meteor radar
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The University of Bath's meteor radar located at the King Edward Point Magnetic Observatory (KEP, 54.2820 S, 36.4930 W) on South Georgia island in the South Atlantic , is an all-sky VHF (Very High Frequency) meteor radar commercially produced Skiymet system. It has been operational since 2016 providing meteor detection and derived wind data in support of the NERC funded South Georgia Wave (SG-WEX) and DRAGON-WEX: The Drake Passage and Southern Ocean Wave Experiments (see linked Project records for further details). The radar detects radio scatter from the ionised trails of individual meteors drifting with the winds of the upper mesosphere, mesopause and lower thermosphere. A low-gain transmitter antenna is used to provide broad illumination of the sky. An array of five receiver antennas act as an interferometer to determine the azimuth and zenith angles of individual meteor echoes. Doppler measurements from each meteor determine the radial drift velocity and the meteor is assumed to be a passive tracer of atmospheric flow. The radar typically detects of order a few thousand meteors per day. These observations can be used to determine zonal and meridional winds in the mesosphere, mesopause and lower thermosphere at heights of about 80 – 100 km and with height and time resolutions of ~ 3 km and 2 hours. The radar produces daily “meteor position data” data files (mpd files) recording the details of each individual meteor echo. In normal operation a few thousand individual meteors are detected per day. See parameter list for details of available data. Recordings are made for each individual meteor detected allowing measurements of zonal and meridional wind speeds in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere to be obtained. Meteor count rates vary diurnally and with season, but are usually up to a few thousand meteors per day.
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The University of Bath's Bear Lake Observatory (BLO) meteor radar (42 N, 114 W), Utah, is an all-sky VHF (Very High Frequency) meteor radar commercially produced Skiymet system. The system has been operational from March 2008, providing meteor detection and derived wind data. Note, however, that there have been with some significant gaps in the data coverage. The data have been produced in support of a number of research projects - see linked Project records for further details. Meteor detection and derived wind data from this instrument are available from July 2000 to June 2018. These were collected in support of a number of research projects - see linked Project records for further details. The radar detects radio scatter from the ionised trails of individual meteors drifting with the winds of the upper mesosphere, mesopause and lower thermosphere. A low-gain transmitter antenna is used to provide broad illumination of the sky. An array of five receiver antennas act as an interferometer to determine the azimuth and zenith angles of individual meteor echoes. Doppler measurements from each meteor determine the radial drift velocity and the meteor is assumed to be a passive tracer of atmospheric flow. The radar typically detects of order a few thousand meteors per day. These observations can be used to determine zonal and meridional winds in the mesosphere, mesopause and lower thermosphere at heights of about 80 – 100 km and with height and time resolutions of ~ 3 km and 2 hours. The radar produces daily “meteor position data” data files (mpd files) recording the details of each individual meteor echo. In normal operation a few thousand individual meteors are detected per day. See parameter list for details of available data. Recordings are made for each individual meteor detected allowing measurements of zonal and meridional wind speeds in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere to be obtained. Meteor count rates vary diurnally and with season, but are usually up to a few thousand meteors per day.
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The University of Bath's meteor radar located at the Esrange Space Centre in Northern Sweden (67.88 N, 21.07E) , is an all-sky VHF (Very High Frequency) meteor radar commercially produced Skiymet system. It was operated by the University of Bath from October 1999 to October 2015 - albeit with some gaps in the data coverage. In October 2015, Esrange took over operation of the radar. Meteor detection and derived wind data from this instrument are available from July 2000 to June 2018. These were collected in support of a number of research projects - see linked Project records for further details. The radar detects radio scatter from the ionised trails of individual meteors drifting with the winds of the upper mesosphere, mesopause and lower thermosphere. A low-gain transmitter antenna is used to provide broad illumination of the sky. An array of five receiver antennas act as an interferometer to determine the azimuth and zenith angles of individual meteor echoes. Doppler measurements from each meteor determine the radial drift velocity and the meteor is assumed to be a passive tracer of atmospheric flow. The radar typically detects of order a few thousand meteors per day. These observations can be used to determine zonal and meridional winds in the mesosphere, mesopause and lower thermosphere at heights of about 80 – 100 km and with height and time resolutions of ~ 3 km and 2 hours. The radar produces daily “meteor position data” data files (mpd files) recording the details of each individual meteor echo. In normal operation a few thousand individual meteors are detected per day. See parameter list for details of available data. Recordings are made for each individual meteor detected allowing measurements of zonal and meridional wind speeds in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere to be obtained. Meteor count rates vary diurnally and with season, but are usually up to a few thousand meteors per day.
