Mesospheric wind velocity data (30min. mean) observed with MF radar at Poker Flat, Alaska

• Main Author: Yasuhiro, Murayama
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: spase://IUGONET/Repository/NICT/SALMON 2012
• Subjects: Arctic; Fairbanks; Watkins; Alaska
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17591/55838dbd6c0ad; http://isds-datadoi.nict.go.jp/wds/10.17591__55838dbd6c0ad.html

Horizontal wind velocity in the altitude range of approx. 60-90 km is observed with Poker Flat MF (medium frequency) radar, using the radar wave at 2.43 MHz. The radar receives weak radio echo signals returned from the weakly ionized atmosphere (ionospheric D-region) at the target altitudes, to deduce horizontal air motions (Murayama, Y., K. Igarashi, D. D. Rice, B. J. Watkins, R. L. Collins, K. Mizutani, Y. Saito, and S. Kainuma, Medium Frequency Radars in Japan and Alaska for Upper Atmosphere Observations, IEICE Trans., E83-B, pp.1996-2003, 2000). Poker Flat MF radar has been constructed as part of Japan-US joint research program of Arctic middle & upper atmosphere ("Alaska Project") in collaboration between National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Japan (formerly Communications Research Laboratory), and Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks.