First simultaneous measurements of neutral and ionized iron densities in the upper mesosphere

Journal Article · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1993 · Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/92JA01665· OSTI ID:7061602

Alpers, M; Luebken, F J; Zahn, U von ^[1]; Blix, T ^[2]; Kirkwood, S ^[3]; Krankowsky, D; Lutz, S ^[4]

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1. Universitaet Bonn (Germany)
2. Forsvarets Forskningsinstitutt, Kjeller (Norway)
3. Institutet foer Rymdfysik, Kiruna (Sweden)
4. Max-Planck-Institut fuer Kernphysik, Heidelberg (Germany)

We report on the results of a multi-instrument study of a sporadic Fe layer and a sporadic E layer which took place in the night of September 20, 1991, at the Andoya Rocket Range (69[degrees]N, 16[degrees]E). A ground-based lidar was used to measure mesospheric Fe densities, while simultaneously rocket-home probes and an ion mass spectrometer measured the profile of total ion density and ion composition, respectively. All instruments observed the sporadic layers near 97 km altitude. Radar tracking of chaff clouds established the wind field in the 90- to 100-km region with high spatial resolution, while the ASCOT incoherent scatter radar measured the E fields in the F region. The major ion in the sporadic E layer turned out to be Mg[sup +]. The narrow Fe[sup +] layer was 1 km lower than the sporadic Fe layer. The ratio of densities [Fe[sup +] ]/[Fe] in the peaks of the sporadic layers was found to be 1.75. 33 refs., 6 figs., 4 tabs.

• OSTI ID: 7061602
• Journal Information: Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States), Journal Name: Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States) Vol. 98:A1; ISSN JGREA2; ISSN 0148-0227
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

661320* -- Auroral
Ionospheric
& Magnetospheric Phenomena-- (1992-)
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
CLOUDS
E REGION
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
ELEMENTS
F REGION
ION DENSITY
IONOSPHERE
IRON
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
MESOSPHERE
METALS
PLANETARY IONOSPHERES
RESOLUTION
SPATIAL RESOLUTION
SPORADIC E
TRANSITION ELEMENTS
WIND