Sura (ionospheric research)
The Sura Research Facility ( Ionospheric Heating Facility ) is a Russian research facility for ionospheric research near the Vasilsursk settlement , which is about 100 km east of Nizhny Novgorod .
The facility is operated by the NIRFI radiophysical research institute in Nizhny Novgorod. The name of the facility is derived from the Sura River .
A high-performance shortwave system there is used for researching the ionosphere and corresponds to the US HAARP system in Alaska, another American system in Arecibo and a European system of the EISCAT research community in the Ramfjordheide research station near Tromsø, Norway .
There are other Russian plants in Dushanbe (1 GW transmission power), Montschegorsk (10 MW) and Gorki (20 MW).
Data transmission system
Three interconnected radio transmitters are used, which supply a common antenna field. The output power of the individual transmitters is 250 kW each. The antennas used are 12 × 12 cross dipole antennas, which when connected together in the middle of the usable frequency range (4.5–9.3 MHz) have a maximum zenith gain of 260 (~ 24 dB). The maximum ERP is 190 MW (~ 83 dBW). This system is therefore comparable to both the current expansion stage of the American HAARP project and the EISCAT system.
Web links
Coordinates: 56 ° 7 ′ 10 ″ N , 46 ° 2 ′ 4 ″ E