Polar mesosphere summer echoes(PMSE)are observed simultaneously with Digisonde and EISCAT VHF radar.The phenomenon of irregular Es layers is called PMSE-like or PMSE-Es(Polar Mesosphere Summer Echoes-Es)and has some relationship with real PMSE.In this paper,the characteristics of irregular Es layers at 80–100 km were observed by Digisonde at Tromsøduring 2003–2014 are statistically analyzed with ionograms.The diurnal,day-to-day and year-to-year variations and discrepancies of occurrence rate between PMSE and PMSE-Es are compared with the statistical results observed by Esrange MST radar(ESRAD),and the reasons are discussed.The results show that the trends in the occurrence rate of PMSE-Es are similar to the trends in the occurrence rate of PMSE,but there are some notable differences.The occurrence rate of PMSE-Es is much lower than the occurrence rate of PMSE.The minimum value of PMSE-Es appears 1–2 hours earlier than the minimum value of the PMSE occurrence rate,while PMSE-Es appear earlier than PMSE in the year.In addition,there is a significant positive correlation between the annual average occurrence rates of PMSE and PMSE-Es.PMSEEs is a relatively important occurrence in the polar mesopause.Analysis of its characteristics can provide new ideas and methods for studying the formation mechanism of PMSE.
HaiLong LiShuCan GeLin MengMaoYan WangAbdur RaufSafi Ullah
The observations of Polar Mesosphere Summer Echoes (PMSE) were carried out using the sporadic data of EISCAT UHF radar during the summer season from 2004 to 2015. There were 25 h of PMSE echoes with EISCAT UHF radar. PMSE echoes were mostly observed only during the early morning and fore-noon time. Moreover, the PMSE echoes are positively correlated with Lymanα radiation, but the correlation is non-significant. The occurrence of PMSE echoes in the early morning and fore-noon time and there positive correlation with Lymanαradiation suggests that solar radiations might be one important factor for PMSE echoes in this study. Very weak positive, but statistically non-significant correlation is found between PMSE occurrence rate and the local geomagneticK-indices. It is found that there is a matching between the variation in the occurrence rate of PMSE and noctilucent clouds (NLC) up to some extent and they are positively correlated. This positive correlation might support the earlier proposed idea about the role of ice particle size in producing PMSE echoes at higher frequencies.
Using PMSE (polar mesosphere summer echoes) observations in combination with particle flux measurements obtained with detectors onboard the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) a special condition is shown for the occurrence of rare observed UHF PMSE. When electron flux observed from GOES satellites show a decrease, then after being in the presence of precipitation UHF PMSE occurs. The heating effect on PMSE is small when the UHF electron density is enhanced at 90 km due to particle precipitation. We analyzed and compared the frequency dependence of PMSE under the condition of high energy particle precipitation in July of 2004 and 2007 at well separated frequencies (224 and 930 MHz) at the same site, height, and time. The frequency index varies with height and time. At different heights, the maximum as well as the minimum value of volume reflectivity at VHF is greater than that at UHF with 2 to 3 orders of magnitude. A new qualitative method for the analysis of dust distribution is used by analyzing the relationship between volume reflectivity and frequency index. In agreement with the results of the model it is shown that dust particles of smaller size generally did not occur at the edges, instead they occurred in the middle PMSE regions.
Safi ULLAHHailong LIAbdur RAUFLin MENGBin WANGMaoyan WANG
Time evolution of ionospheric D-region plasmas including the perturbations of electrons and charged aerosol particles is investigated under the conditions of polar mesosphere summer echoes (PMSE). It is shown that the time scale of decay of the electron density is in the order of an hour under typical PMSE conditions, in the majority of cases, the electron density is anticorrelated to the ion density, except that the radius of aerosol particles is greater than 50 nm. Also, the evolutions under varied parameters, such as the amplitude and width of perturbation, the aerosol particle radius, and the altitude of the PMSE occurrence are investigated. The obtained results are useful for interpreting the experimental observations.