Abstract
Abstract. The Andenes Meteor Radar (MR) and the Saura Medium Frequency (MF) Radar are located in northern Norway (69° N, 16° E) and operate continuously to provide wind measurements of the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) region. We compare the two systems to find potential biases between the radars and combine the data from both systems to enhance altitudinal coverage between 60 and 110 km. The systems have altitudinal overlap between 78 and 100 km at which we compare winds and tides on the basis of hourly winds with 2 km altitude bins. Our results indicate reasonable agreement for the zonal and meridional wind components between 78 and 92 km. An exception to this is the altitude range below 84 km during the summer, at which the correlation decreases. We also compare semidiurnal and diurnal tides according to their amplitudes and phases with good agreement below 90 km for the diurnal and below 96 km for the semidiurnal tides. Based on these findings we have taken the MR data as a reference. By comparing the MF and MR winds within the overlapping region, we have empirically estimated correction factors to be applied to the MF winds. Existing gaps in that data set will be filled with weighted MF data. This weighting is done due to underestimated wind values of the MF compared to the MR, and the resulting correction factors fit to a polynomial function of second degree within the overlapping area. We are therefore able to construct a consistent and homogenous wind from approximately 60 to 110 km.
Highlights
During the past decades, radars have been used to investigate mesospheric phenomena, e.g., polar mesospheric echoes (Rapp et al, 2008, Suzuki et al, 2013, Chau et al, 2014) and atmospheric dynamics (e.g. Andrews et al, 1987, Fritts et al, 2012, Iimura et al, 2015)
In this study we analyze data from the Saura Medium Frequency (MF) Radar and the Andenes Meteor Radar (MR), which are both located on the island of Andøya in northern Norway (69◦ N, 16◦ E)
We found that for the zonal wind component, R2 decreases for Februwww.ann-geophys.net/35/893/2017/
Summary
Radars have been used to investigate mesospheric phenomena, e.g., polar mesospheric echoes (Rapp et al, 2008, Suzuki et al, 2013, Chau et al, 2014) and atmospheric dynamics (e.g. Andrews et al, 1987, Fritts et al, 2012, Iimura et al, 2015). A crucial aspect of the measured winds is the reliability of each technique This requires a proper understanding of the underlying scattering processes and possible instrumental effects, analysis related simplifications, and assumptions that could introduce biases or systematic errors in the derived winds (Reid, 2015). Similar comparisons have already been performed within the past few decades by Valentic et al (1997), Hocking et al (2001b), and Hall et al (2005) with smaller data sets and different locations. Their results showed good agreement between MF and MR for alti-
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