Investigations of the Effects of Ionospheric Total Electron Content and Scintillation on Transionospheric Radio Wave Propagation

Numerous DoD communication, navigation, and surveillance systems depend upon transionospheric propagation of radio signals between space and the ground. The group delay and phase advance encountered by such signals depend upon the path integral of ionospheric plasma density - the so-called total ele...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Andreasen, C C, Fremouw, Edward J, Holland, Elizabeth A, Mazzella, Andrew J , Jr, Rao, Guan-Shu
Format: Report
Language:English
Subjects:
AIR FORCE RESEARCH
Atmospheric Physics
COMMUNICATION AND RADIO SYSTEMS
COMPUTER PROGRAMS
DECISION AIDS
DENSITY
DIFFRACTION
ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVE PROPAGATION
ELECTRONS
GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM
GRIDS
HAARP(HIGH FREQUENCY ACTIVE AURORAL RESEARCH PROGRAM)
IMS(IONOSPHERIC MEASURING SYSTEM)
IONOSPHERIC PROPAGATION
IONOSPHERIC SCINTILLATION
LOGARITHM FUNCTIONS
PASSIVE SYSTEMS
PATH INTEGRALS
PE62601F
PLASMAS(PHYSICS)
Radio Communications
RADIO SIGNALS
RADIO TRANSMISSION
RADIO WAVES
Radiofrequency Wave Propagation
RADIOWAVE SCINTILLATION
REFRACTION
SCATTERING
SCINDA COMPUTER PROGRAM
SCINDA(SCINTILLATION DECISION AID)
SPACE WEATHER
SURVEILLANCE
TEC(TOTAL ELECTRON CONTENT)
WBMGRID COMPUTER PROGRAM
WBMOD COMPUTER PROGRAM
WEATHER
WUAFRLDMSPGHAA
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Summary:Numerous DoD communication, navigation, and surveillance systems depend upon transionospheric propagation of radio signals between space and the ground. The group delay and phase advance encountered by such signals depend upon the path integral of ionospheric plasma density - the so-called total electron content (TEC). Their phase and intensity also can fluctuate due to refractive/diffractive scatter in plasma-density irregularities - i.e., they can suffer complex-signal scintillation. In this project, Northwest Research Associates (NWRA) collaborated with researchers at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) at Hanscom AFB in the observation and modeling of TEC and scintillation. Central to the TEC effort was operation and refinement of the Air Force Ionospheric Measuring System (AN/GMQ-35). The scintillation effort was confined to development of operational code, called WBMGRID, for running a gridded version of NWRA's scintillation model, WBMOD, with AFRL's Scintillation Decision Aid (SCINDA). Late in the project, effort was re-directed from scintillation research to broader ionospheric questions, as part of the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program. James A. Secan