March 28th - 30th
EISCAT SOC in the ROJ
The EISCAT Scientific Association is an international research organization operating three incoherent scatter radar systems, at 931 MHz, 224 MHz and 500 MHz, in Northern Scandinavia.

It is funded and operated by research councils of Norway, Sweden, Finland, Japan, China, the United Kingdom and Germany (collectively, the EISCAT Associates). EISCAT (European Incoherent Scatter) studies the interaction between the Sun and the Earth as revealed by disturbances in the magnetosphere and the ionised parts of the atmosphere (these interactions also give rise to the spectacular aurora, or Northern Lights).
The radars are operated in both Common and Special Programme modes, depending on the particular research objective, and Special Programme time is accounted and distributed between the Associates according to rules which are published from time to time. (Extracted from the EISCAT official web site)

Every year the group of EISCAT has two events SOC and every two years has a workshop:

The workshop is a work of almost a week and duration faced to a massive public shaped by scientists and students, where such diverse research works are exhibited like: future articles, advances of investigations, new discoveries and theories, etc., like oral exhibitions and presentations of posters.

SOC events (of English, Scientific Oversight Committee) are meetings of a limited group of specialists, representatives of the integral countries of EISCAT, who devote themselves for 2 days to supervise the EISCAT scientific activities.

The first event of SOC EISCAT 2011 took as a head office to the Radio Observatory of Jicamarca, of March 28 on March 30. In this occasion, in addition to the normal activities of the SOC,one day was devoted to scientific presentations. Together all the members of the EISCAT SOC invited scientific investigators took part, most of them users of the ROJ. In total, 20 people from leading institutions in the study of the upper atmosphere with incoherent scatter radar - Germany, China, USA, Finland, Japan, Norway, Peru, United Kingdom, Russia and Sweden. ROJ staff participated during science lectures.

In adds to participating in focused workshops, the participants also enjoyed social activities, of which the most outstanding were the visit to the archaeological site of Caral (Sunday, 27 March) and the group dinner at Restaurant La Huaca Pucllana (the Tuesday, 29 March). On Wednesday 30 is closed the event of a very particular way, most members of the group climbed a hill JRO (mountain called Sterling)

Finally, this was a quite productive and enriching experience for all the participants, as well as for the personnel of the ROJ including those that helped in the organization.