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 APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200090022-2

Astronomical research is centered at the Stockholm Astronomical Observatory, observatories of the Universities of Uppsala and Lund, and at the Chalmers Institute of Technology. The University of Lund has established a new observatory at Romeleasen. The Stockholm Observatory engages principally in studies in celestial mechanics, stellar statistics, and solar physics. Since 1951 the observatory has had a solar research station at Anacapri, Italy, on the Isola di Capri, which participates in solar flare patrol activities. The University of Uppsala has three stations: the University Observatory in Uppsala, a modestly equipped observatory concerned with the study of stellar statistics and galactic structure; the Kristeborg Observatory at Malaren; and the Mount Stromlo station in Australia, operated in conjunction with the Australian National Observatory in Canberra. The University of Lund has a small observatory principally engaged in routine studies. Swedish radioastronomy appears to be confined to the Raon Space Research Observatory (also referred to as the Onsala Radio Wave Propagation Observatory), which is located on the island of Raon about 25 miles south of Goteborg and operated by the Electronics Research Laboratory of the CTH. The observatory has several radiotelescopes; the largest is a 25.6-meter parabola, which was erected about 1964. Research has been devoted to the study of galactic structure, and the large instrumentation permits reception of the very weak galactic signals.

Space research is limited mainly to firing foreign-supplied rockets for exploration of the upper atmosphere and ionosphere and for the study of solar phenomena. Space studies began in 1961 when the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Sweden reached an agreement for the exploration of space. Sweden established a launching site in 1962, the Vidsel Military Firing Range, near Kronogard in Lapland, and furnished range support facilities and operations personnel. In 1966 ESRO established a sounding rocket launching range, known as ESRANGE, about 10 miles from Kiruna in Lapland. ESRO's decision to abandon its sounding rocket program made unjustifiable its continued operation of ESRANGE, and Sweden agreed to assume responsibility for its operation for a 5-year period beginning in mid-1972. Plans are underway to reduce the staff in order to cut down the high operating costs. Launches from the range have been restricted to low- and medium-altitude flights because of the small size of the range. Under the direction of the Space Technology Group of the Space Research Committee, the Flygmotor Company is developing a hybrid engine sounding rocket, SR-71, specifically for launching from the Kiruna range. The Ministries of Education and Ecclesiastical Affairs and Industrial Affairs have reported that the country will participate in ESRO's satellite projects for telecommunications, air traffic control, and meteorology.

Scientists at the Kiruna Geophysical Observatory provided a device on the ESRO IA satellite to measure proton and electron energy in the 1-13 KeV range. Measurements from the satellite were correlated with ionospheric conditions at three Scandinavian sites and the observations from the all-sky camera and photometer recordings from the Kiruna observatory. A similar satellite experiment is being prepared for the ESRO IV satellite.

Cooperative agreements for space research have been concluded with other Scandinavian countries and with the Soviet Union. Sweden is a member of the European Telecommunications Satellite Conference (CETS) and the International Telecommunications Satellite Commission (INTELSAT). Sweden participates to a limited extent in the Scandinavian Space Research Organization along with Denmark and Norway. A 1970 Swedish-Soviet agreement on space research provided for cooperation between the University of Lund and the Crimean Astrophysical Laboratory in the Soviet Union and for use of Swedish-built solar spectrographs on Soviet high-altitude balloons and Soviet satellites. Sweden participated in 1971 in the planning of a U.N. study of surveying earth resources, with special reference to the use of satellites. Some satellite tracking is carried out by the University of Uppsala, and in 1971 the country was considering the development of a Swedish scientific satellite for magnetospheric studies with a launching target of about 1975.

Sweden was active in a number of areas of aeronomy not associated directly with space activity. Ground-based aeronometric research is done in several fields. Cosmic ray observations are made by the Kiruna Geophysical Observatory and the Uppsala Ionospheric Observatory of the FOA. These observatories also are conducting auroral and radiophysics-related ionospheric research. The KTH is active in studying electric fields in the ionosphere.

(2) Meteorology — There are two separate meteorological facilities at the University of Stockholm that work in close collaboration, the Institute of Meteorology and the International Institute of Meteorology. The former institute has long been one of the leading institutes in the world in its field. Its research has encompassed numerical forecasting, theoretical and dynamic meteorology, ionospheric

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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200090022-2