A Comparison of Fabry-Perot Interferometer and Meteor Radar Wind Measurements Near the Polar Mesopause Region

Abstract

The neutral winds in the Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere (MLT) region have been observed at King Sejong Station, Antarctica using a meteor radar and a Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) simultaneously. These two independent MLT wind measurements are compared to each other to identify the characteristics of FPI measurement. Instead of using a fixed emission height for FPI winds, for the first time, we consider the temporal variations of airglow emission layer in association with corresponding meteor height distributions for more accurate comparison between the FPI and meteor radar winds. The temporal variations of the airglow emission layers are examined from the inverse relationship between the height integrated emission rate and the peak emission height derived from the TIMED/SABER observations. It is found that FPI winds are consistently smaller than meteor radar winds and the discrepancy becomes larger for OI emission at higher altitude, which may be related to large wind shear in the MLT region and variabilities of the emission layers. Finally, we found that the FPI can provide reliable height-averaged winds in the MLT region where existing a strong wind shear from this simultaneous MR wind measurements.