The EISCAT Svalbard Radar has two parabolic dishes. In order to attempt to implement radar aperture synthesis imaging methods three smaller, passive receive array antennas were built. Several science goals for this new receiver system exist, the primary of which is to study so called naturally enhanced ion acoustic lines. In order to compare radar aperture synthesis imaging results with measurements from optical imagers, calibration of the radar interferometer system is necessary. In this work we present the phase calibration of the EISCAT Svalbard interferometer including one array antenna. The calibration was done using the coherent scatter from satellites passing through the radar beam. Optical signatures of the satellite transits provide accurate position for the satellites. By using transits of a number of satellites sufficient for mapping the radar beam, the interferometric cross-phase was fitted within the radar beam. The calibration technique presented in this work will be applied to all antenna pairs of the antenna configuration for future interferometry studies.

Natural enhancements in the backscattered power of incoherent scatter radars up to 5 orders of magnitudes above the thermal backscatter are sometimes observed at high latitudes. Recently observations of enhancements in the backscattered power including a feature at zero Doppler shift have been reported. These enhancements are limited in altitude to tens of kilometers. The zero Doppler shift feature has been interpreted as a signature of electron density cavitation. Enhanced plasma lines during these observations have also been reported. We report on the first EISCAT UHF observations of enhanced backscattered radar power including a zero Doppler shift feature. The enhancements originated from two distinct and intermittent layers at about 200 km altitude. The altitude extent of the enhancements, observed during auroral high-energy electron precipitation, was < 2 km.

Enhancements were observed in backscattered radar power during an ionospheric heating experiment from two distinct altitude regions in the auroral E region above Tromso. For the experiment the EISCAT Tromso heater was operated with O mode and X mode alternated at 4.04 MHz, close to the 3rd electron gyroharmonic. Ion-line data recorded with the EISCAT UHF radar reveal different temporal evolutions as well as different ion-line characteristics for the enhancements from the two altitude regions. The upper layer is dominated by a strong central feature, whereas the lower layer has three peaks corresponding to the central feature and the two ion lines. The altitude region of the two closely spaced (altitude separation similar to 5 km) but distinct enhancements is close to the critical altitude for the heater wave.