Ionospheric Irregularities and Their Potential Impact on Synthetic Aperture Radars.

Abstract

Accumulating data are making it increasingly evident that major plasma irregularities populate substantial portions of the ionosphere. In contrast with these findings, satellite-borne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems tacitly assume that the ionosphere is uniformly layered and unchanging under the orbiting SAR. Analysis of plasma irregularity structures measured directly on the S3-4 satellite shows that this assumption is readily violated near the nighttime equator during the occurrence of spread-F and at all high-latitudes on a nearly 24 hour basis. The irregularities can be very intense, covering scale sizes from meters to hundreds of kilometers. Associated along-track phase path calculations point to a potentially serious problem in SAR imaging integrity in restricted ionospheric space-time domain. (Author)

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 23, 1983
Accession Number
ADA124942

Entities

People

  • Edward P. Szuszczewicz
  • Manish Singh
  • P. Rodriguez
  • S. Mango

Organizations

  • United States Naval Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Amplitude
  • Artificial Satellites
  • Classification
  • Communication Satellites
  • Contrast
  • Electron Density
  • Electrons
  • Frequency
  • High Latitudes
  • Ionosphere
  • Latitude
  • Military Research
  • Polar Cap
  • Radar
  • Space Sciences
  • Spacecraft
  • Synthetic Aperture Radar

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Radar Systems Engineering.
  • Space/Atmospheric Physics.
  • Systems Analysis and Design

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Orbital Debris
  • Space - Space Objects