Distribution of mean Doppler shift, spectral width, and skewness of coherent 50-MHz auroral radar backscatter

Journal Article · Thu Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 1989 · Journal of Geophysical Research; (USA)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/JA094iA06p06979· OSTI ID:6048573

Watermann, J; McNamara, A G ^[1]; Sofko, G J; Koehler, J A ^[2]

---

1. National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario (Canada)
2. Univ. of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon (Canada)

Some 7,700 radio aurora spectra obtained from a six link 50-MHz CW radar network set up on the Canadian prairies were analyzed with respect to the distributions of mean Doppler shift, spectral width and skewness. A comparison with recently published SABRE results obtained at 153 MHz shows substantial differences in the distributions which are probably due to different experimental and geophysical conditions. The spectra are mostly broad with mean Doppler shifts close to zero (type II spectra). The typical groupings of type I and type III spectra are clearly identified. All types appear to be in general much more symmetric than those recorded with SABRE, and the skewness is only weakly dependent on the sign of the mean Doppler shift. Its distribution peaks near zero and shows a weak positive correlation with the type II Doppler shifts while the mostly positive type I Doppler shifts are slightly negatively correlated with the skewness.

• OSTI ID: 6048573
• Journal Information: Journal of Geophysical Research; (USA), Vol. 94:A6; ISSN 0148-0227
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
AURORAE
SPECTRA
BACKSCATTERING
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
CORRELATIONS
DOPPLER EFFECT
LINE WIDTHS
RADAR
RADIOWAVE RADIATION
STATISTICS
SYMMETRY
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
MATHEMATICS
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
RADIATIONS
RANGE FINDERS
SCATTERING
640201* - Atmospheric Physics- Auroral
Ionospheric
& Magetospheric Phenomena