Variations in the Polar Mesospheric Summer Echoes during the Appearance of Irregularities of Noctilucent Clouds

Abstract

Variations in the amplitude of the ordinary wave from a received signal on a partial reflection radar at a short-wave range on the Kola Peninsula during the appearance of noctilucent clouds on August 12, 2016, are examined. Noctilucent clouds are registered by the all-sky camera located 100 km southward of the partial reflection radar. They extended over the entire celestial hemisphere observed by the all-sky camera; all of them moved in the southern direction, and the clouds had a tenuous structure and showed gravity waves with spatial periods of 15–100 km. During the presence of noctilucent clouds over the partial reflection radar, polar mesospheric summer echoes (PMSEs) were recorded at heights of 83–86 km. It was found that the presence of only noctilucent clouds in diagram of the antenna pattern of partial frequency radar is not sufficient for the appearance of PMSEs; noctilucent clouds must also have irregularities of several kilometers. The PMSE heights decreased with a velocity of 0.5 and 1.3 m/s. The issue of aerosols that cause the appearance of PMSEs and noctilucent clouds is discussed.