The Effect of Equatorial Ionospheric Irregularities on the Performance of a South-Looking OTH-B (Over-The-Horiozon-Backscatter) Radar

Abstract

Mid and high latitude ionospheric irregularities are a known source of wideband clutter for Over-the-Horizon Backscatter (OTH-B) radars that operate with a northern boresight component. For northerly boresighted radars, specular scatter (Sales, 1987) has shown to possess characteristics closely related to the spatial occurrence of wideband, ionospheric clutter. This report summarizes a study to investigate specular scatter as a potential source of clutter for south-looking OTH-B radars. The results of this study show that over the azimuths of 120 to 240 degrees (clockwise from north), and for the cases considered, that clutter should not impact south-looking OTH-B radar performance.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 01, 1987
Accession Number
ADA195090

Entities

People

  • Gary S. Sales

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Backscattering
  • Classification
  • Electron Density
  • Ground Clutter
  • Ionosphere
  • Ionospheric Models
  • Latitude
  • Magnetic Fields
  • Radar
  • Radar Clutter
  • Ray Tracing
  • Scattering
  • Schematic Diagrams
  • Security
  • Three Dimensional
  • Two Dimensional

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics.
  • Geochemistry
  • Radar Systems Engineering.