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Dataset

 

University of Bath: Ascension Island Skiymet Meteor Radar data (2005-2012)

Update Frequency: Not Planned
Latest Data Update: 2019-12-05
Status: Ongoing
Online Status: ONLINE
Publication State: Published
Publication Date: 2019-06-03
Download Stats: last 12 months
Dataset Size: 4.53K Files | 2GB

Abstract

The University of Bath's Ascension Island meteor radar (7.9 S, 14.4 W) is an all-sky VHF (Very High Frequency) meteor radar commercially produced Skiymet system. The system was operational from October 2001 to June 2011, albeit with some gaps in the data coverage, in support of a number of research projects - see linked Project records for further details. Meteor detection and derived wind data from this instrument were collected in support of a number of research projects - see linked Project records for further details.

The radar detects radio scatter from the ionised trails of individual meteors drifting with the winds of the upper mesosphere, mesopause and lower thermosphere. A low-gain transmitter antenna is used to provide broad illumination of the sky. An array of five receiver antennas act as an interferometer to determine the azimuth and zenith angles of individual meteor echoes. Doppler measurements from each meteor determine the radial drift velocity and the meteor is assumed to be a passive tracer of atmospheric flow. The radar typically detects of order a few thousand meteors per day. These observations can be used to determine zonal and meridional winds in the mesosphere, mesopause and lower thermosphere at heights of about 80 – 100 km and with height and time resolutions of ~ 3 km and 2 hours.

The radar produces daily “meteor position data” data files (mpd files) recording the details of each individual meteor echo. In normal operation a few thousand individual meteors are detected per day. See parameter list for details of available data.

Recordings are made for each individual meteor detected allowing measurements of zonal and meridional wind speeds in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere to be obtained. Meteor count rates vary diurnally and with season, but are usually up to a few thousand meteors per day.

Citable as:  Mitchell, N.J. (2019): University of Bath: Ascension Island Skiymet Meteor Radar data (2005-2012). Centre for Environmental Data Analysis, date of citation. https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/0d05cf74e17f49c2b7c5cd02faa59291/
Abbreviation: Not defined
Keywords: meteor radar, mesosphere

Details

Previous Info:
No news update for this record
Previously used record identifiers:
No related previous identifiers.
Access rules:
Access to these data is available to any registered CEDA user. Please Login or Register for a CEDA account to gain access.
Use of these data is covered by the following licence(s):
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/
When using these data you must cite them correctly using the citation given on the CEDA Data Catalogue record.
Data lineage:

Data from the instrument are produced by the instrument's SKiYCORR analysis programme before being collected by Genesis Software, the instrument manufacturer, who then supplied the data to the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA) for long-term archiving.

Data Quality:
No quality control information has been provided for these data by the data provider, nor has any been undertaken by the data centre.
File Format:
Data are ASCII formatted. See documentation for details.

Process overview

This dataset was generated by instruments deployed on platforms as listed below.
Output Description

None

  • long_name: Ambiguity levels in the determined zenith and azimuth angles
  • names: Ambiguity levels in the determined zenith and azimuth angles
  • long_name: Date and time of the meteor detection
  • names: Date and time of the meteor detection
  • long_name: Decay time of the meteor echo
  • names: Decay time of the meteor echo
  • long_name: Height of the meteor echo above the ground
  • names: Height of the meteor echo above the ground
  • long_name: Meteor echo power and S/N ratio
  • names: Meteor echo power and S/N ratio
  • long_name: Radial drift velocity of the meteor echo and its uncertainty
  • names: Radial drift velocity of the meteor echo and its uncertainty
  • long_name: Range to the meteor echo point
  • names: Range to the meteor echo point
  • long_name: Zenith and azimuth angles of the meteor echo
  • names: Zenith and azimuth angles of the meteor echo

Co-ordinate Variables