Theoretical Study of Topside Ionospheric Clutter
Abstract
The sponsored research is aimed at understanding the small scale topside ionospheric plasma structures first observed at Millstone Hill, Massachusetts with the 440 MHz incoherent scatter radar. These small scale obliquely propagating plasma modes occurring in the vicinity of the mid-latitude ionospheric trough, have large radar cross-sections and narrow spectral widths. They have, until recently, been dismissed solely as hard target contamination of the incoherent scatter radar. The geophysical conditions associated with the ionospheric trough, such as the field aligned current activity and steep plasma density gradients, suggest that these recently discovered small scale topside ionospheric plasma structures may also appear in the auroral and polar regions. This speculation has been corroborated by our preliminary experiments and data analyses at Tromso, Norway and Sondrestromfjord, Greenland. Presented in this final report are our research results and Arecibo experiments simulating the geophysical conditions of generating these topside ionospheric plasma structures. Recommendation for the future research is also given.... Enhanced Radar Backscatter (ERB), Ion acoustic waves, Langmuir wave turbulence, Particle precipitation, Field aligned currents. Wave-wave coupling processes.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 15, 1992
- Accession Number
- ADA260982
Entities
People
- K. M. Groves
- Min-chang Lee
Organizations
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology