Incoherent scatter of radio waves from the ionosphere

Abstract

Systematic studies of the upper atmosphere by the so-called incoherent-scatter technique have now been conducted at a limited number of sites for more than a decade. This article reviews the history of the development of the technique, the basic theory involved and the atmospheric parameters which have been successfully measured, together with a summary of existing facilities and current developments.

New opportunities offered by Cubesats for space research in Latin America: The SUCHAI project case

“…But most relevant state parameters are derived from the ion line through inversion techniques (Lehtinen and Huuskonen, 1996a). Other ionospheric parameters such as the wind speed and the temperature of the neutral atmosphere, or the static electric field strength, are subsequently calculated once the state parameters are determined (Beynon and Williams, 1978). Plasma state parameters can be obtained from the analysis of the incoherent scatter spectrum or from its Fourier transform, the auto-correlation function (ACF) of the scattered signal (Folkestad et al, 1983).…”

Studies of polar mesosphere summer echoes with the EISCAT VHF and UHF radars: Information contained in the spectral shape

“…While it is generally thought that turbulence-generated echoes should reveal a Gaussian spectral shape (e.g., , and while it is well established that pure incoherent scatter reveals a Lorentzian shape in the collisionally dominated D-region (e.g. Dougherty and Farley, 1963;Tanenbaum, 1968;Beynon and Williams, 1978), the spectrum is expected to reveal a more complex shape for the case of dressed aerosol scatter. For example, Cho et al (1988) considered the case of singly charged aerosol particles and found that these should lead to a spectrum consisting of a Lorentzian background spectrum owing to the interaction of positive ions and electrons, and an additional but significantly more narrow Lorentzian component owing to the presence of charged aerosols.…”

Topside ionospheric scale height analysis and modelling based on radio occultation measurements

“…The ISR probing (Gordon, 1958;Bowles, 1958;Beynon and Williams, 1978;Farley, 1996) is a powerful technique capable of simultaneously measuring range-resolved ionospheric and atmospheric parameters, including ionospheric temperatures and scale heights (Van Zandt and Bowles, 1960), from the ground, through the topside ionosphere, up to very high altitudes. Also, it is possible with this technique to obtain spatial coverage in both latitude and longitude.…”