The MU radar is a large atmosphere radar to observe the middle and upper atmospheres. It is also capable of monitoring the lower atmosphere. The MU radar is one of the largest atmosphere observation radar, which can observe atmospheric motion and circulation between the troposphere (〜2 km) and the upper atmosphere (〜500 km). Since its establishment in 1984, the MU radar has made many contributions to a wide variety of research areas, including upper atmospheric physics, meteorology, astronomy, electricity, electronic engineering, and astrophysics.
The greatest feature of the MU radar is that it can steer the radar beam direction at an extremely high speed of 2,500 times per a second, by controlling high-power (2kW) transmitter/receiver modules (475 units in total), each of which drives one antenna element. The MU radar has a circular antenna array with a diameter of 100 m, which can be divided into 25 subarrays to enable us a spaced radar imaging observation.
High-resolution aerial photographs of the Shigaraki MU observatory
File No. 1 (JPEG, 1 MB)
File No. 2 (JPEG, 500 KB)
File No. 3 (JPEG, 800 KB)
File No.4 (JPEG, 800KB)
File No.5 (JPEG 9MB)
File No.6 (JPEG 9MB)
File No.7 (JPEG 9MB)
File No.8 (JPEG 39MB)
Videos taken with a drone camera(2019.5.22)
Elevater (MP4, 558MB)
Elevater(Fast) (MP4, 395MB)
Orbit (MP4, 1284MB)
Advance (MP4, 549MB)
Around (MP4, 1086MB)
360 degree camera (Link to YouTube)
●Address
Koyama, Shigaraki-cho, Koga-city, Shiga 529-1812 Japan
Tel +81-748-82-3211,Fax +81-748-82-3217
Access map
To visitors by bus: The access road to the MU radar Observatory is narrow.
We recommend to use a small bus with the width of 2.31 m or less, the height of 3.3 m or less and the length of 6.99 m or less
●Observation facilities
・The MU radar ・Ionosonde Radiosonde receiver ・Lower-thermosphere profiler radar ・Rayleigh/Raman lidar
・Dual-frequency weather radar ・Boundary layer radar ・Radio acoustic sounding system (RASS) ・Rain gauge
● Visit to the observatory
The MU radar Observatory welcomes visitors. We accept visitors on workdays at 9:00-17:00. If you prefer a visit on holiday,
the prior consulting to the Observatory office is required.
