Sura Ionospheric Heating Facility

{{Short description|Russian research centre}}

Image:Sura-antenna.jpg

The Sura Ionospheric Heating Facility, located near the small town of Vasilsursk about 100 km (60 miles) eastward from Nizhniy Novgorod in Russia, is a laboratory for ionosphere research.{{#tag:ref|{{cite web |title = sura nirfi.sci |url = http://sura.nirfi.sci-nnov.ru/indexe.html |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20020809060208/http://sura.nirfi.sci-nnov.ru/indexe.html |url-status = dead |archive-date = August 9, 2002 |access-date = February 13, 2015}}}}

Sura is capable of radiating about 80 megawatts at 4.3 MHz, increasing to 260 megawatts at 9.5 MHz. The facility is operated by the radiophysical research institute NIRFI in Nizhny Novgorod.{{Citation needed|date=March 2013}} The Sura facility was commissioned in 1981.{{cite journal |last=Zhang |display-authors=etal |date=December 2018 |title=The first joint experimental results between SURA and CSES |journal=Earth and Planetary Physics|volume=2 |issue=6 |page=527 |doi=10.26464/epp2018051 |bibcode=2018E&PP....2..527Z |doi-access=free }} Using this facility, Russian researchers studied the behaviour of the ionosphere and the effect of generation of low-frequency emission on modulation of ionosphere current. In the beginning, the Soviet Defense Department mostly footed the bill.