Contribution of Meteor Flux in the Occurrence of Sporadic-E over Arabian Peninsula

Abstract. Sporadic-E (Es) is generally associated with a thin-layered structure present in the lower ionosphere mostly consisted of metallic ions. This metallic ion layer is formed when meteors burn in the upper atmosphere resulting in the deposition of free metal atoms and ions. Many studies have attributed to the presence of Es due to metallic ion layer, specifically during the nighttime. Using data from a network of meteor monitoring towers and a collocated digital ionosonde radar near Arabian Peninsula, in this paper, we are reporting our observations of Es together with the meteor count. It has been observed that the presence of Es and the meteor count data have no correlation in time, both diurnally and seasonally, leading us to conclude that presence of meteors is not the main cause for the presence of Es over Arabian Peninsula.