EAPSI: Deployment of geographically distributed meteor radar for improved observations of upper-atmospheric wind

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Knowledge of how upper-atmospheric wind distributes energy throughout Earth's atmospheric system is of key importance for understanding climate change and for developing predictive methods for dangerous space-weather events. One instrument used to measure atmospheric dynamics in the upper-atmosphere is the Traditional Specular Meteor Radar (TSMR), which observes trails left by ablating meteors. Every day, millions of micro-meteors enter Earth's atmosphere, most no larger than a grain of sand. When meteors ablate in Earth's upper-atmosphere, they temporarily deposit a trail of free electrons which strongly scatter VHF radio waves and share the motion of the neutral wind. When probed with a TSMR, the position and radial velocity of the trail (and therefore the wind in the trail's vicinity) can be measured. By combining many trail observations, large-scale mesospheric wind structures are observed. In collaboration with Brian Fuller from the Adelaide, Australia based Genesis Software, a company involved in advanced scientific radar development; major improvements to the TSMR measurement technique will be demonstrated.Recently, an advancement of the well-established TSMR technique has been proposed with remarkable potential for both new and improved geophysical science data. The Multistatic Specular Meteor Radar (MSMR) deploys a network of phase-coherent receivers over a geographic area on the order of 100's of km and specular meteor trail scatter originating from a single transmitter is observed at the different receiver locations. An increase in trail detection rates, the horizontal extent and spatial and temporal resolution of the wind measurement and an increase in the angular diversity of the radial velocity and position vectors are the primary observational advantages of MSMR. These new observational capabilities enable the study of new meteor physics phenomenon and the observation of the mesoscale structures in the upper-atmospheric wind field important for understanding Earth's atmospheric system. This NSF EAPSI award is funded in collaboration with the Australian Academy of Science.