Monitoring the F-region peak electron density using HF backscatter interferometry

Abstract

High frequency (HF, 10-20 MHz) radars routinely utilize Bragg scatter from plasma fluctuations to monitor ionospheric turbulence. While the propagation of the probing HF radio waves is also strongly affected by the regular structure of the ionosphere, this information is rarely extracted from the data. In the present work we present and test a new technique for estimating the F-region peak electron densities, N mF2, using information about the vertical refraction of HF backscatter echoes that is readily available in the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) data set. Copyright 2011 by the American Geophysical Union.