Experiments on meteor burst communications in the Antarctic

Abstract

Two kinds of experiments on the meteor burst communication (MBC) are now being conducted in the Antarctic to study the ability of MBC as a communication medium for data collection systems in that region. In the first one, continuous tone signal is transmitted from Zhongshan Station. The received signal at Syowa Station about 1,400 km apart is recorded and analyzed. This experiment is to study basic properties of the meteor burst channel in that high latitude region. From the data available thus far, it can be seen that 1) the sinusoidal daily variation in the meteor activity typical in mid and low latitude regions can not be clearly seen, 2) non-meteoric propagations frequently dominate the channel, etc. On the other hand, the second experiment is to estimate data throughput of a commercial MBC system in that region. A remote station at Zhongshan Station tries to transfer data packets each consists of 10 data words to the master station at Syowa Station. Data packets are generated with five min interval. The system is now being operated only five min in each ten min interval. About 60 percent of the generated data packets are constantly transferred to the master station within two hours delay.