ABSTRACT: The Tasman International Geospace Environment Radar (TIGER) is an initiative of the Australian Solar-Terrestrial Physics community and is supported by three Australian universities, three government organisations and one industrial company. TIGER provides Australia with a state-of-the-art ionospheric radar for research into space weather processes. The fundamental aim is to study and explain key outstanding problems in the physics of the outermost part of our environmental envelope, known as Geospace. TIGER will ultimately consist of two HF radars, one in Tasmania and one in New Zealand, with intersecting beams looking toward Antarctica. The intersecting beams will provide two components of Doppler velocity, sufficient to determine the horizontal velocity of echoing regions. The radars will survey the ionosphere, providing measurements on the behaviour and characteristics of aurora and other phenomena. TIGER will operate as a stand-alone radar but will also be part a key component of the international Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN), an expanding international network of radars being established to provide coverage of northern and southern hemisphere high-latitudes (URL: http://superdarn.jhuapl.edu/). The Tasmanian component of TIGER has been installed at Bruny Island and is now operating on a continuous basis. TIGER's location provides it with unique capabilities when compared to other SuperDARN radars and these and the principles of the radar techniques used will be described. Several aspects of the research program will be outlined and initial results presented.

SPEAKER PROFILE: After receiving his PhD in 1967 from University of Melbourne the speaker worked at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center studying the ionosphere using satellite-borne probes. In 1969 he received a Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship which he took up at La Trobe University where he has developed research programs using radio and optical techniques to study the ionosphere, thermosphere and mesosphere. He has made contributions to our understanding of irregular features in the ionosphere and coupling of the ionosphere and thermosphere. He initiated the TIGER program and is head of the consortium that developed the radar. He is a Principle Investigator of the SuperDARN program which received recognition from NASA for its role in space science with the award in 1998 of a NASA Group Achievement Award to the Principle Investigators.