Bistatic auroral radar system and three-receiver-ionospheric-motions velocities: A comparison

Journal Article · Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 1990

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/JA095iA09p15219· OSTI ID:5444373

MacDougall, J W; Hall, G E; Moorcroft, D R ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Western Ontario, London (Canada)

Observations of the NW-SE component of F region convection obtained with a scintillation drift experiment have been compared with power and Doppler velocity measurements of auroral E region coherent backscatter at 50 MHz made with the Bistatic Auroral Radar System (BARS), which is able to observe only at large magnetic aspect angles. It was found that E region backscatter was observed only when the NW-SE component of the F region drift was in the SE direction. This and other observations are shown to be consistent with a recently proposed explanation for these large aspect angle VHF backscatter observations, based on refraction through auroral ionization structures in the E region. In most cases the vector velocity derived from BARS observations had a magnitude substantially below that inferred from the scintillation measurements. Observations during one period were noticeably different from the others, with unusually small Doppler velocities.

• OSTI ID: 5444373
• Resource Relation: Journal Volume: 95:A9
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
E REGION
RADAR
F REGION
CONVECTION
AURORAL ZONES
BACKSCATTERING
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
IONIZATION
MOTION
PLASMA DRIFT
REFRACTION
SCINTILLATIONS
VELOCITY
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
ENERGY TRANSFER
EVALUATION
HEAT TRANSFER
IONOSPHERE
MASS TRANSFER
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
PLANETARY IONOSPHERES
RANGE FINDERS
SCATTERING
640201* - Atmospheric Physics- Auroral
Ionospheric
& Magetospheric Phenomena