Measuring Electrodynamics of the Ionosphere by Digital Ionosondes and Other Techniques

Abstract

Ionospheric sounding in the equatorial and high latitude ionosphere and the development of new analysis techniques shows new ways for ionospheric diagnostics comparison of Digisonde ionograms and drift measurements with optical all sky images provides an explanation of the equatorial anomaly spread F signatures on ionograms, and their relation to satellite scintillation effects. For the auroral and polar cap region the Generalized Digisonde Drift Analysis (GDDA) program was developed to increase drift velocity fields. This facilitated the monitoring of polar patches. A new ARTIST4 system was developed for the AF Digisondes and the DISS system to strengthen the quality of the data and the station networking. All output data are now in the SAO 4.2 format. ARTIST4 now calculates an estimated topside profile with a scale height derived from the shape of the bottomside profile. Concept and breadboard designs of a topside sounder were developed and tested at the Millstone Hill digisonde site. These tests showed successful implementation of pulse and chirp waveforms for a topside advances sounder (TOPAS).

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2001
Accession Number
ADA402979

Entities

People

  • B. W. Reinisch
  • Gary Sales

Organizations

  • University of Massachusetts Lowell

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Air Force Research Laboratories
  • Computers
  • Doppler Effect
  • Environment
  • High Latitudes
  • Ionosphere
  • Measurement
  • Operating Systems
  • Polar Cap
  • Polar Regions
  • Repetition Rate
  • Spacecraft
  • Three Dimensional
  • Two Dimensional
  • Waveforms
  • Waves

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Space/Atmospheric Physics.

Technology Areas

  • Space