Radar interferometer calibration of the EISCAT Svalbard Radar and a additional receiver station

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. 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.