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

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.

Date (Publication): 2019-06-03T13:21:23

Date (Creation): 2019-06-03T13:21:23

Citation identifier: https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/0d05cf74e17f49c2b7c5cd02faa59291

Citation identifier: Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA) / 0d05cf74e17f49c2b7c5cd02faa59291

Point of contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Unavailable	Mitchell, Nicholas J.	Unavailable	Author
Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA)		support@ceda.ac.uk	Custodian
Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)		unknown	Owner
Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA)		support@ceda.ac.uk	Distributor
Unavailable	Mitchell, Nicholas J.	Unavailable	Principal investigator
Unavailable	Mitchell, Nicholas J.	Unavailable	Principal investigator
Unavailable	Mitchell, Nicholas J.	Unavailable	Principal investigator
Unavailable	Mitchell, Nicholas J.	Unavailable	Principal investigator
Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA)		support@ceda.ac.uk	pointofContact
Unavailable	Mitchell, Nicholas J.	Unavailable	pointofContact
Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA)		support@ceda.ac.uk	Publisher

Maintenance and update frequency: Not planned

Update scope: Dataset

Keywords

meteor radar
mesosphere

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

atmospheric conditions

Access constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: Access to these data is available to any registered CEDA user. Please Login or Register for a CEDA account to gain access.

Use constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: Under the following licence http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/, appropriate use of these data may fall under any use. This message is intended as guidance, always read the full licence. When using these data you must cite them correctly using the citation given on the CEDA Data Catalogue record.

Spatial representation type: Grid

Language: English

Topic category

Climatology, meteorology, atmosphere

Begin date: 2001-05-26T17:53:42

End date: 2012-08-14T23:50:27

Unique resource identifier: WGS 84

Distribution format

Name	Version
Data are ASCII formatted. See documentation for details.

Distributor contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA)		support@ceda.ac.uk	Distributor

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/0d05cf74e17f49c2b7c5cd02faa59291	CEDA Data Catalogue Page

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	http://data.ceda.ac.uk/badc/meteor-radars/data/ascension/	DOWNLOAD

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://zenodo.org/record/7357290	Description of the meteor position data (MPD) files of a SKiYMET meteor radar

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://zenodo.org/record/7357305	Description of the format and methodology of the Horizontal Wind Data (HWD) files of a SKiYMET meteor radar

Hierarchy level: Dataset

Conformance result

Title: Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services

Date (Publication): 2010-12-08

Statement: 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.