| 1. |
- Kirkwood, Sheila, et al.
(författare)
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Independent Calibration of Radar Reflectivities Using Radiosondes: Application To ESRAD
- 2011
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the ‘20th ESA Symposium on European Rocket and Balloon Programmes and Related Research’. ; , s. 425-429
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- A large number of empirical and theoretical studies haveshown that radar reflectivity from the atmosphere at 50MHz is proportional to the mean vertical gradient of therefractive index. Up to 30 km height the refractive indexis determined by temperature, pressure and humidityprofiles, which can readily be measured by radiosondes.In practice, humidity becomes unimportant abovethe mid-troposhere. The coefficient of proportionality betweenradar reflectivity and mean refractive index gradientshould, in principle, depend on the fine-scale structureof refractive index fluctuations. However, recent empiricalevidence shows that the coefficient varies very littlebetween widely different meteorological conditions andbetween radars in very different locations (Esrange, tropicalIndia, Antarctica). This means we can use meanprofiles of refractive index, measured by radiosondes, asan independent method to provide continuous calibrationof radar reflectivity and to cross-calibrate between differentradars without the need to interrupt operations for thekind of engineering tests which are usually used for calibration.We show how this can be applied for long-termcalibration of the 52 MHz atmospheric radar at Esrange,ESRAD.The observed invariability of the coefficient of proportionalityalso poses an intriguing question as to how it canbe explained. High-resolution sondes, constant-heightsondes, and UAV’s are suggested as suitable platformsfor further study of the radar scattering mechanisms.
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| 2. |
- Kirkwood, S., et al.
(författare)
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Polar mesosphere winter echoes by ESRAD, EISCAT and lidar
- 2002
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Bok (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The ESRAD 52 MHz MST radar (67° 53 ‘ N, 21 ° 06 ‘ E) has observed thin layers of enhanced radar echoes in the winter mesosphere during several recent solar proton events. The detection of these polar mesosphere winter echoes (PMWE) is generally found to correlates well with low values of λ (the ratio of negative ion density to electron density). However PMWE are found to persist for values of λ up to ~100. Present knowledge of the nature of neutral turbulence in the winter mesosphere suggests that such turbulence cannot generate electron density fluctuations with scale-sizes as short as the 3 m needed to produce radar echoes at 52 MHz. This is particularly true as λ increases to ~100. Joint observations from ESRAD and the EISCAT 224 MHz radar suggest that PMWE is also detectable at 67 cm scale-sizes, further increasing the difficulty in explaining the echoes by neutral turbulence. Joint observations from ESRAD and lidar are also inconsistent with the expected behaviour of turbulence. Together with results concerning the thickness, echo aspect-sensitivity and echo spectral-width of the PMWE, these observation leads to the conclusion that the layers cannot be explained by turbulence alone. A role for charged aerosols in creating PMWE is proposed. The presence of aerosols is supported by the lidar observations.
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