The principle of operation of the SKiYMET meteor radar is shown in the following diagram. When a meteor enters the atmosphere it rapidly vaporises leaving behind a trail of ionised gas along its path of travel. This trail can form a target for a radar transmission.

The radar transmits short bursts (pulses) of very high frequency radio waves on its transmit antenna. The transmit antenna has a broad radiation pattern designed to illuminate a large expanse of the sky. This is what is known as an ‘all-sky’ radar technique. The short-lived trail that forms when a meteor enters the atmosphere forms a reflecting target for the radio waves and some of the some of the incident energy is reflected back to ground. The signals returning to ground are received on an array of receive antennas and are then detected and recorded by the radar.

The receive antenna array is arranged as an interferometer and phase differences in the signals arriving at each of the antennas of the interferometer can be used to determine an unambiguous angle of arrival. Together with range information, the position of the meteor can then be accurately located in the sky.

Various calculations are performed in realtime on the detected meteor echoes. The results of these calculations can provide information about the nature of the meteor, such as the orbit and the speed of travel on entering the atmosphere. Further, the meteor trail so formed is carried along (advected) by the electrically-neutral atmospheric.