Winds and the meteors that burn for them

Abstract

"Meteors typically ablate from 70-130 km in altitude leaving in their wake a trail of ionized plasma that moves with the surrounding neutral winds. Once formed, these trails are visible to impinging radar signals. This thesis utilizes meteor plasma trail observations made by the Kodiak, Alaska, SuperDARN radar over 2004 and 2005 to develop a technique for the estimation of mesospheric-lower thermospheric (MLT) winds and tides and demonstrate the capabilities of the SuperDARN radar in advancing MLT science"--Leaf iii