The Canadian SuperDARN/PolarDARN facility

太阳为地球提供两种能量。第一种是维持植物(光合作用)和人类生命以及驱动地球表面附近大气中的天气系统所需的辐射热能和光能。第二类是粒子和磁能，由太阳风从太阳携带到地球，并沉积到地球的空间环境中，在被称为磁层的区域，粒子带电，数百颗电信卫星和越来越多的空间站和航天飞机飞行任务以及未来的行星飞行任务的宇航员。通过通信卫星，每天都能促进涉及数亿美元的商业交易。地球的磁层是它的“空间环境”，在这个环境中，“空间天气”对人类和卫星都是有害的。在磁暴期间，太空天气条件非常危险，因此不进行太空行走，航空公司乘客在飞越地球极地地区的飞行中受到额外的X射线辐射。超级双极光雷达网(SuperDARN)极大地促进了对磁层和空间气象的研究，截至2007年11月，该网将由21部雷达组成，其中14部在北半球，7部在南半球。这些雷达测量空间天气区域的对流模式(“风”系统)。最新的一对雷达是位于Rankin Inlet(2006年5月11日开始使用)和Inuvik(2007年11月)的加拿大PolarDARN对雷达。这对SuperDARN是独一无二的，因为它是为了研究高纬度带电粒子的运动而设计的。这些运动主要是由太阳风磁场和地球磁场之间的重新连接驱动的，其中一些磁能被转化为磁层中带电粒子的运动能量。有史以来第一次，地面雷达(PolarDARN)将测量重新连接驱动的对流，这将导致对空间天气的更好理解。

The Sun provides the Earth with two types of energy. The first is the radiant heat and light energy needed to sustain plant (photosynthesis) and human life and to drive weather systems in the atmosphere near Earth's surface. The second type is the particle and magnetic energy carried from the Sun by the solar wind to Earth and deposited into the Earth's space environment, in the region called the magnetosphere where the particles are electrically charged and where are located hundreds of telecommunications satellites and an increasing number of astronauts for the Space Station and the Shuttle missions and future planetary missions. Through the telecommunication satellites, business transactions involving hundreds of millions of dollars are facilitated each day. The magnetosphere of Earth is its "space environment", in which the "space weather" can be nasty for both humans and satellites. During "magnetic storms", space weather conditions are very dangerous, so space walks are not performed and airline passengers are subjected to extra X-radiation in flights over the polar regions of the Earth. The study of the magnetosphere and space weather is greatly facilitated by the SuperDARN (Super Dual Auroral Radar Network) which, as of Nov. 2007, will consist of 21 radars, 14 in the northern and 7 in the southern hemisphere. These radars measure the convection pattern (the "wind" systems) in the space weather region. The newest pair of radars is the Canadian PolarDARN pair at Rankin Inlet (operating since May 11, 2006) and Inuvik (November, 2007). This SuperDARN pair is unique because it is designed to study the motion of the high latitude charged particles. These motions are driven mainly by "reconnection" between the solar wind magnetic field and Earth's magnetic field, in which some magnetic energy is converted to energy of motion of the charged particles in the magnetosphere. For the first time ever, ground-based radars (PolarDARN) will measure the reconnection-driven convection, which should lead to a much better understanding of space weather.