On the seasonal variations of reflectivity and turbulence characteristics of low-latitude mesospheric echoes over gadanki

Abstract

Gadanki radar observations of the low-latitude mesospheric echoes studied earlier have shown that while both occurrence rate and signal-to-noise ratio of the mesospheric echoes peak in the equinoxes turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) dissipation rate and eddy diffusivity, estimated using spectral width of these echoes, peak in the summer. This seasonal difference is apparently inconsistent with the understanding that the mesospheric echoes are generated by turbulence. In this paper, we analyze Gadanki radar observations of mesospheric echoes made during 2011 and 2012 and study seasonal variations in reflectivity and TKE dissipation rate in an attempt to address the aforementioned puzzle. We show that both reflectivity and TKE dissipation rate in the mesosphere show semiannual variations peaking in the equinoxes, which are vastly different from those reported earlier. We also show that seasonal variations in reflectivity and TKE dissipation rate have a close correspondence with gravity wave activity. These results are found to be consistent with the gravity wave breaking hypothesis generating turbulence and radar echoes in the low-latitude mesosphere.