Can a meteor measure vertical winds?

Abstract

In the first part of this thesis the zonal and meridional tilt of the SKiYMET Meteor Radar at Dragvoll (63.4 N 10.5 E) has been found using two different methods. The average zenith angle model found the zonal tilt to be 0.22 ± 0.11 degrees towards the east and the meridional tilt to be 0.09 ± 0.11 degrees towards the north. The results of this model should be treated with skepticism as the seasonal variations of especially the meridional tilt was large. The zenith angle model found the zonal tilt to be 0.15 ± 0.21 degrees towards the east and the meridional tilt to be 0.62 ± 0.24 degrees towards the south. In the second part the tilt found from the zenith angle model was used to investigate the changes such a tilt would cause to the meridional, zonal and vertical winds. And whether the vertical wind would show a strong correlation with either the meridional or zonal wind. The vertical wind seems to be oscillating with a main period of 24 hours while the meridional and zonal wind has a 12 hour oscillation period, this might show that the contamination from the horizontal winds are not the dominant driving force in the winds. The changes the tilt had on the vertical wind showed an oscillation with the same period as the meridional winds. The changes to the zonal and meridional wind due to the tilt was neglectable. The daily vertical background wind was obtained and analyzed. The seasonal vertical background wind for the fall of 2012 was found to be weak and downwards, winter was stronger and downwards, spring 2013 was approximately zero and for summer 2013 a upwards wind was measured. The data was compared to data found by Balsley and Riddle (1984). The result of the comparison was that the resulting winds from this thesis was stronger and has the opposite direction of the data by Balsley and Riddle (1984).