Abstract
Abstract. A sporadic-E (Es) layer is generally associated with a thin-layered structure present in the lower ionosphere, mostly consisting of metallic ions. This metallic ion layer is formed when meteors burn in the upper atmosphere, resulting in the deposition of free metal atoms and ions. Many studies have attributed the presence of the Es layer to the metallic ion layer, specifically when the layer is observed during the nighttime. Using data from a network of meteor monitoring towers and a collocated digital ionosonde radar near the Arabian Peninsula, in this paper, we report our observations of Es layer occurrences together with the meteor count. The trend of monthly averages of Es layer intensity shows a maximum in late spring and early summer months and a minimum in winter months, whereas the meteor counts were highest in winter months and lowest in spring and early summer months. This shows that the presence of the Es layer and the meteor counts have no correlation in time, both diurnally and seasonally. This leads us to conclude that the presence of meteors is not the main cause of the presence of the Es layer over the Arabian Peninsula.
Highlights
Meteors are the visible appearance of extraterrestrial dust, generally known as meteoroids
We report the observations of the Es layer and the meteor counts simultaneously observed during nighttime over the Arabian Peninsula region for the first time
The results presented in this paper follow a similar pattern, with frequency of the Es layer (foEs) decreasing significantly during the period between October 2019 and January 2020, even with the increased meteor count during that period
Summary
Meteors are the visible appearance of extraterrestrial dust, generally known as meteoroids. There is a vast amount and variety of meteoroid material entering the atmosphere every day (Ceplecha et al, 1998), and its deposition is highly variable spatially as well as temporally These variations are attributed to the inconsistency of the meteoroid material density surrounding the Earth, seasonal changes of the atmosphere and the Earth’s movement around the Sun, the methods of observing them such as the geographical location of the observing site, and geometrical factors related to the observing instruments’ capability and positions of sources. This happens when meteors burn in the dense atmosphere, resulting in the heating and deposition of free metal atoms and ions (Ceplecha et al, 1998) It is a well-established fact that the permanent ionized metal layer in the lower ionosphere, at around 90–130 km altitude, is due to the ablation of meteors in that region (Plane et al, 2015). Negative values of correlation coefficient show an anti-correlation relationship between the two data sets
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