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A seasonal study of meteoric smoke parameters derived from Arecibo dual-beam D-region ISR spectra and the potential connection to the MIF

Jonathan T. Fentzke(1, 2), Diego Janches(1), Irina Strelnikova(3), Markus Rapp(3)

(1) NWRA, Inc. - CoRA Div., Boulder, CO (2) University Colorado at Boulder, Aerospace Engineering Sciences Department (3) Leibniz Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Kühlungsborn, Germany

We present a seasonal study of the presence and characteristics of meteoric smoke particles (MSPs) in the D-region plasma derived from observations using the 430-MHz dual-beam Arecibo Observatory incoherent scatter radar in Puerto Rico (18°N, 67°W). MSPs are believed to be the major source of condensation nuclei for the formation of ice particles, the precursor to PMCs and PMSEs. Our results show the variability and distribution of charged MSPs resulting from the condensation of ablated meteoric material. Furthermore, we investigate the correlation between seasonal variations in the derived MSPs properties with variability of the meteoric input function (MIF) above Arecibo.