Mesospheric and lower thermospheric observations using the Buckland Park medium frequency radar

This paper describes the analysis techniques employed for atmospheric observations using medium (MF) and high frequency (HF) radars, focusing on the current routine observations scheme implemented for the Buckland Park medium frequency (BPMF) radar. These observations are rare among current routine MF/HF radar observations in that they are made using a relatively narrow transmit polar diagram. The flexibility of the radar allows a number of analyses to be performed simultaneously. The analyses described include the full correlation analysis (FCA), spatial correlation analysis (SCA), hybrid Doppler interferometry (HDI) and imaging Doppler interferometry (IDI) for observations of mesospheric dynamics and the temporal and spatial characteristics of their scatterers, the differential absorption experiment (DAE) for the estimation of electron densities and collision frequencies, and meteor analysis for estimation of meteor height, time and AOA distributions.