The spectral effect of the density irregularities on the scintillation index of transionospheric signals

Conference · Tue Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1996

OSTI ID:433871

Lyle, R; Kuo, S P; Huang, J ^[1]

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1. Polytechnic Univ., Farmingdale, NY (United States). Weber Research Inst.

The problem of wave propagation and scattering in the ionosphere is particularly important in the areas of communications, and remote sensing and detection. The ionospheric plasma can cause dispersion and spectral broadening of the transionospheric electromagnetic signals due to the presence of the density fluctuation whose effect on the signals received on ground is usually measured in terms of the Scintillation Index S{sub 4} based on the correlation properties of the wave. In the present work, an alternative approach is used to investigate the ionospheric scintillation problem. The authors model the irregularities in the ionosphere by a set of sinusoidal fluctuations, with each fluctuation in the set having a finite uniform spectral distribution and a random phase. Thus the scattering process in the ionosphere is deterministic for each individual scattering event from a single group of finite spectral width sinusoidal density variation. A quasi-particle theory is introduced to analyze the scattering event. It treats the wave as a distribution of quasi-particles in the space described by a Wigner distribution function (WDF). Multiple scattering effects is an intrinsic feature of the transport equation of the WDF. It is manifested by the variations of the quasi-particles distribution caused by collisions of the quasi-particles with the density irregularities.

• OSTI ID: 433871
• Report Number(s): CONF-960634--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

66 PHYSICS
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
IONOSPHERE
LINE BROADENING
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
PLASMA DENSITY
RADIATION TRANSPORT
SCINTILLATIONS
WAVE PROPAGATION