Abstract
A first sounding rocket campaign dedicated to investigate the creation mechanism of Polar Mesosphere Winter Echoes (PMWE) was conducted in April 2018 from the north Norwegian Andøya Space Center (69 °N, 16 °E). Two instrumented sounding rockets were launched on 13th and 18th of April under PMWE and non-PMWE conditions, respectively. In this paper we give an overview of the PMWE sounding rocket mission. We describe and discuss some results of combined in situ and ground-based measurements which allow to verify existing PMWE theories. Our measurements ultimately show that: a) polar winter mesosphere is abounded with meteor smoke particles (MSP) and intermittent turbulent layers, b) all PMWE observed during this campaign can be explained by neutral air turbulence, c) turbulence creates small-scale structures in all D-region constituents, including free electrons; d) MSP ultimately influence the radar volume reflectivity by distorting the turbulence spectrum of electrons, e) the influence of MSP and of background electron density is just to increase SNR.
Highlights
First observations of radar echoes in the very high frequency (VHF) range from polar mesosphere/lower thermosphere (MLT) region were reported about forty years ago by Czechowsky et al (1979) and Ecklund and Balsley (1981)
Polar Mesosphere Winter Echoes (PMWE)-1 rocket campaign In April 2018 the first sounding rocket campaign PMWE-1 was suc cessfully conducted at the Andøya Space Center (ASC)
The first sounding rocket campaign dedicated to investigation of Polar Mesosphere Winter Echoes (PMWE) was successfully conducted from the north Norwegian Andøya Space Center (ASC) in April of 2018
Summary
First observations of radar echoes in the very high frequency (VHF) range from polar mesosphere/lower thermosphere (MLT) region were reported about forty years ago by Czechowsky et al (1979) and Ecklund and Balsley (1981). Huge scientific efforts were made to understand the nature of these echoes which led to conclusion that their formation mechanism in summer must be different from those in winter. These echoes were named Polar Mesosphere Summer echoes, PMSE (after Rottger et al, 1988; Hoppe et al, 1988) and Polar Mesosphere Winter Echoes, PMWE (after Kirkwood et al, 2002). The necessary condition for the formation of PMSE is the presence of ice particles in the meso sphere This condition is well fulfilled at high latitudes in summer, whereas it is definitely not possible in winter because of much higher temperatures. A detailed analysis of in situ measurements conducted during the first rocket launch is given in the companion paper by Staszak et al (2020)
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