A new dual-frequency stratospheric-tropospheric and meteor radar: System description and first results

Abstract

A new dual-frequency stratospheric-tropospheric (ST) and meteor radar has been built and installed at the Langfang Observatory in northern China. It utilizes a new two-frequency system design that allows interleaved operation at 53.8MHz for ST mode and at 35.0MHz for meteor mode, thus optimizing performance for both ST wind retrieval and meteor trail detection. In dedicated meteor mode, the daily meteor count rate reaches over 40000 and allows wind estimation at finer time resolutions than the 1h typical of most meteor radars. The root mean square uncertainty of the ST wind measurements is better than 2ms-1 when estimating the line of best fit with radiosonde winds. Preliminary observation results for 1month of winter gravity wave (GW) momentum fluxes in the mesosphere, lower stratosphere and troposphere are also presented. A case of waves generated by the passage of a cold front is found.