Interferometric studies of the lower and upper atmosphere and near space environment

VHF Radar techniques for wind profiling the troposphere and lower stratosphere are well established [3], as are meteor detection techniques for measurement of the neutral wind in the mesosphere [1].More recently it has been shown VHF wind profiling radars are also capable of detecting satellites [2] and thus present an opportunity to use existing systems for space domain awareness.Buckland Park (BP) is a field station located approximately 40 km North of the city of Adelaide, South Australia.BP houses a 55 MHz Stratospheric Tropospheric (ST) radar, consisting of 144 Yagi antennas arranged on a 12 x 12 square grid.The BPST uses phase delays to steer its 6-degree beam vertically and 15 degrees off vertical in the cardinal directions, and utilizes the Doppler Beam Steering technique to estimate horizontal and vertical winds in the region between 500-m and 20 km [3].An adjacent meteor transmit antenna, and 5-antenna receive array configured in a Jones cross arrangement [4] share the same hardware and can estimate neutral horizontal winds from meteor detections in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (~70 to 110 km).The shared hardware operates at 48-kW peak power.