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Virginia Tech

Influence of Plasma Trails from Hypersonic Events on HF Radar Data Capture

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

Meteors enter earth's atmosphere with a great amount of kinetic energy. As a result of this atmospheric contact, many meteors will be burned up before they can make it to earth's surface, but not before they cause atmospheric disturbances. The SuperDARN HF radar is designed to measure the ionosphere, typically to create hemisphere wide maps of ionospheric plasma convection, but meteor events are attributed to noise experienced in its data. This thesis first brings together plasma physics understanding with currently available research to clarify the physical behaviors that must be considered to evaluate radar data. The implications of this towards SuperDARN findings is examined in two parts. First, how a meteor's atmospheric interaction is recorded by the SuperDARN HF radar is evaluated. To do this, the physical interaction the meteor has with the atmosphere is examined from the sub-atomic to atmospheric scale. Previous research that used other radars to find these interactions is analyzed to create an understanding of a possible SuperDARN HF radar outcome and provide a new comparison of radars. This understanding is compared against meteor event and location based SuperDARN data to select an optimal event. The second part of the SuperDARN analysis reviews meteor event options based on the time and location of a meteor event meeting defined parameters. Common SuperDARN analysis tools are applied. The data saved by SuperDARN is examined for unique results. Finally, the practicality and meaning of results is considered.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Science
Level thesis:degree_level
masters
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Electrical Engineering
Department dc:contributor.department
Electrical Engineering
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2024

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Stewart, Evan Wayne
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Black, Jonathan T.
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Jones, Creed Farris
  • Baker, Joseph Benjamin

Subjects

dc:subject × 8

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International
Language dc:language.iso
en

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
vt_gsexam:41040
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/119438

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Stewart, Evan Wayne. Influence of Plasma Trails from Hypersonic Events on HF Radar Data Capture. masters thesis, Virginia Tech, 2024. https://hdl.handle.net/10919/119438