High altitude wind measurements by collecting and processing meteor radar echoes

A system study is reported of a multistatic phase-coherent VHF radar capable of collecting meteor echoes from a volume in the upper atmosphere measuring approximately 30 km by 50 km horizontally and 16 km vertically, with the vertical dimension extending from 80 to 96 km above ground level, and with 240 resolvable cells. The basic measurements provide the radial components of the true wind velocities, and are expected to be obtained at a rate of 4000 samples/hr from the doppler shift of the echoes. By processing the collected information in a high-speed digital computer, quasi-real-time 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional wind velocity determinations are expected to be calculated at a rate of 100 determinations/hr and 2 determinations/hr, respectively. A system will be implemented according to these design criteria in Havana, Illinois, before the end of 1965, by modifications of the existing radar system of the Harvard University Radio Meteor Project. (Author).