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

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案资助的（公法111-5）。研究人员将利用综合建模方法来提高我们对来自寒冷夏季中层顶区域的极地中层夏季回波（PMSE）的理解，在海拔80-对改进PMSE建模工作的兴趣源于最近对PMSE的光谱观测，这是由美国国家科学基金会资助的扑克牌平面非相干散射雷达（PFISR）。高频PMSE的物理特性仍然知之甚少，需要更多的工作来发展湍流散射理论，以帮助解释雷达观测。关键的建模工作涉及粉尘充电，以及它需要有多重要，以及湍流散射在PMSE形成和演变中的作用。也有可能是其他过程控制PMSE，包括尘埃等离子体波不稳定性，这是一种新的方法，迄今为止很少受到建模界的关注。研究人员涉及年轻的本科生，他们将参与数据分析，并获得宝贵的学习经验。这个EAGER建议的智力价值涉及到探索中层顶尘埃充电的新想法，以及涉及尘埃等离子体不稳定性的新的、潜在的变革性想法，以解释更高频率的PMSE。所需的建模工作是复杂和多方面的，因此具有高风险，但在提高对PMSE的科学理解方面也具有高回报，PMSE被认为是大气变化的重要新标志。

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.