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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 30, NO. 5, 1255, doi:10.1029/2002GL015496, 2003

Incoherent scatter radar plasma density measurements at Jicamarca using a transverse-mode differential-phase method

Erhan Kudeki

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA


Ronald F. Woodman

Instituto Geofisico del Peru, Lima, Peru


Zhaomei Feng

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA


Abstract

The 50 MHz Jicamarca incoherent scatter radar can be used to make very high precision F-region plasma drift measurements with less than a m/s uncertainty and 5 min/15 km time/height resolutions. In such measurements the transmitting antenna beam is pointed perpendicular to the geomagnetic field inline equation [e.g., Kudeki et al., 1999 ] and backscattered fields consist of magneto-ionic O- and X-components with unequal phase retardations. Detecting the fields with an orthogonal pair of linear-polarized antennas and fitting the average power and differential-phase of the antenna outputs to an appropriate data model we have succeeded in making F-region electron density measurements with data collected during Jicamarca drifts experiments. This procedure provides Jicamarca with a new capability for simultaneous drifts and density measurements at F-region heights.

Published 14 March 2003.

Index Terms: 6969 Radio Science: Remote sensing; 2415 Ionosphere: Equatorial ionosphere; 6934 Radio Science: Ionospheric propagation (2487); 6994 Radio Science: Instruments and techniques.

Subscriber Access to Full Article (Nonsubscribers may purchase for $9.00, Includes print PDF, file size: 222995 bytes)

Citation: Kudeki, E., R. F. Woodman, and Z. Feng (2003), Incoherent scatter radar plasma density measurements at Jicamarca using a transverse-mode differential-phase method, Geophys. Res. Lett., 30(5), 1255, doi:10.1029/2002GL015496.