Radio wave doppler studies of the Antarctic ionosphere

The occurence of propagating wave-like disturbances in the atmosphere at ionospheric heights is well documented, but their causes and role in the energy balance of the atmosphere is poorly understood. This paper describes an experiment deployed in the Antarctic Peninsula region to investigate the morphology of the various classes of disturbance, with particular emphasis on the identification of their sources. Current knowledge of the phenomena is briefly reviewed and the reasons why observations in the peninsula region may be especially valuable are discussed. Some preliminary results from the first 3 months of operation are presented; these indicate the presence of waves with periods ranging from less than 1 min to more than 90 min. The short period waves (1-5 min) are unusually common in these data.