The Middle Atmosphere Alomar Radar System (MAARSY) with its activephased array antenna is designed and used for studies of phenomena in themesosphere and lower atmosphere. The flexible beam forming and steeringcombined with a large aperture array allows for observations with a high temporaland angular resolution. For both the analysis of the radar data and theconfiguration of experiments, the actual radiation pattern needs to be known.For that purpose, various simulations as well as passive and activeexperiments have been conducted. Here, results of meteor head echoobservations are presented, which allow us to derive detailed information ofthe actual radiation pattern for different beam-pointing positions and thecurrent health status of the entire radar. For MAARSY, the described methodoffers robust beam pointing and width estimations for a minimum of a few daysof observations.
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