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Simultaneous observations of E‐region coherent backscatter and electric field amplitude at F‐region heights with the Millstone Hill UHF Radar
Author(s) -
Foster J. C.,
Erickson P. J.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2000gl000042
Subject(s) - incoherent scatter , millstone hill , backscatter (email) , amplitude , coherent backscattering , physics , electric field , radar , phase (matter) , magnitude (astronomy) , geology , computational physics , optics , scattering , astrophysics , telecommunications , quantum mechanics , computer science , wireless
A combined coherent backscatter‐incoherent scatter experiment with the Millstone Hill UHF radar provided simultaneous observations of electric field magnitude and coherent backscatter parameters on the same L shell. A carefully‐designed geometry used sidelobe coherent contamination from two‐stream irregularities at 110 km altitude, appearing at ranges corresponding to F ‐region altitudes in the main beam, in conjunction with simultaneous uncontaminated F ‐region observations of the drift velocity in adjacent range gates. Both logarithmic coherent power and the magnitude of the coherent phase velocity V ph vary linearly with . With the assumption that the coherent phase velocity is approximately the perturbed ion sound speed in the heated E region, we find an excellent agreement between the electron temperature inferred from V ph and previous incoherent‐scatter results relating E ‐region T e to E . A maximum value of ∼3100 K has been found for such wave‐induced E ‐region heating.