We present the migrating tidal winds decomposed jointly from multiple meteor radars in four longitudinal sectors situated in the equatorial mesosphere and lower thermosphere. The radars are located in Cariri, Brazil (7.4°S, 36.5°W), Kototabang, Indonesia (0.2°S, 100.3°E), Ascension Island, United Kingdom (7.9° S, 14.4° W), and Darwin, Australia (12.3°S, 130.8°E). Harmonic analysis was used to obtain amplitudes and phases for diurnal and semidiurnal solar migrating tides between 82 and 98 km altitude during the period 2005–2008. To verify the reliability of the tidal components calculated by the four meteor radar wind measurements, we also present a similar analysis for the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model winds, which suggests that the migrating tides are well observed by the four different radars. The tides include the important tidal components of diurnal westward‐propagating zonal wavenumber 1 and semidiurnal westward‐propagating zonal wavenumber 2. In addition, the results based on observations were compared with the Climatological Tidal Model of the Thermosphere (CTMT). In general, in terms of climatic features, our results for the major components of migrating tides are qualitatively consistent with the CTMT models derived from satellite data. In addition, the tidal amplitudes are unusually stronger in January–February 2006. This result is probably because tides were enhanced by the 2006 Northern Hemisphere stratospheric sudden warming event.
In this study, the neutral density and horizontal wind observed by the four meteor radars, as well as the temperature measured by the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) onboard the Aura satellite are used to examine the response of neutral density, wind, and temperature in the MLT region to the stratospheric sudden warmings (SSWs) during 2005 to 2021 in the Northern Hemisphere. The four meteor radars include the Svalbard (78.3°N, 16°E) and Tromsø (69.6°N, 19.2°E) meteor radars at high latitudes and the Mohe (53.5°N, 122.3°E) and Beijing (40.3°N, 116.2°E) meteor radars at middle latitudes. The superposed epoch analysis results indicate that: 1) the neutral density over Svalbard and Tromsø at high latitude increased at the beginning of SSWs and decreased after the zonal mean stratospheric temperature reached the maximum. However, the neutral density over Mohe at midlatitudes decreased in neutral density at the beginning of SSW and increase after the zonal mean stratospheric temperature reached the maximum. 2) The zonal wind at high latitudes show a westward enhancement at the beginning of SSWs and then shows an eastward enhancement after the stratospheric temperature reaches maximum. However, the zonal wind at midlatitudes shows an opposite variation to at high latitudes, with an eastward enhancement at the onset and changing to westward enhancements after the stratospheric temperature maximum. The meridional winds at high and midlatitudes show a southward enhancement after the onset of SSW and then show a northward enhancement after the stratospheric temperature maximum. 3) In general, the temperature in the MLT region decreased throughout SSWs. However, as the latitudes decrease, the temperature cooling appears to lag a few days to the higher latitudes, and the degree of cooling will decrease relatively.
This study compares the hourly mesospheric horizontal winds observed by two collocated and independent low-latitude meteor radars operating at 37.5 MHz and 53.1 MHz in Kunming, China (25.6°N, 103.8°E). Upon analyzing simultaneously detected meteor echoes, we find a fixed angular deviation between the baselines of the two meteor radar antenna arrays within the east–north–up coordinate system. Then, we correct the deviation in the antenna azimuth direction using a novel method and recalculate the horizontal zonal and meridional winds. A comparison of the results before and after the correction shows strong consistency between the winds observed by both meteor radars within the entire detection altitude range. Furthermore, we summarize the performance of different techniques for measuring mesospheric winds. Ultimately, our statistical analysis approach allows the uncertainties associated with meteor radar wind observations to be more precisely estimated.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.