Polar summer mesospheric extreme horizontal drift speeds during interplanetary corotating interaction regions (CIRs) and high‐speed solar wind streams: Coupling between the solar wind and the mesosphere

Abstract

AbstractWe report the observation of echo extreme horizontal drift speed (EEHS, ≥ 300 m s−1) during polar mesospheric (80–90 km) summer echoes (PMSEs) by the VHF (52 MHz) radar at Esrange, Sweden, in years of 2006 and 2008. The EEHS occur in PMSEs as correlated with high‐speed solar wind streams (HSSs), observed at least once in 12–17% of all hours of observation for the two summers. The EEHS rate peaks occur either during high solar wind speed in the early part of the PMSE season or during the arrival of interplanetary corotating interaction regions (CIRs) followed by peaks in PMSE occurrence rate after 1–4 days, in the latter part of the 2006 summer. The cause of EEHS rate peaks is likely under the competition between the interval of the CIR and HSS passage over the magnetosphere. A candidate process in producing EEHS is suggested to be localized strong electric field, which is caused by solar wind energy transfer from the interaction of CIR and HSS with the magnetosphere in a sequential manner. We suggest that EEHS are created by strong electric field, estimated as > 10–30 V m−1 at 85 km altitude, exceeding the mesospheric breakdown threshold field.