Seasonal Variation of Turbulence Intensities in the Upper Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere Measured by Radar Techniques

Since February 1985, the 2 MHz narrow beam radar operated by the University of Adelaide in Australia has been used to measure the short term root-mean-square fluctuating velocities of radio wave scatterers in the upper middle atmosphere (80 to 100 km). These measured fluctuations are caused by a mixture of turbulence and gravity waves, and under certain reasonable assumptions the turbulent contribution can be extracted. The results of these measurements were discussed in detail by Hocking (1988). These results are summarized and the data set is extended to include 1987.