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The project focuses on the mesosphere – low thermosphere (MLT) region comprising the height range of about 80-100 km, which is the least explored region of the Earth’s atmosphere. The air in the MLT is too rarefied for aircrafts and balloons, but it is too dense for flying space objects, both the artificial and those which cause meteor phenomena. Using data of meteor radars and conjugate satellites’ data, we expect to obtain new knowledge on the following issues:

 

  1. Formation and decay of meteor trails, taking into consideration the atmospheric conditions and physical properties of meteoroids.
  2. Properties of meteoroids in different meteor streams and sporadic sources. 
  3. Generation and propagation of atmospheric gravity waves into the ionosphere and their transformation to magnetospheric MHD waves. 
  4. Atmosphere-ionosphere-magnetosphere coupling through the ionospheric dynamo mechanism due to the motion of air mass.

The proposed studies are multi-disciplinary, and the results are applicable in the fields of ionospheric plasma physics, meteor astronomy, radio science, and atmospheric science.

This is a continuation of the ISSI International Team “New features in the meteor radar observations and applications for space research” selected in 2017.

Image © by NASA