Description
The first results of a new method for examining polar mesospheric summer echoes (PMSE) using a novel analysis of wide-beam radar observations is presented. PMSE occur when the region around the mesopause reaches temperatures below the sublimation point of water ice. In a phenomenon related to polar mesospheric clouds (PMC), this can produce strong radar echoes at VHF frequencies.
An all-sky meteor radar in Norway has been used to detect PMSE, which was previously ignored as interference by meteor detection algorithms. Following the removal of meteor trail echo contamination, range-Doppler data from PMSE has been further analysed to infer wind speed at the PMSE layer height. The derived wind speed is in good agreement with winds inferred from the drift rates of meteor trails. Knowledge of the local wind speed allows the range-Doppler profiles to be unwrapped to create a cross sectional pseudo image of echo intensity as a function of height and horizontal distance from zenith along the wind vector. This revealed a double layer structure in the PMSE and enabled the estimation of the aspect sensitivity of the radar echoes produced by the scattering layers.
| I am the presenting author | Yes |
|---|