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The University of Bath's meteor radar located at the British Antarctic Survey's Rothera base on Rothera Point, Adelaide Island, Antartica (67.57 S, 68.13 W), is an all-sky VHF (Very High Frequency) meteor radar commercially produced Skiymet system. Meteor detection and derived wind data from this instrument are available from 2005. These were collected in support of a number of research projects - see linked Project records for further details. The radar detects radio scatter from the ionised trails of individual meteors drifting with the winds of the upper mesosphere, mesopause and lower thermosphere. A low-gain transmitter antenna is used to provide broad illumination of the sky. An array of five receiver antennas act as an interferometer to determine the azimuth and zenith angles of individual meteor echoes. Doppler measurements from each meteor determine the radial drift velocity and the meteor is assumed to be a passive tracer of atmospheric flow. The radar typically detects of order a few thousand meteors per day. These observations can be used to determine zonal and meridional winds in the mesosphere, mesopause and lower thermosphere at heights of about 80 – 100 km and with height and time resolutions of ~ 3 km and 2 hours. The radar produces daily “meteor position data” data files (mpd files) recording the details of each individual meteor echo. In normal operation a few thousand individual meteors are detected per day. See parameter list for details of available data. Recordings are made for each individual meteor detected allowing measurements of zonal and meridional wind speeds in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere to be obtained. Meteor count rates vary diurnally and with season, but are usually up to a few thousand meteors per day. Note - there are additional data from 20040728 in the archive. No other data were obtained between that date and the start date for the dataset (20050212). The start date of 20050212 has been chosen in order to avoid potential confusion about missing data prior to that date.
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The University of Bath's Ascension Island meteor radar (7.9 S, 14.4 W) is an all-sky VHF (Very High Frequency) meteor radar commercially produced Skiymet system. The system was operational from October 2001 to June 2011, albeit with some gaps in the data coverage, in support of a number of research projects - see linked Project records for further details. Meteor detection and derived wind data from this instrument were collected in support of a number of research projects - see linked Project records for further details. The radar detects radio scatter from the ionised trails of individual meteors drifting with the winds of the upper mesosphere, mesopause and lower thermosphere. A low-gain transmitter antenna is used to provide broad illumination of the sky. An array of five receiver antennas act as an interferometer to determine the azimuth and zenith angles of individual meteor echoes. Doppler measurements from each meteor determine the radial drift velocity and the meteor is assumed to be a passive tracer of atmospheric flow. The radar typically detects of order a few thousand meteors per day. These observations can be used to determine zonal and meridional winds in the mesosphere, mesopause and lower thermosphere at heights of about 80 – 100 km and with height and time resolutions of ~ 3 km and 2 hours. The radar produces daily “meteor position data” data files (mpd files) recording the details of each individual meteor echo. In normal operation a few thousand individual meteors are detected per day. See parameter list for details of available data. Recordings are made for each individual meteor detected allowing measurements of zonal and meridional wind speeds in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere to be obtained. Meteor count rates vary diurnally and with season, but are usually up to a few thousand meteors per day.
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The University of Bath have operated a number of meteor radars in the northern and southern hemisphere since around 1999. These commercially produced Skiymet meteor radars are all-sky VHF (Very High Frequency) meteor radar systems. The various instruments have been operated by the University of Bath from October 1999 to present - albeit with some gaps in the data coverage. These were collected in support of a number of research projects - see linked Project records for further details. The Skiymet radar detects radio scatter from the ionised trails of individual meteors drifting with the winds of the upper mesosphere, mesopause and lower thermosphere. A low-gain transmitter antenna is used to provide broad illumination of the sky. An array of five receiver antennas act as an interferometer to determine the azimuth and zenith angles of individual meteor echoes. Doppler measurements from each meteor determine the radial drift velocity and the meteor is assumed to be a passive tracer of atmospheric flow. The radar typically detects of order a few thousand meteors per day. These observations can be used to determine zonal and meridional winds in the mesosphere, mesopause and lower thermosphere at heights of about 80 – 100 km and with height and time resolutions of ~ 3 km and 2 hours. The radar produces daily “meteor position data” data files (mpd files) recording the details of each individual meteor echo. In normal operation a few thousand individual meteors are detected per day. The key data parameters recorded for each meteor echo include: 1. Date and time of the meteor detection 2. Range to the meteor echo point 3. Height of the meteor echo above the ground 4. Radial drift velocity of the meteor echo and its uncertainty 5. Zenith and azimuth angles of the meteor echo 6. Ambiguity levels in the determined zenith and azimuth angles 7. Decay time of the meteor echo 8. Meteor echo power and S/N ratio Recordings are made for each individual meteor detected allowing measurements of zonal and meridional wind speeds in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere to be obtained. Meteor count rates vary diurnally and with season, but are usually up to a few thousand meteors per day.
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The NERC-funded South Georgia Wave EXperiment (SG-WEx) project (grant numbers NE/K015117/1, NE/K012614/1 and NE/K012584/1) was a major coordinated observational and modelling campaign to study the nature and deep vertical propagation of atmospheric gravity waves over the mountainous island of South Georgia in the Southern Atlantic. This dataset collection contains meteor radar and radiosonde measurements from King Edward Point Magnetic Observatory on South Georgia and output from high-resolution (1.5km grid, 118 vertical levels) Met Office Unified Model simulations in a box 1200km x 900km centred on the island that coincide with the radiosonde campaigns. The meteor radar observations included in this collection are continuous from February 2016 to November 2020, funding for which was continued as part of the follow-on NERC DRAGON-WEx project (NE/R001391/1,NE/R001235/1). The project also made use of 3rd party satellite data from NASA, not included in this collection.