The new powerful Tibetan Plateau (Yangbajing) MST radar (30.1°N, 90.5°E; 4300 m MSL) obtained atmospheric echoes for the first time on October 18, 2023. It is a fully digital multipolar phased array MST radar with a more flexible detection ability. The Tibetan Plateau (Yangbajing) MST radar operates at 50 MHz. It has a circular array with a diameter of 153 m consisting of 931 3-element crossed Yagi antennas and 800 transmit and receive (T/R) modules. The peak power is 1.92 MW. The power of each T/R module is adjustable with a maximum power of 2400W. This new MST radar makes use of the fully digital two-dimensional phased array technology, multi-polarization observation technology (arbitrary switching of linear polarization, left-handed circular polarization, and right-handed circular polarization transceiver polarization modes), digital multi-beam technology (maximum support for 20 beam simultaneous detection), radar automatic calibration technology, and radar health management technology. The preliminary verification results of the detection capability and data quality of the Tibetan Plateau (Yangbajing) MST radar show that it will play an essential and indispensable role in studying the dynamics of the whole atmosphere over the Tibetan Plateau and in revealing the vertical coupling process between the lower atmosphere, the middle and upper atmosphere, and the ionosphere.
 

MST雷达,重力波,湍流,大气垂直耦合