Articles | Volume 28, issue 9
https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-28-1679-2010
https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-28-1679-2010
ANGEO Communicates
 | 
20 Sep 2010
ANGEO Communicates |  | 20 Sep 2010

Study on the layered dusty plasma structures in the summer polar mesopause

Hui Li, Jian Wu, Jun Wu, Zheng-Wen Xu, and Bin Xu

Abstract. Traditional hydrodynamic equations are adopted to build a one-dimensional theoretical model to study the effect of gravity wave on layered dusty plasma structures formation and evolution near the polar summer mesospause region associated with polar mesosphere summer echoes (PMSE). The proposed mechanism gives consideration to the charged ice particle motion by the gravity wave modulation, making a significant contribution to the vertical transport of heavy ice particles and convergence into thin layers. And numerical results show that the pattern of the multi-layer structure depends on the ration of the initial ice particles density distribution to the vertical wavelength of the gravity waves, the ice particle size and the wind velocity caused by gravity wave. Also, the variation of ion density distribution under the influence of gravity wave has also been examined. Finally, the electron density depletions (bite-outs) layers has been simulated according to the charge conservation laws, and the results are compared to the ECT02 rocket sounding data, which agree well with the measuring.