All‐Sky Interferometric Meteor Radar Observations of Zonal Structure and Drifts of Low‐Latitude Ionospheric E Region Irregularities

Abstract

AbstractAll‐sky interferometric meteor radar has been operated worldwide for the measurements of neutral winds in the mesopause region. In this paper, we employ an all‐sky meteor radar and an ionospheric radar, which are situated at Ledong (18.4°N,109°E) and Sanya (18.3°N,109.6°E), respectively, and both have the interferometry capability, to study the zonal structure and drifts of ionospheric E region irregularities producing continuous and quasiperiodic echoes. We use the collocated optical meteor observations to calibrate the radar system phase offsets for interferometry measurements. A good correspondence between the irregularity measurements from both radars was found. The observations show that the quasiperiodic striations with both negative and positive slopes in radar range‐time‐intensity maps were produced by spatially separated irregularity structures, which drift through the radar field of view. The continuous echoes were due to irregularities generated locally. Specifically, comparing with ionospheric radar, all‐sky meteor radar has a much wider field of view that can provide E region irregularity information over a large zonal region of more than 300 km. It is suggested that all‐sky meteor radar provides a capability to probe ionospheric E region irregularities and to trace their movements.