Prof. Phil Williams memorial RAS meeting, 12th December 2003.


First alternate meteor and IS observations using the MU radar

 

N. Balan1, S. Kawamura2,3, T. Nakamura2, M. Yamamoto 2, S. Fukao2, H. Alleyne1

1Control and Systems Engineering, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 3JD UK.

2Radio Science Center for Space and Atmosphere, Kyoto University, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan.

Abstract: The middle and upper atmosphere (MU) radar (35oN, 136oE) has been operated continuously in alternate meteor and incoherent scatter (IS) modes for the first time for studying the mesosphere lower-thermosphere (MLT) and thermospheric F regions simultaneously. Four long campaigns, one in each season in 2000-01, have been conducted when solar activity varied from medium to very high (F10.7 = 130 to 270); a major morning storm (Dst reaching –360 nT, Kp reaching 9 and Ap rising above 120) and a moderate night-time storm also occurred during a campaign at March equinox. The campaigns provide zonal and meridional wind velocities at MLT altitudes (80-95 km), meridional wind velocity in the upper thermosphere (220-450 km), and electron density, peak height and plasma drift velocity in the ionosphere (150-600 km) with time resolution of 1.5 hours. The observations are presented, and are used to study the storm-time changes in the wind velocity, tidal amplitude and electron density.