Meteor Scatter Work at BAS: Tides and Long Period Oscillations.

M. JARVIS, P. ESPY and M.PINNOCK
British Antarctic Survey, NERC, Cambridge, UK.

We review the mesosphere work at BAS which uses the meteor scatter component of the SuperDARN data. A general review of the data quality will be given followed by two detailed studies. The first shows a comparison of the phase of the semi-diurnal tide measured overhead Halley, Antarctica using the Imaging Doppler Interferometer instrument and ~250 km poleward of Halley using the SHARE radar. Cross-correlation analysis reveals a consistent offset of 1.5 hours during a fortnight period in December 1997. This intriguing result may be explained by the transition from an s=1 wave at the S. Pole to an s=2 wave in the equatorial region. The second study has found evidence for an ~60 day oscillation in the meridional wind component, a result similar to that reported from observations made at Stockholm, Sweden. The cause is unknown at present but work is underway to investigate a possible link to the Madden-Julian oscillation of tropical convection.

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