Abstract:
The Skiymet meteor radar was deployed at Rothera (68S, 68W) in Feb 2005. The radar measures the winds, waves and tides of the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) regions of the atmosphere. The radar routinely makes three types of measurement: 1. horizontal winds at heights of ~ 75 - 105 km from the drifting of meteors as they are carried by the winds of the MLT; 2. atmospheric temperature from the decay rate of meteor echoes; 3. meteor fluxes, derived from several thousand meteors per day.
The radar has been used with an existing, identical, radar in the Arctic at the conjugate latitude of 68N, 21E (Esrange) to produce accurate climatologies of winds, waves and tides - and to quantify the differences between the Antarctic and Arctic MLT (using identical radars eliminates otherwise problematic measurement biases). Other studies will carefully examine meteor/MF-radar instrument biases and apply a developing technique to continually measure temperature using the decay rate of meteor echoes. The radar complements the existing OH temperature spectrometer and imaging airglow camera at Rothera.
Keywords:
horizontal winds, mesosphere, meteor fluxes, meteor radar, radar biases, thermosphere, waves and tides
| Access Constraints: | Requests for data can be made via the UK Polar Data Centre (UK PDC) at BAS. |
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| Use Constraints: | This data is governed by the NERC Data Policy |
| Creation Date: | 2007-11-01 |
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| Dataset Progress: | Complete |
| Dataset Language: | English |
| ISO Topic Categories: |
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| Parameters: |
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| Personnel: | |
| Name | UK PDC |
| Role(s) | Metadata Author |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Name | Dr P Espy |
| Role(s) | Technical Contact, Investigator |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Name | Prof NJ Mitchell |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | University of Bath |
| Name | Dr P Younger |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | University of Bath |
| Parent Dataset: | N/A |
| Reference: | Espy, P., Younger, P., & Mitchell, N. 2006. A Meteor Radar at Rothera for studies of the Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere. Antarctic Funding Initiative, Fifth Workshop, New Hall, Cambridge, 20-21 September 2006 Younger, P. T., Mitchell, N. J. & Espy, P. J. 2005. A Meteor Radar at Rothera for studies of the Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere. Antarctic Funding Initiative, Fourth Workshop, New Hall, Cambridge 27-28 September 2005 Project ref: AFI 05/38 - The Antarctic Rothera radar (68 S) |
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| Quality: | The radar has operated faultlessly from first operation on 14 February 2005. | |
| Lineage: | This project is part of the WFL programme | |
| Temporal Coverage: | |
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| Start Date | 2005-02-14 |
| End Date | 2007-04-18 |
| Spatial Coverage: | |
| Latitude | |
| Southernmost | -68 |
| Northernmost | -68 |
| Longitude | |
| Westernmost | -68 |
| Easternmost | -68 |
| Altitude | |
| Min Altitude | N/A |
| Max Altitude | N/A |
| Depth | |
| Min Depth | N/A |
| Max Depth | N/A |
| Location: | |
| Location | Antarctica |
| Detailed Location | Rothera |
| Sensor(s): |
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| Source(s): |
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| Distribution: | |
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| Distribution Media | Online FTP |
| Distribution Size | 3.1 GB |
| Distribution Format | N/A |
| Fees | See Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Data Policy |
| Data Storage: | This data is managed by the Physical Sciences Data Manager at the UK Polar Data Centre (UK PDC) at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), and held on the BAS Storage Area Network (SAN). The data is 3.1 GB and held in binary files. |