Mysterious High-Altitude Atmospheric Echoes ... a UV Connection?

[igoriginal]

Since the 1950's, onward (as radar equipment use became increasingly more commonplace within many fields of research and analysis outside of military applications), these high-altitude radar echoes which appear at dawn and disappear at sunset, day after day, have largely remained a mystery - until now - as recent data and experimental models suggest that these echoes are the result of extremely energetic ultraviolet radiation (UV-C) from the sun striking thinly-dispersed gas molecules in a relatively narrow layer of the upper-most atmosphere, eliciting a photon-electron interaction (photoelectron-induced waves). It is this interaction which is now suspected of being the likely source of these 150 km-altitude phantom radar echo anomalies.

 

Imagine that! A UV connection!

 

For the entire article, follow the link below.

 

Mysterious radar echoes in the sky explained?

[Andrea B.]

It is probably no surprise that those very short UV-C wavelengths can be rather frisky!! Now we have an interesting example.

 

I loved the phrase "radiation fried atmosphere".

 

Thanks for the linkie.