Hans

14th installation of Callisto in Melbourne, Australia













The 14th installation of Callisto in Melbourne, Australia took place on 14.03.2010. It is the private location of Cosim Mihai Dumitru, EDRO

13th installation at Ocean View in Hawaii

The 13th installation at Ocean View in Hawaii took place on 09.02.2010 at the private location of Jim Sky (Nomen est Omen).
No pictures available yet....

12th installation of Callisto at ERAC in Mannheim Germany


The 12th installation of Callisto at ERAC in Mannheim Germany took place on 11.09.2009 during the ERAC-Symposium in Heidelberg.

Mittwoch, 21. April 2010

10th installation at Birr castle, Ireland















The 10th temporary installation at TCD (Trinity Colleague Dublin http://www.tcd.ie/) in Dublin, Ireland took place on July 1st 2009. If everything is ready the system will be moved to Birr castle in the centre of Ireland. In Birr we measured very weak rfi. And Birr would also increase coverage of solar observations to the west.

See also: http://callistotcd.blogspot.com/

Spectral plot: blue=Birr castle, red=Switzerland shifted by 10dB for better visualization

1st light on November 17th, 2010. Two U-burst at 12:14UT

9th installation in Khurel Togoot Mongolia



















The 9th installation in Khurel Togoot near Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia on June 25th 2009. The antenna is too small to measure solar radio flares. Also the location is not perfect due to rfi from transmitters in Ulaan Baatar. There must be better locations in Gobi desert. The observatory is part of RCAG (Research Centre of Astronomy & Geophysics) in Ulaan Baatar.
1st light spectrum was taken on May 8th 2010 at 04:57UT

8th installation in Poste de Flacq, Mauritius

















The 8th installation in Poste de Flacq, Mauritius took place in April 27th 2009 at the location of the great MRT. This location is perfect in view of rfi. almost no rfi, therefore they get wonderful solar radio flares. MRT is part of the UoM (University of Mauritius http://www.uom.ac.mu/).

Pamphlet here: http://www.uom.ac.mu/events/2010/mrt/first_anniversary_of_mrt_based_CALLISTO_spectrometer.pdf

7th installation at Humain, Royal Observatory of Belgium















The 7th installation was at Humain, ROB (Royal Observatory of Belgium http://sidc.oma.be/) in May 27th 2008. The system is composed of a log-per antenna attached to the rim of 4m dish antenna which is 'misused' to track the sun. After switching off analog-TV in Europe Humain has got quite nice results due to low rfi.

11th installation at INPE in Sao Jose dos Camps, Brasil















The 11th installation at INPE (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais http://www.inpe.br/ingles/index.php#) in São José dos Campos, Brazil took place on October 31th 2009. This location is only for teaching and testing of Callisto. The final location will be Cachoeira Paulista between Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. INPE has got 2 Callisto for two polarizations.



First light in Cachoeira Paulista on March 30th, 2010. It's a typical type I flare (noise storm) in VHF band.

Dienstag, 20. April 2010

6th installation of CALLISTO in Daejeon, South Korea
















The 6th installation of CALLISTO was in Daejeon, South Korea at KASI (Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute http://www.kasi.re.kr/). A PhD student was manufacturing a Callisto from a kit brought to KASI. The antenna can track the sun that's why they get good results even in rfi-polluted environment

5th installation of CALLISTO in Mexico

Callisto number 5 was installed in Mexico at UNAM (Universidad Nacional de México http://www.unam.mx/). The local radio frequency interference is extremely high thus, no solar flare can be measured. In addition, the antenna is too small to get enough radio-photons from the sun. Installation took place on 01.08.2007.

4th installation of CALLISTO in Sao Jose, Costa Rica














4th installation of CALLISTO in Sao Jose, Costa Rica at CINESPA (Centro de Investigaciones Espaciales http://www.cinespa.ucr.ac.cr/). Installation took place on 25.01.2007. Unfortunately the antenna can not track the sun. Therefore the probability to 'see' the sun is extremely low.

Montag, 19. April 2010

3rd installation of Callisto in Badary, Siberia




Third installation of a Callisto took place in Badary near Irkutsk, Siberia, Russian Federation. The location hosts the SSRT (Siberian Solar Radio Telescope). SSRT is part of the ISTP (Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics http://en.iszf.irk.ru/Main_Page) in Irkutsk. A small logarithmic-periodic antenna south of the observatory building is tracking the sun every day. Sergy and Andrey are taking care of a Callisto spectrometer (in a metal rack). Installation: 2006-12-12.
1st light on 13.12.2006. Complex flare (type II, type III and decimeter pulsations)

2nd installation of Callisto in Gauribidanur, India



The second installation of a Callisto spectrometer took place in Gauribidanur which is part of the Indian Institute of Astronomy in Bangalore. Gauribidanur hosts a very large low frequency interferometer. One of the logarithmic-periodic antennas is used for Callisto to observe the sun and for radio monitoring. Gauribidanur is part of the IIA (Indian Institue of Astronomy, http://www.iiap.res.in/) Installation 2006-12-06.
Spectrum: Type III solar radio flare.

First installation in Ootacamund Tamil Nadu India



After the IHY meeting in Bangalore the first CALLISTO was installed in Ooty. They now have two instruments connected to two linearly polarized logarithmic-periodic antennas pointing to zenith. Ooty observatory is part of TIFR (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, http://www.tifr.res.in/) Installation: 2006-12-03
Spectrum: Group of type III flare

Sonntag, 18. April 2010

Solar Frequency Agile Radio Spectrometer CALLISTO




























C
ompoundAstronomicalLow frequencyLow costInstrument forSpectroscopy andTransportableObservatory


Pictures: 5m dish Bleien, 7m dish Bleien, 5m dish Zurich suntower, printed circuit board Callisto and a typical backend composed of Callisto and a notebook.

Just for clarification:
The instrument itself is called CALLISTO
But the world-wide network connected via internet is called e-Callisto

General information here:
http://www.exp-astro.phys.ethz.ch/astro1/Users/cmonstei/instrument/callisto/index.htm

Detailed infos here:
http://www.exp-astro.phys.ethz.ch/astro1/Users/cmonstei/instrument/callisto/ecallisto/applidocs.htm

Access to collected data, descriptions etc. here
http://soleil.i4ds.ch/solarradio/data/2002-20yy_Callisto/

Papers, studies and presentations here:
http://www.exp-astro.phys.ethz.ch/astro1/Users/cmonstei/papers.htm