Anisotropy of ionospheric irregularities determined from the amplitude of satellite signals at a single receiver

E. D. Tereshchenko (1) , B. Z. Khudukon (1) , M. O. Kozlova (1) , T. Nygrén (2)

1 PGI - Polar Geophysical Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences
2 Department of Physical Sciences [Oulu]

A new method of determining the anisotropy parameters of small-scale irregularities in the ionospheric F region is presented and experimental results are shown. The method is based on observations of amplitude fluctuations of radio waves transmitted by satellites flying above the F region. In practice, Russian navigational satellites are used and both the amplitude and the phase of the received signal is measured on the ground level. The method determines both the field-aligned anisotropy and the field-perpendicular anisotropy and orientation of the spatial spectrum of the irregularities, assuming that the contours of constant power have an elliptic shape. A possibility of applying the method to amplitude tomography is also discussed. Using a chain of receivers on the ground level, one could locate the regions of small-scale irregularities as well as determine their relative intensities. Then the large-scale background structures could be mapped simultaneously by means of ordinary ray tomography using the phase observations, and therefore the relations of small-scale and large-scale structures could be investigated.

Domaines: Océan, Atmosphère; Sciences de la Terre

E. D. Tereshchenko, B. Z. Khudukon, M. O. Kozlova, T. Nygrén. Anisotropy of ionospheric irregularities determined from the amplitude of satellite signals at a single receiver. Annales Geophysicae, 1999, 17 (4), pp.508-518. ⟨hal-00316573⟩