Sporadic-E (Es) is a comparatively strong and protracted transmission returned from the E region of the ionosphere by some mechanism other than the normal reflection process from the daytime E layer (Smith, 1957). It is produced accidentally and becomes active at any time of the day or night. It seems that the photochemical process does not dominate the formation of Es (Whitehead, 1972). Solar eclipse provides a very unique opportunity to study the responses of the ionospheric Es to the rapid solar radiation variation.The responses of ionospheric F-layer to solar eclipse is predictable (

Abstract. The total solar eclipse of 22 July 2009, was visible from some regions of China and the intense sporadic-E (Es) that broke out during the solar eclipse period over the eastern China provided a unique chance to study solar eclipse effects on the Es-layer. The ground based high-frequency (HF) vertical-incidence and oblique-incidence backscatter radio systems in Wuhan and an HF oblique receivers located in Suzhou were operated to detect the Es-layer. The vertical, oblique and backscatter ionograms of 22 and 23 July were recorded, processed and analyzed. The analyzing results show that the critical frequency of Es, the hop number and power of the rays transmitted from Wuhan to Suzhou as well as the Doppler frequency shift of the one-hop obliqueincidence waves reflected by the Es-layer all increased during the solar eclipse period. These variations are displayed in the paper and explained to be induced by the wind-field, which is produced by the powerful meridional air flows from the sunshine region to the moon's shadow.

Abstract. The recently constructed Wuhan Atmospheric Radio Exploration (WARE) radar is the first mesosphere-stratosphere-troposphere (MST) radar in the mainland of China, located at Chongyang, Hubei Province (114°8'8'' E, 29°31'58'' N, ∼ 23° geomagnetic latitude). WARE radar has a capability of probing the structure and dynamics of the atmosphere at the altitudes from 3 to 100 km (excluding 25–60 km). With fine temporal and spatial resolution, WARE radar provides an outstanding opportunity for the first time to extensively and intensively investigate various atmospheric phenomena at the regions of mid-latitude China. In this paper, we present the main configuration and technical specifications of WARE radar system. For the first time, we also report some initial results obtained by the WARE radar: (1) wind field observations from 69 to 85 km and from 3.2 to 16.9 km together with their comparisons with the rawinsonde results, (2) tropopause heights determined by radar echo power and comparisons between radar tropopause and rawinsonde tropopause, (3) atmospheric gravity waves in the troposphere with the wave length and propagation direction analyzed using the hodograph method, (4) aspect sensitivity of echo power at six specified heights in the troposphere and stratosphere, and (5) diurnal and semi-diurnal tides at the tropospheric and low stratospheric heights analyzed by the Lomb–Scargle periodogram method.