Occurrence characteristics of Mesosphere Summer Echoes observed by the SuperDARN Hokkaido HF radar

At high latitudes in summer, neutral temperature of the mesopause around the 85 km altitude goes below about 150 K, heavy charged ice aerosol particles are generated, which reduce electron diffusivity. Neutral air turbulence in combination with the reduced electron diffusivity leads to the creation of structures which backscatter radio waves (Rapp and Lübken, ACP, 2004). As a result, the echoes backscattered near the mesopause are frequently observed in summer in the polar region as Polar Mesosphere Summer Echoes (PMSEs). In recent years mesosphere echoes have been observed not only in the polar region but also at midlatitudes as Mesosphere Summer Echoes (MSEs) (Ogawa et al., JASTP, 2011). In this study, we present a statistical analysis of MSEs observed by the midlatitude SuperDARN Hokkaido HF radar (geographic latitude: +43.53 N deg). We make use of the criteria for identifying MSEs adopted by Ogawa et al. (EPS, in press) who have performed an event study of MSE using the SuperDARN Hokkaido radar. As a result, MSEs are observed more frequently in the daytime (07 to 18 LT) and summer (in particular June and July) than other local times and seasons. This result is similar to the characteristics of PMSEs previously reported by Hosokawa et al. (GRL, 2005) using high latitude SuperDARN radars. MSEs are often contaminated with echoes from the Es layer. In order to identify MSEs exactly and understand the generation mechanisms of MSEs at midlatitudes, it is important to obtain neutral wind information near the mesopause because some MSE structures might be transported from higher latitudes by neutral winds (Singer et al., ASR, 2003), which affect the Doppler velocity of MSEs. If the Doppler velocity of MSEs is consistent with neutral wind velocity, it becomes credible that the echoes are MSEs. In this aspect we can set more appropriate criterion for identifying MSEs by accounting for the altitude distribution of neutral winds. We use the technique employed by Yukimatu and Tsutsumi (GRL, 2002) and Tsutsumi et al. (Radio Sci., 2009) to obtain neutral wind information from meteor echoes using SuperDARN radars. We are in the process of comparing Doppler velocity of HF echoes with neutral wind velocity and will present the results of this analysis. The altitude distribution of echoes can be obtained from interferometer array data, which is useful for distinguishing between MSEs and E region echoes. The detailed results with their interpretation will be presented.