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The effect of small amplitude wave irregularities on radio wave observations of the ionosphere
Author(s) -
Bennett J. A.,
Dyson P. L.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
radio science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.371
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1944-799X
pISSN - 0048-6604
DOI - 10.1029/rs021i003p00375
Subject(s) - ionosphere , amplitude , radio wave , doppler effect , physics , exponential function , phase (matter) , geophysics , computational physics , geodesy , geology , mathematical analysis , mathematics , optics , quantum mechanics , astronomy
Variational theory is used to derive the effects of wavelike ionospheric irregularities on group path, phase path, Doppler shift and angle of arrival of radio waves when the earth's magnetic field is neglected. General results are obtained showing the relationship between these quantities for perturbations to vertical incidence rays. In the case of irregularities with relatively large vertical wave numbers, asymptotic results are obtained for different model ionospheric layers. In the case of an exponential layer, the accuracies of the first‐order and asymptotic results have been checked and found to be very acceptable. Examples of observations of topside and bottomside irregularities which can be analyzed by using the results are discussed.