A COMPARISON OF WINDS MEASURED BY METEOR RADAR SYSTEMS AND AN MF RADAR AT BUCKLAND PARK

This paper describes a comparison of winds measured by the meteor echo detection and collection (MEDAC) system and a collocated spaced anten na MF radar at the Buckland Park field station near Adelaide, Australi a (35 degrees S, 138 degrees E). A previous paper has described a deta iled comparison between the MEDAC and Adelaide meteor radar system whi ch was also operated during the campaign. In this paper, which uses on ly hand-classified underdense meteor echoes, the meteor horizontal zon al wind velocities were compared to the those produced by the MF space d antenna system. Care was taken when interpreting the comparison resu lts in light of the varying meteor data rates. A point-to-point compar ison showed that the excursions seen in the meteor data tended to be l arger than those in the MF data. Excellent agreement was found between the two systems and relevant model results across the observed height s for both the mean winds and tides.