Possible relations between meteors, enhanced electron density layers, and sporadic sodium layers

• Published in: Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics Vol. 115; no. A6
• Main Authors: Dou, X.-K., Xue, X.-H., Li, T., Chen, T.-D., Chen, C., Qiu, S.-C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.06.2010; American Geophysical Union
• Subjects: Annual variations; Atmospheric sciences; Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Exact sciences and technology; Lidar; meteor; Meteors; Sodium; sporadic sodium layer; Wind shear; Asia; Europe; China; Southern Europe; Italy; Marches Italy; Far East; China, People's Rep., Hubei Prov., Wuhan; altitude; Sporadic E; technology; electrons; tides; sodium; Radio occultation; annual variations; propagation; meteors; Radar observation; Lidar; ions; electron density; radar methods; Recombination process; Wind shear
• ISSN: 0148-0227; 2169-9380; 2156-2202; 2169-9402
• DOI: 10.1029/2009JA014575

In this paper, we studied the possible relations between incoming meteors, sporadic E (Es) layers, and sporadic (or sudden) sodium atom layers (SSLs) using the data from the FORMOSAT‐3/COSMIC constellation, a meteor radar (Wuhan, 31°N, 114°E), and a sodium fluorescent lidar (Hefei, 31.8°N, 117.3°E). From a statistical point of view, a seasonal dependence of SSL correlates well with the annual variation of Es and is also consistent with seasonal meteor deposition except for February and March. It suggests that a “meteor‐Es‐SSL” chain could be reasonable if the recombination process were taken into consideration. Detailed study on the relationship between electron density profiles provided by the COSMIC radio occultation and the observations of SSLs by the University of Science and Technology of China via lidar illustrates that the appearance of Es accompanying SSL (i.e., 56.3%) is three times greater than that in the “normal” sodium layer. It also indicates that tides play an important role in causing the lower SSLs, which might be able to carry the upper dense electrons and ions in the Es layer formed by wind shear to the lower altitudes through downward phase propagations.