Comparison of Interferometric and Multistatic Observations on Meteors with the EISCAT Incoherent Scatter Radars

Meteor studies conducted with radars are an important research topic due to themeteoroids’ threat against the infrastructure in space. The different radar designs,which can be used for these studies, have different benefits and are investigatingthe meteor process in the Earth’s atmosphere from diffe...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Kawnine, Maria
Format: Bachelor Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-57617
Description
Summary:Meteor studies conducted with radars are an important research topic due to themeteoroids’ threat against the infrastructure in space. The different radar designs,which can be used for these studies, have different benefits and are investigatingthe meteor process in the Earth’s atmosphere from different aspects. The EISCATScientific Association currently utilizes their incoherent scatter radars as so-calledHigh Power Large Aperture radars, with which it is possible to extract meteorinformation based on the ionisation of ambient atmospheric particles during themeteoroid entry process.This Thesis analyses a data set of meteors seen by the mainland VHF radar nearTromsø, Norway, and a temporary EISCAT_3D VHF demonstrator array, "Bolt",in Kiruna, Sweden. The analysis is focused on meteor properties such as diurnalmeteor count rate, altitude distribution and velocity studies. By combining bi-staticmeasurement with interferometry, the antenna mode and experimental geometryoffer new techniques and possibilities in studying the vector velocities of meteor headechoes in a wider altitude range than for the earlier tri-static EISCAT UHF radar.This work shows that the VHF demonstrator array in Kiruna was capable forunique and sophisticated meteor observations and studies. The results fit very wellwith the expected meteor properties; The meteor head echo count rate for eachobservational day shows a nice diurnal shape. The altitude distribution of meteorhead echoes, seen by the radars, contributes to the on-going meteor studies about thedependency on atmospheric variations. The diurnal variation of the three velocitycomponents of each meteor extracted from the observations agree with the knownmeteor influx behaviour. Validerat; 20141209 (global_studentproject_submitter)