EAGER: Exploration of the Source of Polar Mesospheric Summer Echoes at 33 cm Observed with the Poker Flat Incoherent Scatter Radar

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).The investigator will utilize an integrated modeling approach to improve our understanding of Polar Mesosphere summer echoes (PMSE) from the cold summer Mesopause region, at altitudes between about 80-95 km at high polar latitudes.The interest in improving the modeling effort for PMSE has stemmed from recent spectral observations of PMSE, which have been made by the NSF funded Poker Flat Incoherent Scatter Radar (PFISR). The physical characterization of high frequency PMSE is still poorly understood, and more work is required to develop turbulence scattering theories, to help explain the radar observations. The key modeling work relates to dust charging, and how significant it needs to be, as well as the role of turbulence scattering in PMSE formation and evolution. It is also possible that other processes are controlling PMSE, including dusty plasma wave instabilities, which represents a novel approach having received little attention to date from the modeling community.The investigator is involving young undergraduate students, who will participate in the data analysis as well as receive a valuable learning experience. The intellectual merit of this EAGER proposal relates to the exploration of new ideas on dust charging in the Mesopause, and novel, potentially transformative ideas involving dusty plasma instabilities to explain higher frequency PMSE. The required modeling effort is complex and multi-faceted, and thus carries high risk, but also with a high return, in terms of improved scientific understanding of PMSE, which have been considered an important new marker for atmospheric change.