Ducting of incoherent scatter radar waves by  field-aligned irregularities

Rietveld, Michael T.; Senior, Andrew

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-38-1101-2020

Articles | Volume 38, issue 5

https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-38-1101-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

Special Issue on the joint 19th International EISCAT Symposium...

https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-38-1101-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 38, issue 5

Regular paper

|

22 Oct 2020

Regular paper |

| 22 Oct 2020

Ducting of incoherent scatter radar waves by field-aligned irregularities

Michael T. Rietveld and Andrew Senior

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-38-1101-2020-supplement

Data sets

UHF radar raw data EISCAT Scientific Association http://portal.eiscat.se/madrigal/cgi-bin/madExperiment.cgi?exp=2011/tro/16nov11&displayLevel=0

Short summary

We provide an explanation for mysterious radar echoes that look like increases in electron density during incoherent scatter radar measurements made when a high-power high-frequency (4–8 MHz) radio wave is transmitted up into the ionosphere. These echoes are seen at heights from about 200 to 650 km. We suggest that radar echoes at 930 MHz are guided along the earth's magnetic field by electron density irregularities created by the powerful radio wave, similar to light in an optical fibre.