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Meteoroids smaller than a microgram constantly bombard the Earth, depositing material in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere. Meteoroid ablation, the explosive evaporation of meteoroids due to erosive impacts of atmospheric particles, consists of sputtering and thermal ablation. This paper presents the first atomic‐scale modeling of sputtering, the initial stage of ablation where hypersonic collisions between the meteoroid and atmospheric particles cause the direct ejection of atoms from the meteoroid surface. Because meteoroids gain thermal energy from these particle impacts, these interactions are important for thermal ablation as well. In this study, a molecular dynamics simulator calculates the energy distribution of the sputtered particles as a function of the species, velocity, and angle of the incoming atmospheric particles. The sputtering yield generally agrees with semi‐empirical equations at normal incidence but disagrees with the generally accepted angular dependence.Λ, the fraction of energy from a single atmospheric particle impact incorporated into the meteoroid, was found to be less than 1 and dependent on the velocity, angle, atmospheric species, and meteoroid material. Applying this newΛto an ablation model results in a slower meteoroid temperature increase and mass loss rate as a function of altitude. This alteration results in changes in the expected electron line densities and visual magnitudes of meteoroids. Notably, this analysis leads to the prediction that meteoroids will generally ablate 1–4 km lower than previously predicted. This affects analysis of radar and visual measurements, as well as determination of meteoroid mass.

 

150 kilometer echoes are strong, coherent echoes observed by equatorial radars looking close to perpendicular to Earth's magnetic field. Observations over a day show a distinct necklace pattern with echoes descending from 170 km at sunrise to 130 km at noon, before rising again and disappearing overnight. This paper shows that the upper hybrid instability will convert photoelectron energy into plasma wave energy through inverse Landau damping. Using parameters from a WACCM‐X simulation, the upper hybrid wave growth rates over a day show a nearly identical necklace pattern, with bands of positive growth rate following contours of the plasma frequency. Small gaps in altitude with no echoes are explained by thermal electrons Landau damping the instability where the upper hybrid frequency is a multiple of the gyrofrequency. This theory provides a mechanism that likely plays a crucial role in solving a long‐standing mystery on the origin of 150‐km echoes.

 

The Millstone Hill incoherent scatter (IS) radar is used to measure spectra close to perpendicular to the Earth's magnetic field, and the data are fit to three different forward models to estimate ionospheric temperatures. IS spectra measured close to perpendicular to the magnetic field are heavily influenced by Coulomb collisions, and the temperature estimates are sensitive to the collision operator used in the forward model. The standard theoretical model for IS radar spectra treats Coulomb collisions as a velocity independent Brownian motion process. This gives estimates ofT_e/T_i < 1 when fitting the measured spectra for aspect angles up to 3.6°, which is a physically unrealistic result. The numerical forward model from Milla and Kudeki (2011,https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2010.2057253) incorporates single‐particle simulations of velocity‐dependent Coulomb collisions into a linear framework, and when applied to the Millstone data, it predicts the sameT_e/T_iratios as the Brownian theory. The new approach is a nonlinear particle‐in‐cell (PIC) code that includes velocity‐dependent Coulomb collisions which produce significantly more collisional and nonlinear Landau damping of the measured ion‐acoustic wave than the other forward models. When applied to the radar data, the increased damping in the PIC simulations will result in more physically realistic estimates ofT_e/T_i. This new approach has the greatest impact for the largest measured ionospheric densities and the lowest radar frequencies. The new approach should enable IS radars to obtain accurate measurements of plasma temperatures at times and locations where they currently cannot.

 

Jicamarca Radio Observatory observations and Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model with thermosphere‐ionosphere eXtension (WACCM‐X) simulations are used to investigate the effects of the 7 September 2005 X‐17 solar flare on 150‐km echoes, electron densities, and vertical plasma drifts. The solar flare produces a remarkably similar response in the observed 150‐km echoes and simulated electron densities. The results provide additional evidence of the relationship between the background electron density and the layering structure that is seen in 150‐km echoes. The simulations also capture a similar rapid decrease in vertical plasma drift velocity that is seen in the observations. The simulated change in vertical plasma drift is, however, weaker than the observed decrease at the longitude of Jicamarca, though it is stronger east of Jicamarca. The effect of the solar flare on the vertical plasma drifts is primarily attributed to changes in conductivity due to the enhanced ionization during the solar flare.

