Reflection Characteristics of Layered Media in Polar Mesopause Related to Polar Mesosphere Summer Echoes

Polar mesosphere summer echoes (PMSE) are very strong radar echoes from altitudes close to the polar summer mesopause. The data from sounding rocket campaigns indicate that the radar signal to noise ratio (SNR), electron density and dust charge density of polar mesosphere in summer show obvious layered structure. In this paper the theory of wave propagation in layered media is used to study the reflectance and SNR at each layer in polar mesosphere. The calculated SNR using theory of dusty plasma is found in good agreement with the experimental result, which may imply that the intensity of the radar echoes reflected by the layered structure in polar mesosphere where polar mesosphere summer echoes used to occur can interpret partially the phenomenon of PMSE. In other words, reflection may play an important role in the occurrence of PMSE.