Binary phase modulation using Barker codes as the modulating sequences is often used as a pulse compression technique in incoherent scatter radar measurements of the ionospheric E region. Demodulation of the compressed signal is usually accomplished by matched filtering techniques. If the target has appreciable velocity, the resulting Doppler shift detunes the scattered signal relative to the filter, and the target response spreads over a large range interval. The paper describes the development of a new data analysis method, based on an ambiguity function description of radar total‐power measurements, which uses the characteristic Doppler decompression signatures to identify, extract, and analyze high‐velocity events from conventional Barker‐coded power profile type incoherent scatter (IS) measurements. Data sets recorded with the European Incoherent Scatter UHF (931 MHz) and VHF (224 MHz) radars during the 1990‐1991 Geminid and 1993 Perseid showers are shown to contain many events which are associated with individual meteors crossing the radar beams over a wide range of aspect angles, including a few near‐radial cases. Line‐of‐sight velocities and effective cross sections are derived for some of the best dual radar events. The cross sections are very small and increase with decreasing wavelength, something not observed before. It is suggested that this is indicative of a scattering mechanism different from the one operating at near‐normal incidence at VHF, and Rayleigh scatter from compact “balls” of plasma contained within the meteor coma is proposed as a possible candidate, in qualitative agreement with the observations. Finally, some signal‐processing related aspects of the method are discussed. It is shown that most IS radars should be able to apply it to their existing programs with very little effort and without having to compromise the performance in normal E region applications. The method could therefore become a powerful tool for studies of meteor statistics at UHF frequencies.

The high‐power HF (high‐frequency) facility (commonly known as Heating) near Tromsø, Norway, which is an essential part of the European Incoherent Scatter Scientific Association, has been upgraded in certain key areas in recent years. It is one of only four similar facilities in the world operating at present. An updated description of the facility is given, together with scientific motivation and some results. The main high‐power parts such as transmitters, feed‐system, and antennas remain essentially the same as built in the late 1970s. The improvements are in the areas of radio frequency waveform generation, computer control, and monitoring. In particular, fast stepping in frequency is now possible, an important aspect in examining features close to harmonics of the electron gyrofrequency. One antenna array has been modified to allow reception to implement an HF radar mode for mesospheric and magnetospheric probing. More realistic modeling of the antenna gain gives improved estimates of the total effective radiated power for both wanted and unwanted circular polarizations. Results are presented by using these new capabilities, but their full scientific potential has yet to be achieved.

[1] We present and discuss two examples of pulsating meteor events observed with the tristatic 930 MHz EISCAT UHF radar system. One of them provides the first strong observational evidence of a submillimeter-sized meteoroid breaking apart into two distinct fragments. The received power fluctuates regularly in the time profiles of all three receivers, but the fluctuation frequencies are different. The pulsations are interpreted as being due to interference from two distinct scattering centers and the three detected pulsation rates are utilized to calculate the differential velocity of the fragments. The result is consistent with interference from two fragments of unequal cross-sectional area over mass ratio, separating from each other due to different deceleration along the trajectory of their parent meteoroid. The other meteor event is an example of a meteoroid undergoing quasi-continuous disintegration. This manifests itself as simultaneous pulsations at all three receivers. Both observations indicate a head echo target upper size limit of the order of half the 32 cm radar wavelength. Citation: Kero, J

Abstract. Meteor head echo altitude distributions have been derived from data collected with the EISCAT VHF (224 MHz) and UHF (930 MHz) high-power, large-aperture (HPLA) radars. At the high-altitude end, the distributions cut off abruptly in a manner reminiscent of the trail echo height ceiling effect observed with classical meteor radars. The target dimensions are shown to be much smaller than both the VHF and the UHF probing wavelengths, but the cutoff heights for the two systems are still clearly different, the VHF cutoff being located several km above the UHF one. A single-collision meteor-atmosphere interaction model is used to demonstrate that meteors in the (1.3-7.2) µg mass range will ionise such that critical electron density at 224 MHz is first reached at or around the VHF cutoff altitude and critical density at 930 MHz will be reached at the UHF cutoff altitude. The observed seasonal variation in the cutoff altitudes is shown to be a function of the seasonal variation of atmospheric density with altitude. Assuming that the electron density required for detection is in the order of the critical density, the abrupt altitude cutoffs can be explained as a consequence of the micrometeoroid joint size-speed distribution dropping off so fast at the large-mass, high-velocity end that above a certain altitude the number of detectable events becomes vanishingly small. Conversely, meteors at the lowmass end of the distribution will be gradually retarded such that the ionisation they generate never reaches critical density. These particles will remain unobservable.

Abstract. In this work we give a review of the meteor head echo observations carried out with the tristatic 930 MHz EISCAT UHF radar system during four 24 h runs between 2002 and 2005 and compare these with earlier observations. A total number of 410 tristatic meteors were observed. We describe a method to determine the position of a compact radar target in the common volume monitored by the three receivers and demonstrate its applicability for meteor studies. The inferred positions of the meteor targets have been utilized to estimate their velocities, decelerations and directions of arrival as well as their radar cross sections with unprecedented accuracy. The velocity distribution of the meteoroids is bimodal with peaks at 35-40 km/s and 55-60 km/s, and ranges from 19-70 km/s. The estimated masses are between 10 −9 -10 −5.5 kg. There are very few detections below 30 km/s. The observations are clearly biased to high-velocity meteoroids, but not so biased against slow meteoroids as has been presumed from previous tristatic measurements. Finally, we discuss how the radial deceleration observed with a monostatic radar depends on the meteoroid velocity and the angle between the trajectory and the beam. The finite beamwidth leads to underestimated meteoroid masses if radial velocity and deceleration of meteoroids approaching the radar are used as estimates of the true quantities in a momentum equation of motion.