 

Incoherent scatter radars (ISR) estimate the electron and ion temperatures in the ionosphere by fitting measured spectra of ion‐acoustic waves to forward models. For radars looking at aspect angles within 5° off perpendicular to the Earth's magnetic field, the magnetic field constrains electron movement and Coulomb collisions add an additional source of damping that narrows the spectra. Fitting the collisionally narrowed spectra to collisionless forward models leads to errors or underestimates of the plasma temperatures. This paper presents the first fully kinetic particle‐in‐cell (PIC) simulations of ISR spectra with collisional damping by velocity‐dependent electron‐electron and electron‐ion collisions. For aspect angles between 0.5° and 2° off perpendicular, the damping effects of electron‐ion and electron‐electron collisions in the PIC simulations are the same and the resulting spectra are narrower than what current theories and models predict. For aspect angles larger than 3° away from perpendicular, the simulations with electron‐ion collisions match collisionless ISR theory well, but spectra with electron‐electron collisions are narrower than theory predicts at aspect angles as large as 5° away from perpendicular. At aspect angles less than 5° the PIC simulations produce narrower spectra than previous simulations using single‐particle displacement statistics that include both electron‐ion and electron‐electron collisions. The narrowing of spectra by electron‐electron collisions in the PIC code between 3° and 5° away from perpendicular is currently neglected when fitting measured spectra from the Jicamarca and Millstone Hill radars, leading to underestimates of electron temperatures by as much as 25% at small aspect angles.

 

Since the 1950s, high frequency and very high frequency radars near the magnetic equator have frequently detected strong echoes caused ultimately by the Farley‐Buneman instability (FBI) and the gradient drift instability (GDI). In the 1980s, coordinated rocket and radar campaigns made the astonishing observation of flat‐topped electric fields coincident with both meter‐scale irregularities and the passage of kilometer‐scale waves. The GDI in the daytimeEregion produces kilometer‐scale primary waves with polarization electric fields large enough to drive meter‐scale secondary FBI waves. The meter‐scale waves propagate nearly vertically along the large‐scale troughs and crests and act as VHF tracers for the large‐scale dynamics. This work presents a set of hybrid numerical simulations of secondary FBIs, driven by a primary kilometer‐scale GDI‐like wave. Meter‐scale density irregularities develop in the crest and trough of the kilometer‐scale wave, where the total electric field exceeds the FBI threshold, and propagate at an angle near the direction of total Hall drift determined by the combined electric fields. The meter‐scale irregularities transport plasma across the magnetic field, producing flat‐topped electric fields similar to those observed in rocket data and reducing the large‐scale wave electric field to just above the FBI threshold value. The self‐consistent reduction in driving electric field helps explain why echoes from the FBI propagate near the plasma acoustic speed.

 

Abstract. The Andenes specular meteor radar shows meteor trail diffusion rates increasing on average byabout 10 % at times and locations where a lidar observes noctilucentclouds (NLCs). This high-latitude effect has been attributed to the presenceof charged NLC after exploring possible contributions from thermal tides. Tomake this claim, the current study evaluates data from three stations athigh, middle, and low latitudes for the years 2012 to 2016 to show that NLCinfluence on the meteor trail diffusion is independent of thermal tides. Theobservations also show that the meteor trail diffusion enhancement during NLCcover exists only at high latitudes and near the peaks of NLC layers. Thispaper discusses a number of possible explanations for changes in the regionswith NLCs and leans towards the hypothesis that the relative abundance ofbackground electron density plays the leading role. A more accurate model ofthe meteor trail diffusion around NLC particles would help researchersdetermine mesospheric temperature and neutral density profiles from meteorradars at high latitudes.