THE NATURE OF VHF RADAR ECHOES FROM THE MESOSPHERE
Thin layers of enhanced radar echo power from the winter mesosphere, named Polar Meosphere Winter Echoes, PMWE, have been studied using the ESRAD 52 MHz and the EISCAT 224 MHz radars in northern Scandinavia. The PMWE show very high horizontal scatterer travel speeds and high aspect sensitivity (ESRA...
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.585.5540 http://www.ursi.org/Proceedings/ProcGA05/pdf/GHJ.7(0805).pdf |
| Summary: | Thin layers of enhanced radar echo power from the winter mesosphere, named Polar Meosphere Winter Echoes, PMWE, have been studied using the ESRAD 52 MHz and the EISCAT 224 MHz radars in northern Scandinavia. The PMWE show very high horizontal scatterer travel speeds and high aspect sensitivity (ESRAD), and spectral widths indistinguishable from those produced by the background D-region plasma (EISCAT). We show that PMWE characteristics are incompatible with their being generated through neutral air turbulence and propose that scatter from highly-damped ion-acoustic waves generated by partial reflection of infrasonic waves provides a more reasonable explanation for PMWE. 1. |
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