Characteristics of mesosphere echoes over Antarctica obtained using PANSY and MF radars

Abstract

We investigated characteristics of mesosphere echoes over Syowa Station (69S) in the Antarctic, which were detected by the Program of the Antarctic Syowa Mesosphere, Stratosphere and Troposphere/Incoherent Scatter (PANSY) radar (47 MHz) and Medium Frequency (MF) radar (2.4 MHz). Winter echoes from the PANSY radar and low altitude MF echoes below approximately 70−75 km mostly coexisted, appearing during the daytime as well as for a few hours post sunset. Summer echoes in the lower height region were absent in both radar observations, suggesting a close relationship in the generation mechanisms of these two radar echoes. High correlation between local K-index and the occurrence of winter echoes suggested that electron density enhancement due to ionized particle precipitation was one of the triggers of echo generation. Angles of arrival of the MF echoes were more isotropic in winter. Because gravity wave activity is much higher in winter over Syowa, higher turbulence energy caused by gravity wave breaking may also be responsible for the generation of the winter echoes and their isotropic behavior. The horizontal wind velocities of the two systems were further compared and agreed well throughout the height region of 60−90 km. (Citation: Tsutsumi, M., K. Sato, T. Sato, M. Kohma, T. Nakamura, K. Nishimura, and Y. Tomikawa, 2017: Characteristics of mesosphere echoes over Antarctica obtained using PANSY and MF radars. SOLA, 13A, 19−23, doi:10.2151/sola.13A-004.)