Beacon satellite receiver unit

☰	Beacon satellite receiver unit

Beacon satellite receiver antenna mounted at KHO.

Scientific objectives
The receiver is used to continuously receive 150 and 400MHz signals from visible Low Earth Orbit Beacon satellites. The receiver is a part of a larger network of ionospheric tomography receivers. The network consists of six receiver stations.

In addition to the one in KHO, FMI operates receivers in Tromsø (Norway), Tartu (Estonia) and three receivers across Finland. The network belongs to FMI's TomoScand project and it is used to produce tomographic reconstructions of integrated electron densities in the ionosphere over Fennoscandia.

Owner: Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI)
Contacts PI: Kirsti Kauristie
Address: FMI, P.O. Box 503,
FIN-00101 Helsinki, Finland
E-mail: kirsti.kauristie@fmi.fi

Instrument specifications
Nagara Ltd. Dual band QHF antenna w/ Ettus USRP N210 dual digital receiver channel TVRX2 daughterboard (50-860 MHz) and GPS antenna for reference frequency. The receiver observes approximately 60 daily overflights from the following LEO satellites: COSMOS 2407, COSMOS 2414, COSMOS 2463, COSMOS 2454, RADCAL and DMSPF15.