Dust plays a crucial role in the atmosphere by acting as nucleation sites for cloud growth.
We expect meteoric dust to be especially important in the stratosphere and mesosphere, where tropospheric dust has trouble reaching except in cases of major volcanic eruptions. Radars have long been used to observe meteors for their intrinsic study as well as for their use as wind tracers. Unfortunately, detection of meteoric dust by radar has, so far, not been possible. However, by a fortuitous coincidence, a rocket launched to study other phenomena appeared to have flown right through a meteor trail that was simultaneously observed by a coherent-scatter radar. In the future we would like to be able to measure meteoric dust parameters without having to rely on such improbable events.