Climatology of Meteor Winds over Atlanta (38 N, 84 W); August 1974 - April 1987

雷达提供了一种有用的方法来确定高层大气中的风，通过返回的信号的频率移位（多普勒移位），该移位与风速成正比，并由雷达测量的距离确定高度。在夜间，电离层在100公里以下大部分重新组合，在50至100公里区域没有散射体，除了流星的电离尾巴。（流星是行星间物质的微小碎片穿透大气层的视觉表现，它们大多只有沙粒大小或更小，偶尔也有较大的碎片，它们大多在进入大气层时燃烧殆尽）。流星雷达数据揭示了潮汐、行星波、风的季节和太阳周期变化的存在。该奖项是为了对一个为期13年的数据集进行分析，该数据集将为CEDAR数据库准备，并提供给航空业，并用于生成中层大气风的模型。

Radars provide a useful means of determining winds in the upper atmosphere by means of the shift in frequency of the returned signal (the doppler shift) that is proportional to the wind speed and defined in altitude by the range measurement of the radar. At nighttime the ionosphere largely recombines below 100km and there is an absence of scatterers in the 50 to 100 km region, except for the ionized tails of meteors. (Meteors are the visual manifestation of the penetration into the atmosphere of tiny fragments of interplanetary material, mostly the size of a grain of sand or smaller, with occasionally a larger one, that mostly burn up on entry). The meteor radar data reveal the presence of tides, planetary waves, seasonal and solar cycle variations in winds. This award is for analysis of a 13 year set to be prepared for the CEDAR data base and made available to the Aeronomy community generally, and used in the generation of models of middle atmosphere winds.