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University of Bath: King Edward Point Skiymet meteor radar data (2016-2020)

The University of Bath's meteor radar located at the King Edward Point Magnetic Observatory (KEP, 54.2820 S, 36.4930 W) on South Georgia island in the South Atlantic , is an all-sky VHF (Very High Frequency) meteor radar commercially produced Skiymet system. It has been operational since 2016 providing meteor detection and derived wind data in support of the NERC funded South Georgia Wave (SG-WEX) and DRAGON-WEX: The Drake Passage and Southern Ocean Wave Experiments (see linked Project records for further details).

The radar detects radio scatter from the ionised trails of individual meteors drifting with the winds of the upper mesosphere, mesopause and lower thermosphere. A low-gain transmitter antenna is used to provide broad illumination of the sky. An array of five receiver antennas act as an interferometer to determine the azimuth and zenith angles of individual meteor echoes. Doppler measurements from each meteor determine the radial drift velocity and the meteor is assumed to be a passive tracer of atmospheric flow. The radar typically detects of order a few thousand meteors per day. These observations can be used to determine zonal and meridional winds in the mesosphere, mesopause and lower thermosphere at heights of about 80 – 100 km and with height and time resolutions of ~ 3 km and 2 hours.

The radar produces daily “meteor position data” data files (mpd files) recording the details of each individual meteor echo. In normal operation a few thousand individual meteors are detected per day. See parameter list for details of available data.

Recordings are made for each individual meteor detected allowing measurements of zonal and meridional wind speeds in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere to be obtained. Meteor count rates vary diurnally and with season, but are usually up to a few thousand meteors per day.

Simple

Date (Publication)
2019-06-03T13:22:04
Date (Creation)
2019-06-03T13:22:04
Identifier
https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/061fc7fd1ca940e7ad685daf146db08f
Identifier
Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA) / 061fc7fd1ca940e7ad685daf146db08f
Identifier
doi / 10.5285/061fc7fd1ca940e7ad685daf146db08f
Author
  Unavailable - Mitchell, Nicholas J. ( author )
Custodian
  Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA) - custodian
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory , Harwell , Oxon , OX11 0QX , United Kingdom
01235446432
Owner
  Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) - data_owner
Polaris House , North Star Avenue , Swindon , SN2 1EU , United Kingdom
01793 411500
Distributor
  Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA) - distributor
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory , Harwell , Oxon , OX11 0QX , United Kingdom
01235446432
Principal investigator
  Unavailable - Mitchell, Nicholas J. ( principal_investigator )
Principal investigator
  Unavailable - Mitchell, Nicholas J. ( principal_investigator )
Principal investigator
  Unavailable - Moffat-Griffin, Tracy ( principal_investigator )
Principal investigator
  Unavailable - Moffat-Griffin, Tracy ( principal_investigator )
Principal investigator
  Unavailable - Ross, Andrew N ( principal_investigator )
pointofContact
  Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA) - point_of_contact
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory , Harwell , Oxon , OX11 0QX , United Kingdom
01235446432
pointofContact
  Unavailable - Mitchell, Nicholas J. ( point_of_contact )
Publisher
  Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA) - publisher
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory , Harwell , Oxon , OX11 0QX , United Kingdom
01235446432
Maintenance and update frequency
notPlanned Not planned
Update scope
dataset Dataset
Keywords
  • meteor radar
  • mesosphere
GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0
  • atmospheric conditions
Access constraints
otherRestrictions Other restrictions
Other constraints
Access to these data is available to any registered CEDA user. Please Login or Register for a CEDA account to gain access.
Use constraints
otherRestrictions Other restrictions
Other constraints
Under the following licence http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/, appropriate use of these data may fall under any use. This message is intended as guidance, always read the full licence. When using these data you must cite them correctly using the citation given on the CEDA Data Catalogue record.
Spatial representation type
grid Grid
Metadata language
EnglishEnglish
Topic category
  • Climatology, meteorology, atmosphere
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Begin date
2005-02-12T21:37:20
End date
2020-11-25T04:07:12
Unique resource identifier
WGS 84
Distribution format
  • Data are ASCII formatted. See linked documentation. ()

Distributor
  Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA) - Data Center Contact
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory , Harwell , Oxon , OX11 0QX , United Kingdom
01235446432
OnLine resource
CEDA Data Catalogue Page

Detail and access information for the resource

OnLine resource
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Download Data

OnLine resource
Description of the meteor position data (MPD) files of a SKiYMET meteor radar

No further details.

OnLine resource
Description of the format and methodology of the Horizontal Wind Data (HWD) files of a SKiYMET meteor radar

No further details.

Hierarchy level
dataset Dataset

Conformance result

Date (Publication)
2010-12-08
Statement
Data from the instrument are collected by the British Antarctic Survey and supplied to the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA) for long-term archiving.
File identifier
061fc7fd1ca940e7ad685daf146db08f XML
Metadata language
EnglishEnglish
Character set
8-bit variable size UCS Transfer Format, based on ISO/IEC 10646 UTF8
Hierarchy level
dataset Dataset
Date stamp
2025-06-23T02:16:37
Metadata standard name
UK GEMINI
Metadata standard version
2.3
Point of contact
  Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA)
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory , Harwell , Oxon , OX11 0QX , United Kingdom
01235446432
 
 

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Spatial extent

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Keywords

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0
atmospheric conditions

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