We describe and show results from a series of field campaigns that used balloonborne instruments launched from India and Saudi Arabia during the summers 2014–17 to study the nature, formation, and impacts of the Asian Tropopause Aerosol Layer (ATAL). The campaign goals were to i) characterize the optical, physical, and chemical properties of the ATAL; ii) assess its impacts on water vapor and ozone; and iii) understand the role of convection in its formation. To address these objectives, we launched 68 balloons from four locations, one in Saudi Arabia and three in India, with payload weights ranging from 1.5 to 50 kg. We measured meteorological parameters; ozone; water vapor; and aerosol backscatter, concentration, volatility, and composition in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) region. We found peaks in aerosol concentrations of up to 25 cm–3 for radii > 94 nm, associated with a scattering ratio at 940 nm of ∼1.9 near the cold-point tropopause. During medium-duration balloon flights near the tropopause, we collected aerosols and found, after offline ion chromatography analysis, the dominant presence of nitrate ions with a concentration of about 100 ng m–3. Deep convection was found to influence aerosol loadings 1 km above the cold-point tropopause. The Balloon Measurements of the Asian Tropopause Aerosol Layer (BATAL) project will continue for the next 3–4 years, and the results gathered will be used to formulate a future National Aeronautics and Space Administration–Indian Space Research Organisation (NASA–ISRO) airborne campaign with NASA high-altitude aircraft.

A 30 MHz radar has recently been established at Gadanki (13.5°N, 79.2°E; 6.5°N magnetic latitude) to make unattended observations of the ionospheric field-aligned irregularities (FAI). This radar, called the Gadanki Ionospheric Radar Interferometer (GIRI), has been designed to have scanning capability of 100°in the east-west plane perpendicular to Earth's magnetic field and interferometry/imaging system to study drifts and spatial distribution of plasma irregularities at both large and small scales. In this paper, we present the first results on the E and F region FAI made using the scanning capability of the GIRI. Daytime observations of E region FAI show type 2 echoes with velocities predominantly upward northward (downward-southward) at altitudes >100 km (<100 km) and westward (eastward) in the forenoon (afternoon) with signature of tidal wind field. F region irregularities show bottom-type, bottomside and plume structures with close resemblance to those observed over the magnetic equator. Observations made with the east-west scanning capability have been used to study the origin, evolution, and drift of the FAI for the first time from Gadanki. Eastward drifts are estimated to be 90-210 m s À1 during 20-24 LT. Upward velocity as large as 500 m s À1 has been observed in the initial phase of the plume structures. Intriguingly, downward velocity as large as 60 m s À1 has also been observed in the plumes, displaying descending pattern, observed in the early evening hours. These results are presented and discussed in the light of current understanding of low-latitude plasma irregularities, and future prospects of GIRI are outlined.

We present the first dual‐frequency overlapping volume radar observations of daytime 150‐km echoes made at 30 and 53 MHz from Gadanki, India. We show remarkably different responses of the 150‐km echoing layers including the spectral characteristics of the echoes at 30 and 53 MHz. Results show that while the echoes in general are remarkably stronger with narrower spectral width at 30 MHz than that of 53 MHz the relationship between radar cross sections at the two frequencies varies depending on the echoing layer. We also show distinctly different spectral broadening in different echoing regions observed by the 53‐MHz radar, which is missing in the 30‐MHz radar observations. These new observations indicate involvement of naturally enhanced incoherent scattering as well as scattering from enhanced electron density fluctuations of plasma instability origin and hence are of utmost importance in understanding the origin of the puzzling 150‐km echoing phenomenon.

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Type-A (weaker and wider Doppler spectra) and Type-B (stronger and narrower Doppler spectra) echoes are inherent to the puzzling 150-km echoing phenomenon. In this paper, we investigate the characteristics and possible origin of the Type-A and Type-B 150-km echoes using high-resolution 53-MHz radar and Digisonde observations from Gadanki. Results show that the Type-A echoes dominate the echoing phenomenon and they always precede the Type-B echoes. Intriguingly, the Type-B echoes are fundamentally not narrower than the Type-A echoes as was originally thought. The primary reason that distinguishes the Type-B echoes from the rest is the confinement of a few high PSD values at the center of the spectra, resulting in narrow spectral width. Spectral spreads of both types of echoes are found to increase with echo signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and in fact, the spectral spreads of the Type-B echoes are higher than those of the Type-A echoes. Observations also show spectral evolution displaying the occurrence of Type-A and Type-B echoes in tune with the quasiperiodicity in the echo strength (SNR). We propose that both types of echoes primarily are of common origin, presumably linked with naturally enhanced incoherent scattering. Looking at the simultaneously observed short period variations in the lower F region electron density, we propose a gravity wave induced pathway as a plausible mechanism accounting for echo intensity modulation as well as spectral transition.