Electric fields and meteor radar wind measurements near 95 km over South Pole

• Main Authors: Forbes,J. M., Jarvis,M. J., Palo,S. E., Zhang,X., Portnyagin, Yu. I., Makarov,N. A.
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences/British Antarctic Survey, Madingley Road/Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences/Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences/Institute for Experimental Meteorology/Institute for Experimental Meteorology 2001
• Subjects: South Pole; South pole; Advances in polar upper atmosphere research
• Online Access: https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=6326; http://id.nii.ac.jp/1291/00006326/; https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_action_common_download&item_id=6326&item_no=1&attribute_id=18&file_no=1

Meteor and auroral drift measurements by P. Prikryl et al. (Radio Sci., 21, 271, 1986) and theoretical estimates by G.C. Reid (Radio Sci., 18, 1028, 1983) suggest that sufficiently large electric fields may decouple meteor trail electron motions from that of the neutral gas, leading to erroneous measurement of the neutral wind during sufficiently disturbed conditions. In the present study, we seek evidence of such effects by comparing hourly meteor radar wind measurements V_N near 95 km over South Pole with overhead F-region drifts V, measured by the SuperDARN radar at Halley (76° S, 27° W). Within the parameter space of our data set, we find no relationship between V_1 and the zonal wavenumber s = 0 and s = 1 components of V_N, and only a weak relationship for the wind residuals from the combined s = 0 and s = 1 wind field. For the latter, an inferred wind residual of 5.8ms^<-1> is implied for an F-region plasma drift of 1000ms^<-1> (E-field &thkzp; 70mVm^<-1>). This value of 5.8 ms^<-1> falls within the 2 to 20ms^<-1> range of plasma drifts expected to be induced at 95km by F-region E-fields ranging between 20 and lOOmVm^<-1> by G.C. Reid (ibid, 1983). Thus, we cannot discount the possibility that this inferred wind is actually a plasma drift. In any case, we conclude that electric field contamination of previous scientific analyses with this data set which focused on the s = 0 and s = 1 components of the wind field, are negligible. Future experimental and modeling work is required to ascertain the degree to which .E-field induced effects on winds inferred from advection of meteor trails exist under more extreme conditions, or perhaps over shorter time scales.