CEDAR: Advancing Meteor Aeronomy, Observations, and Physics

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This project is to refine and implement a recently developed technique for estimating the altitude profile of neutral winds in the equatorial mesosphere/lower thermosphere between 85-115 km from high-resolution radar observations of non-specular meteor trails. This effort will utilize incoherent scatter radar (ISR) observations of velocities, deceleration, and change in deceleration of meteoroids acquired from Jicamarca Radio Observatory (JRO) in Peru. The project will include an evaluation of new radar transmission modes for routine wind determination, which will be used to assemble a database of wind estimates. The measurements in turn will be used to create more realistic simulations of meteor trail evolution using a massively parallel, multi-dimensional hybrid numerical code developed over the past several years by the Principle Investigator as well as used to improve neutral density estimates between 80 and 120 km. The simulations and meteor observations will be used to address broad questions regarding the nature of radar scatter from the meteor plasma. This effort will involve participation by multiple graduate and undergraduate students over three institutions.