Polar Mesosphere Summer Echoes and ionospheric heating: results and future plans
Polar mesosphere summer echoes (PMSE) are very strong radar returns that occur during summer months near the mesopause at high latitudes. They were discovered about 20 years ago. It seems that PMSE reflect complicated processes occurring in a multi-component plasma consisting of electrons, ions and charged aerosols and interaction between ionized and neutral atmospheric components. So far there is no clear and complete understanding the mechanism of PMSE. In order to influence the electron component during PMSE events, we conducted, in summers 1999, 2001, 2002 and 2003 joint PMSE/Heating experiments using the EISCAT VHF radar and the EISCAT Heating facility.
I will give a review of these PMSE and ionospheric heating experiments. Obtained results will be discussed and future plans will be presented.
Created 2004-03-17 14:03:08 by Rick McGregor Last changed 2004-11-02 14:43:10 by Rick McGregor
