MISA is a broad-based observatory capable of addressing a wide range of atmospheric science investigations.

The incoherent scatter radar facility at Millstone Hill has been supported by the National Science Foundation since 1974 for studies of the Earth's upper atmosphere and ionosphere.

During this time the facility has evolved from a part-time research operation sharing radar cooling and power supply elements with the M.I.T.

Lincoln Laboratory Millstone satellite tracking radar, to a separately funded, operationally independent system dedicated to upper atmospheric research.

The incoherent scatter technique provides observations of many of these parameters over an altitude range extending from less than 100 km to a thousand kilometers or more.