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- ItemThe ECOMA 2007 campaign: Rocket observations and numerical modelling of aerosol particle charging and plasma depletion in a PMSE/NLC layer(München : European Geopyhsical Union, 2009) Brattli, A.; Lie-Svendsen, Ø.; Svenes, K.; Hoppe, U.-P.; Strelnikova, I.; Rapp, M.; Latteck, R.; Torkar, K.; Gumbel, J.; Megner, L.; Baumgarten, G.The ECOMA series of rocket payloads use a set of aerosol particle, plasma, and optical instruments to study the properties of aerosol particles and their interaction with the ambient plasma environment in the polar mesopause region. In August 2007 the ECOMA-3 payload was launched into a region with Polar Mesosphere Summer Echoes (PMSE) and noctilucent clouds (NLC). An electron depletion was detected in a broad region between 83 and 88 km, coincident with enhanced density of negatively charged aerosol particles. We also find evidence for positive ion depletion in the same region. Charge neutrality requires that a population of positively charged particles smaller than 2 nm and with a density of at least 2×108 m−3 must also have been present in the layer, undetected by the instruments. A numerical model for the charging of aerosol particles and their interaction with the ambient plasma is used to analyse the results, showing that high aerosol particle densities are required in order to explain the observed ion density depletion. The model also shows that a very high photoionisation rate is required for the particles smaller than 2 nm to become positively charged, indicating that these may have a lower work function than pure water ice.
- ItemGeometric considerations of polar mesospheric summer echoes in tilted beams using coherent radar imaging(München : European Geopyhsical Union, 2014) Sommer, S.; Stober, G.; Chau, J.L.; Latteck, R.We present observations of polar mesospheric summer echoes (PMSE) using the Middle Atmosphere Alomar Radar System in Northern Norway (69.30° N, 16.04° E). The radar is able to resolve PMSE at high spatial and temporal resolution and to perform pulse-to-pulse beam steering. In this experiment, 81 oblique beam directions were used with off-zenith angles up to 25°. For each beam pointing direction and range gate, coherent radar imaging was applied to determine the mean backscatter location. The location of the mean scatterer in the beam volume was calculated by the deviation from the nominal off-zenith angle of the brightest pixel. It shows that in tilted beams with an off-zenith angle greater than 5°, structures appear at the altitudinal edges of the PMSE layer. Our results indicate that the mean influence of the location of the maximum depends on the tilt of the beam and on the observed area of the PMSE layer. At the upper/lower edge of the PMSE layer, the mean backscatter has a greater/smaller off-zenith angle than the nominal off-zenith angle. This effect intensifies with greater off-zenith beam pointing direction, so the beam filling factor plays an important role in the observation of PMSE layers for oblique beams.