Radar interferometer observations of mesospheric echoing layers at Jicamarca

VHF radar observations at Jicamarca show that the most intense mesospheric echoes at the equator are returned from thin horizontal layers with lifetimes ranging from tens of minutes to many hours. A few such layers may be present at a time, typically separated in altitude by a few kilometers. Interferometric studies of radar returns from these layers indicate that the characteristic widths of the corresponding Doppler spectra are usually determined by the spatial integration effect due to finite size scattering volumes. -from Author