Title
Multistatic Specular Meteor Radar Network in Peru: System Description and Initial Results
Date Issued
01 January 2021
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Chau J.L.
Urco J.M.
Vierinen J.
Harding B.J.
Clahsen M.
Pfeffer N.
Kuyeng K.M.
Erickson P.J.
Publisher(s)
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Abstract
The mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) region is dominated globally by dynamics at various scales: planetary waves, tides, gravity waves, and stratified turbulence. The latter two can coexist and be significant at horizontal scales less than 500 km, scales that are difficult to measure. This study presents a recently deployed multistatic specular meteor radar system, SIMONe Peru, which can be used to observe these scales. The radars are positioned at and around the Jicamarca Radio Observatory, which is located at the magnetic equator. Besides presenting preliminary results of typically reported large-scale features, like the dominant diurnal tide at low latitudes, we show results on selected days of spatially and temporally resolved winds obtained with two methods based on: (a) estimation of mean wind and their gradients (gradient method), and (b) an inverse theory with Tikhonov regularization (regularized wind field inversion method). The gradient method allows improved MLT vertical velocities and, for the first time, low-latitude wind field parameters such as horizontal divergence and relative vorticity. The regularized wind field inversion method allows the estimation of spatial structure within the observed area and has the potential to outperform the gradient method, in particular when more detections are available or when fine adaptive tuning of the regularization factor is done. SIMONe Peru adds important information at low latitudes to currently scarce MLT continuous observing capabilities. Results contribute to studies of the MLT dynamics at different scales inherently connected to lower atmospheric forcing and E-region dynamo related ionospheric variability.
Volume
8
Issue
1
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Meteorología y ciencias atmosféricas
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85099928427
Source
Earth and Space Science
Sponsor(s)
The authors thank Carsten Schult for calculating the location of the bolide, and the Jicamarca Radio Observatory (JRO) staff that supported the installation and continue supporting the maintenance and operations of SIMONe Peru. J. L. Chau appreciates useful comments from Sixto Gonzalez on early drafts. JRO is a facility of the Instituto Geofisico del Peru operated with support from the NSF AGS‐1433968 through Cornell University. SIMONe analysis efforts derived from partial support from US National Science Foundation grant AGS‐1626041 to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This work was partially supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under SPP 1788 (DynamicEarth)‐CH1482/2‐1 and under SPP 1788 (CoSIP)‐CH1482/3‐1. The authors thank Carsten Schult for calculating the location of the bolide, and the Jicamarca Radio Observatory (JRO) staff that supported the installation and continue supporting the maintenance and operations of SIMONe Peru. J. L. Chau appreciates useful comments from Sixto Gonzalez on early drafts. JRO is a facility of the Instituto Geofisico del Peru operated with support from the NSF AGS-1433968 through Cornell University. SIMONe analysis efforts derived from partial support from US National Science Foundation grant AGS-1626041 to the?Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This work was partially supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under SPP 1788 (DynamicEarth)-CH1482/2-1 and under SPP 1788 (CoSIP)-CH1482/3-1.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus