NERC Data Catalogue Service
University of Bath: Rothera Skiymet Meteor Radar data (2005-present)
The University of Bath's meteor radar located at the British Antarctic Survey's Rothera base on Rothera Point, Adelaide Island, Antartica (67.57 S, 68.13 W), is an all-sky VHF (Very High Frequency) meteor radar commercially produced Skiymet system. Meteor detection and derived wind data from this instrument are available from 2005. These 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.
Note - there are additional data from 20040728 in the archive. No other data were obtained between that date and the start date for the dataset (20050212). The start date of 20050212 has been chosen in order to avoid potential confusion about missing data prior to that date.
Default
Identification info
- Metadata Language
- English (en)
- Dataset Reference Date ()
- 2019-06-03T13:22:23
- Dataset Reference Date ()
- 2019-06-03T13:22:23
- Identifier
- Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA) / aa44e02718fd4ba49cefe36d884c6e50
- Maintenance and update frequency
- daily
- Update scope
- dataset
- Keywords
-
- meteor radar
- mesosphere
- GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0 ()
-
- atmospheric conditions
- Limitations on Public Access
- otherRestrictions
- Other constraints
- Access to these data is available to any registered CEDA user. Please Login or Register for an account to gain access.
- Use constraints
- otherRestrictions
- Spatial representation type
- grid
- Topic category
-
- Climatology, meteorology, atmosphere
))
- Begin date
- 2005-02-12T21:37:20
- Code
- WGS 84
Distribution Information
- Data format
-
-
Data are ASCII formatted. See linked documentation.
()
-
Data are ASCII formatted. See linked documentation.
()
- Resource Locator
-
CEDA Data Catalogue Page
Detail and access information for the resource
- Resource Locator
-
DOWNLOAD
Download Data
- Resource Locator
-
Description of the format and methodology of the Horizontal Wind Data (HWD) files of a SKiYMET meteor radar
No further details.
- Resource Locator
-
Description of the meteor position data (MPD) files of a SKiYMET meteor radar
No further details.
- Resource Locator
-
CEDA Data Catalogue Page
Detail and access information for the resource
- Resource Locator
-
DOWNLOAD
Download Data
- Resource Locator
-
Description of the format and methodology of the Horizontal Wind Data (HWD) files of a SKiYMET meteor radar
No further details.
- Resource Locator
-
Description of the meteor position data (MPD) files of a SKiYMET meteor radar
No further details.
- Quality Scope
- dataset
Report
- Dataset Reference Date ()
- 2010-12-08
- Statement
- Data from the instrument are collected by the British Antarctic Survey and supplied to the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA) for long-term archiving.
Metadata
- File identifier
- aa44e02718fd4ba49cefe36d884c6e50 XML
- Metadata Language
- English (en)
- Character set
- 8-bit variable size UCS Transfer Format, based on ISO/IEC 10646
- Parent identifier
- University of Bath Skiymet meteor radar data collection 836daab8d626442ea9b8d0474125a446
- Resource type
- dataset
- Metadata Date
- 2023-09-27T23:02:39
- Metadata standard name
- UK GEMINI
- Metadata standard version
- 2.3
