Studies of polar mesosphere summer echoes with the EISCAT VHF and UHF radars: Information contained in the spectral shape

Physics

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

3

Scientific paper

The nature of PMSE in the VHF and UHF frequency range is considered taking into account the shape of corresponding Doppler spectra. Assuming a turbulence-based model of PMSE it is argued that for cases where a VHF radar detects strong PMSE, the UHF radar could either detect enhanced coherent scattering caused by the same physical process as in the VHF (i.e., turbulence with large charged ice particles), there could be incoherent scattering modified by the charged ice particles, or there could be a mixture of both. In order to distinguish these cases a simple but robust method is introduced to characterize the shape of the Doppler spectra derived from observations at both frequencies. Spectral shapes are quantified with one simple fitting parameter of a generalized fit to the autocorrelation function (=Fourier transform of the Doppler spectrum). This parameter takes a value of 1 for a Lorentzian spectrum indicative of pure incoherent scatter from the D-region, a value of 2 for coherent scatter owing to turbulence, and a value of less than 1 for incoherent scatter modified by the presence of charged aerosol particles. This method is applicable to observations at altitudes between ˜70 and ˜90 km. Simultaneous observations with the EISCAT VHF and UHF radar are presented in which all three cases mentioned above are identified. For the case of incoherent scatter modified by the presence of charged aerosol particles we quantify the radius of the involved ice particles to exceed ˜5 nm. Most importantly, however, for the case where the UHF-signal exceeded the incoherent scatter signal significantly, the spectrum revealed a clear Gaussian shape indicative of a coherent scattering process with identical spectral width as for the VHF-observations. This finding gives strong support that both echoes are created by the same turbulence-based mechanism and not by different mechanisms as speculated by several previous authors.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Studies of polar mesosphere summer echoes with the EISCAT VHF and UHF radars: Information contained in the spectral shape does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Studies of polar mesosphere summer echoes with the EISCAT VHF and UHF radars: Information contained in the spectral shape, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Studies of polar mesosphere summer echoes with the EISCAT VHF and UHF radars: Information contained in the spectral shape will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1888613

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.