Radar Imaging of Equatorial Mesospheric Turbulence: A Case Study Using New Data from the Jicamarca Radar Observatory

Abstract:

Radar data from the mesosphere was collected with the Jicamarca Radio Observatory in Peru on May 10-11, 2011. The experiment used the full 300 m x 300 m antenna for transmission of 64-baud complementary pulses. The echoes were collected by the four north, south, east, and west quarters of the array with nominally 150 m range resolution. Then self spectra and cross spectra for different integration times were calculated from the complex voltage samples. Range time intensity (RTI) plots allow us to identify periods and regions of strong mesospheric echoes.  At these locations, the coherence and phase of cross spectra were examined for pairs of the receiving channels. The slope of the interferometric phase angle allows the calculation of horizontal wind components. The recent experiment had a range resolution of 150 m which reveals details in the turbulent layers that could not be detected in a previous interferometry experiment with 1.5 km range resolution (Kudeki, JGR, 1988). We use the analysis to study the detailed motion in mesospheric echoes and search for individual scattering structures within the radar volume.