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

了解大气上层风如何在整个地球大气系统中分配能量，对于了解气候变化和开发危险空间天气事件的预测方法至关重要。用于测量高层大气动力学的一种仪器是传统高光流星雷达（TSMR），它观察流星消融留下的痕迹。每天，数以百万计的微流星进入地球大气层，大多数还没有一粒沙子大。当流星在地球的高层大气中消融时，它们会暂时留下一串自由电子，这些电子会强烈地散射甚高频无线电波，并分享中性风的运动。当用TSMR探测时，可以测量轨迹的位置和径向速度（因此可以测量轨迹附近的风）。通过结合多次航迹观测，观测到了大尺度的中间层风结构。与澳大利亚阿德莱德创世纪软件公司（一家从事先进科学雷达开发的公司）的布莱恩·富勒合作；将演示TSMR测量技术的主要改进。最近，已建立的TSMR技术的一项进展被提出，具有新的和改进的地球物理科学数据的显着潜力。多基地镜面流星雷达（MSMR）在100公里的地理区域内部署相相干接收器网络，在不同的接收器位置观测到来自单个发射机的镜面流星轨迹散射。尾迹探测率的提高、风测量的水平范围和时空分辨率的提高以及径向速度和位置矢量的角度多样性的增加是MSMR的主要观测优势。这些新的观测能力使研究新的流星物理现象和观测大气上层风场的中尺度结构对了解地球大气系统具有重要意义。NSF EAPSI奖是与澳大利亚科学院合作资助的。

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.