Esrange is located in northern Sweden above the Arctic Circle at lat. 67° 53'N, long 21° 04'E. The town closest to the range is Sweden's principal mining town Kiruna (approximately 25,000 inhabitants), which is about half an hour away by car. Access to Kiruna is very good with several daily jet flight connections with Stockholm. An extensive network of ground based scientific instrumentation has been established in northern Scandinavia. Some of the main facilities are located in the vicinity of Esrange.
One is the Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF) where particularly phenomena in the atmosphere and magnetosphere are studied. The atmospheric research programme is a new programme financed by the Environmental and Research Institute (MRI) in Kiruna. www.irf.se, www.irf.se/MRIatmos. Another important installation is European Incoherent Scatter Facility (EISCAT) comprising a system of stations at Tromsö (Norway), Kiruna (Sweden) and Sodankylä (Finland). http://eiscat.irf.se. In Abisko north of Kiruna is a climate research centre, which provide possibilities for scientific research in arctic regions and location of ground based instrumentation. www.ans.kiruna.se
Arena Arctica is a very large hangar at Kiruna Airport. The main purpose of the hangar is to support scientific measurements by aircraft. www.arenaarctica.com
Range Area
The Esrange premises are located in an area of 20 km2 about 40 km east ofKiruna. The Main Building area is located in the Vittangi river valley and comprises the Main Building, the Telecom building, Hotel Albert, Hotel Herbert, Hotel Dagobert, Hotel Dilbert and garages. Close to the main building area is the area for balloon launchings including two buildings for operations control and payload preparation.
Further east is the launching area for rockets, which includes a blockhouse, rocket and payload preparation halls, chemical laboratories and launch pads. The radar station, the satellite receiving station, and a GPS reference station are situated on top of a hill 2 km southwest of the Main Building. A ground observation station, KEOPS, is located on another hilltop about 1 km further west.
Impact Area
The rocket impact area is located due north of Esrange in the Swedish tundra region. This area is divided into three zones, A, B, and C, with a total area of 5,600 km2. Zone A, the impact area for boosters, can be extended when rockets with long-range boosters are launched. Zones B and C are impact areas for second and third stages as well as payloads. Zone C is not allowed for use during the period May 1 - September 15. The nominal impact point normally chosen is situated 75 km north of the launch pads. The impact area for balloons covers the northern parts of Sweden, Norway, Finland, Russia, Canada and Alaska.
Central Complex
The Main Building was erected in 1964-65. It has four storeys with a total floor area of 3,930 m2. The basement is used as storage for spare parts. It also contains mechanical, electrical and carpentry workshops. For staff and guests there is a sauna and showers. The ground floor houses offices for Esrange administration and technical facilities, a front desk, a switch-board, a canteen, two conference rooms for 15 and 30 people and a lounge. The first floor has offices for operational staff, the operations centre for sounding rockets and rooms for timing, telemetry and scientific instruments (Scientific Centre). In an annex on the same floor there are offices and guest rooms. The top floor (second floor) has a large conference room for about 80 people, and offices. The Main Building area also includes a warehouse with a total area of 490 m2, warm and cold garages for cars and accommodation buildings with 93 single rooms of different standards, showers and kitchens.
