Diurnal and seasonal variability of the meteoric flux at the South Pole measured with radars

A meteor radar system was installed at the South Pole in 2001 to measure the horizontal wind field in the MLT region. It uses four 6‐element yagi antennas pointing in orthogonal directions for transmission. For reception two independent systems are used: the same yagi antennas used for transmission (COBRA data acquisition system) and an interferometric array of five crossed‐dipole antennas (MEDAC data acquisition system). In this paper we present and discuss VHF radio meteor observations from the South Pole. Preliminary results showing the diurnal and seasonal variability of the meteor flux indicate that most of the activity occurs during the Antarctic summer around a very concentrated region of the sky in elevation and azimuth. These results agree well with meteor observations performed at Arctic latitudes. Speculations on the radiant distribution and possible meteor sources are presented.

[1]  W. Singer,et al.  Diurnal and annual variations of meteor rates at the arctic circle , 2004 .

[2]  C. Tepley,et al.  Lidar observations of Ca and K metallic layers from Arecibo and comparison with micrometeor sporadic activity , 2004 .

[3]  Ronald F. Woodman,et al.  Observations of meteor-head echoes using the Jicamarca 50 MHz radar in interferometer mode , 2003 .

[4]  M. Nolan,et al.  On the geocentric micrometeor velocity distribution , 2003 .

[5]  John D. Mathews,et al.  The micrometeoroid mass flux into the upper atmosphere: Arecibo results and a comparison with prior estimates , 2001 .

[6]  S. Close,et al.  Analysis of Perseid meteor head echo data collected using the Advanced Research Projects Agency Long‐Range Tracking and Instrumentation Radar (ALTAIR) , 2000 .

[7]  Douglas O. ReVelle,et al.  Meteor Phenomena and Bodies , 1998 .

[8]  A. Taylor,et al.  Meteoroid orbital element distributions at 1 AU deduced from the Harvard Radio Meteor Project observations , 1998 .

[9]  A. Taylor.  Radiant distribution of meteoroids encountering the Earth , 1997 .

[10]  P. Brown,et al.  Sporadic meteor radiant distributions: orbital survey results , 1993 .

[11]  Alan G. Jones,et al.  Strike-angle determination from the magnetotelluric impedance tensor in the presence of noise and local distortion: rotate at your peril! , 1993 .

[12]  S. Avery,et al.  A new meteor echo detection and collection system: Christmas Island mesospheric wind measurements , 1990 .