Radar scattering from the summer polar mesosphere: Theory and observations

Thesis/Dissertation · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1993

OSTI ID:6967338

Cho, J Y.N.

The anomalously large radar reflectivities observed in the summer polar mesosphere have eluded satisfactory explanation until now. The author proposes that the following chain of causality is responsible for the so-called polar mesosphere summer echoes (PMSE): The uniquely low temperature in the summer mesopause produce ice aerosols. Because the aerosols exist in a plasma, they become electrically charged. The ambient electrons become coupled to the aerosols through electric fields and their effective diffusivity is retarded due to the large size of the aerosols. The reduction in diffusivity allows electron density inhomogeneities to be maintained at the radar Bragg scales. The radar waves are then scattered by the inhomogeneities. The above concept is supported by developing a quantitative theory of ambipolar diffusion in the mesosphere. The results to isotropic turbulence and Fresnel radar scatter are applied to show that the observed radar reflectivities can be explained by the theory. It is shown that the presence of realistic charged aerosols are sufficient to explain PMSE. The author also shows that dressed aerosol radar scatter can only apply to echoes detected by UHF radars. The data is taken with the Sondrestrom 1.29-GHz radar and attribute it to dressed aerosol scatter. The author used the Cornell University portable radar interferometer (CUPRI) to observe the mesosphere while rockets carrying in situ sensors were flown through two PMSE occurrences and a noctilucent cloud/PMSE event. The first simultaneous height comparison between noctilucent clouds and PMSE show that the radar scattering region was near or slightly above the visible cloud layer. The author also infers from aspect sensitivity measurements and Doppler spectrograms that there were two distinct types of PMSE: Enhanced turbulent scatter and partial (Fresnel) reflection from steep edges in the electron density. Both mechanisms require an anomalously low electron diffusion coefficient.

• Research Organization: Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States)
• OSTI ID: 6967338
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540110*
AMBIPOLAR DIFFUSION
CRYOSPHERE
DIFFUSION
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
MESOSPHERE
METEOROLOGY
POLAR REGIONS
RADAR
RANGE FINDERS
REMOTE SENSING
SCATTERING
SEASONS