Comparison of sporadic sodium layer characteristics observed at different time resolutions

Abstract. Sporadic sodium (Na_s) layers, occurring in roughly the same height range as ionospheric sporadic-E layers, were first detected by lidar some 30 yr ago. Na_s layers have a typical thickness of a few hundred meters to a few km, with peak atom concentrations several times that of the background layer. Despite a great deal of excellent work over the past decades, the source of Na_s layers is still not altogether clear, partly as a result of our incomplete knowledge of Na_s layer characteristics. In this paper we concentrate on some typical case studies chosen from the ~127 h of sporadic sodium layer observations made at a time resolution of 1.5 s at Yanqing (115.97° E, 40.47° N), Beijing, China. This is a much better time resolution than what has been employed in most earlier measurements. The results show that the Na_s layer peak heights are dispersed at slightly different although adjacent heights. When averaged over several minutes, as has been the case with most earlier measurements, the height scatter results in an apparent layer thickness of a few km. We conclude, therefore, that these dispersed peaks at different but adjacent heights constitute the 5 min Na_s layer. Similar to the observations of sporadic-E-ion (Es) layers and meteor rate, we observe quasi-periodic fluctuations on a timescale on the order of several minutes in the peak height and the peak density of sporadic layers, which is a universal feature but concealed by the lower temporal resolution previously adopted. Spatially localized multiple scatterers and multiple thin layers with similar apparent movement in Na_s layers are also found. We discuss the possible formation mechanism by the direct deposition of large swarms of micrometeoroids and demonstrate a typical example of meteor trails evolving into a Na_s layer, which suggests that this mechanism might indeed occur.