This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
This project aims to conduct a comprehensive investigation of meteoric smoke particles in the polar mesosphere using D-region observations from the Poker Flat incoherent scatter radar (PFISR) in Alaska as well as extensive measurements previously obtained at Arecibo Observatory. The PFISR observations will be used to characterize and quantify the particles' size and density distributions as a function of local time, altitude, and season and will include observations already made along with new measurements to ensure coverage of all seasons and varying levels of geomagnetic activity. The PFISR data will be combined with the Arecibo observations and a model of the Meteor Input Function to determine the correlation between the meteoric smoke particles' characteristics and the meteoric flux. This will also help address current questions on the possible role of the polar vortex and of enhanced auroral activity on the concentration and transport of meteoric smoke particles. These particles are believed to be a major source of condensation nuclei in the formation of ice particles which are manifested as polar mesospheric clouds, noctilucent clouds, and polar mesosphere summer echoes. The results are expected to test and exercise community models such as WACCM and CARMA that currently predict large depletions of particles at the summer pole. The broader impact of the proposal is that it will support a young scientist in his first project after completion of the Ph.D. The postdoctoral fellow will continue education outreach activities he initiated as a graduate student. During the project, he will visit and collaborate with scientists at the Leibneiz-Institute of Atmospheric Physics in Germany, focusing on correlative studies with the Institute?s lidar and rocket experiments.
