Hokkaido HF radar signatures of periodically reoccurring nighttime medium-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances detected at short ranges

摘要

The Super Dual Auroral Radar Network Hokkaido HF radar often detects periodically reoccurring E region echoing regions propagating toward or away from it. In this work, we consider 117 of such events identified for 2008–2012. These are shown to occur at nighttime, preferentially during summer, although significant number for events was found for winter. Statistics for the local time of occurrence, magnitude of the speed and polarity of progressions, and temporal and spatial periodicities are presented. We show that the power of echoes is linearly related to their Doppler velocity which makes it possible to identify the events on both power and Doppler velocity plots. Other peculiar characteristics of echoes are discussed. The onset of events is associated with gravity waves propagation through the radar field of view.