Studying characteristics of traveling ionospheric disturbances using U-shaped traces on vertical incidence ionograms

This paper presents a case study when due to the descending additional U-shaped trace on vertical incidence ionograms, increased critical frequency stabilizes. This corresponds to an ionospheric disturbance that moves toward the ionosonde and then stays overhead.Within a 2D model, traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs) are superimposed on the inverted background ionosphere. So ray tracing is used to obtain propagation paths through non-stratified ionosphere thus synthesizing the disturbed ionogram traces. Investigated are changes in the cusp shape caused by varying TID parameters. A cusp-fitting method to determine the TID amplitude, spatial scale, and horizontal drift velocity are shown.     

Ionospheric observations made by a time-interleaved Doppler ionosonde

Mid-latitude HF observations of ionospheric Doppler velocity as a function of frequency are reported here as observed over a quiet 24-h period by a KEL IPS71 ionosonde operating at a 5-min sampling rate. The unique time-interleaving technique used in this ionosonde provided a Doppler resolution of 0.04 Hz over a Doppler range of ±2.5 Hz at each sounding frequency via FFT processing and is described here for the first time. The time-interleaving technique can be applied to other types of ionosonde as well as to other applications. The measurements described were made at a middle latitude site (Salisbury, South Australia). Doppler variations (<30 min) were ever present throughout the day and showed short-period TID characteristics. The day-time Doppler shift was found to closely follow the rate-of-change of foF2 as predicted by a simple parabolic layer model. The descending cusp in short-period TIDs is shown to mark an abrupt change with increasing frequency from negative towards positive Doppler shift with the greatest change in Doppler shift being observed below the cusp. The “smilergram” is introduced as observed in both F2 and Sporadic E. The characteristic curve in Doppler versus group height at a single frequency is described and related to changes in reflection symmetry, velocity and depth of moving ionospheric inhomogeneities.     

磁暴期间中低纬电离层暴形态和物理机制分析

本文利用东亚地区１２个低纬电离层台站的测高仪观测数据，对１９７８年８月２７日发生的一次曲型磁暴期间电离层峰值高度和密度的变化进行了分析。采用滑动平均区分开电离层中不同时间尺度的扰动，分析了影响中低纬度电离层暴的几种扰动形态特征，并对其物理机制进行了讨论。结果表明：伴随磁暴急始的磁层压缩，电离层中表现出峰值密度增加和峰值高度下降；磁暴主相期间热层大气暴环流及其所引起的中性大气成分变化控制着电离层的大     

敏捷数字电离层测高仪系统研制及初步观测

在小型天线和低发射功率条件下，保证电离层测高仪观测数据质量和提高观测速度一直是电离层垂测的技术难点.针对这一问题，基于新近发展的高速数字芯片和射频器件，采用窄带跟踪滤波、脉冲压缩、编码复用和天线均衡匹配等技术，设计和研制一种敏捷数字电离层测高仪.该系统采用数米高的小型收发天线和便携式主机系统，配置任意频率扫描方式频高图、高分辨率多普勒频高图和斜向探测等多种工作模式，具有可流动观测布站、系统参数灵活捷变及适合快速电离层扰动探测等能力.敏捷数字电离层测高仪为组网观测获得大范围电离层时空变化和电离层快速扰动及传播提供了一种有效的探测手段.      

Storm time behavior of topside scale height inferred from the ionosphere–plasmasphere model driven by the F2 layer peak and GPS-TEC observations

The International Reference Ionosphere model extended to the plasmasphere, IRI-Plas, presents global electron density profiles and total electron content, TECiri, up to the altitude of the GPS satellites (20,000 km). The model code is modified by input of GPS-derived total electron content, TECgps, so that the topside scale height, Hsc, is obtained minimizing in one step the difference between TECiri and TECgps observation. The topside basis scale height, Hsc, presents the distance in km above the peak height at which the peak plasma density, NmF2, decays by a factor of e (∼2.718). The ionosonde derived F2 layer peak density and height and GPS-derived TECgps data are used with IRI-Plas code during the main phase of more than 100 space weather storms for a period of 1999–2006. Data of seven stations are used for the analysis, and data from five other stations served as testing database. It is found that the topside basis scale height is growing (depressing) when the peak electron density (critical frequency foF2) and electron content are decreased (increased) compared to the median value, and vice versa. Relative variability of the scale height, rHsc, and the instantaneous Hsc are inferred analytically in a function of the instantaneous foF2, median fmF2 and median Hmsc avoiding a reference to geomagnetic indices. Results of validation suggest reliability of proposed algorithm for implementation in an operational mode.     

基于FPGA的高性能电离层测高仪数控系统设计

为建立天地一体化电磁观测系统,实现电离层等的实时准确观测,为地震机理的研究与地震预报工作提供科学有效的数据,提出了一种高性能电离层测高仪数控系统设计方案将应用于电磁卫星的地面同步验证系统中,给出了数控系统的时序控制单元、发射单元和接收单元等的具体实现.在收发延迟可变的雷达时序控制下,发射单元利用直接数字合成技术产生1～30MHz的脉冲信号,40位类巴克码对脉冲信号进行二进制相位调制编码,随后交替发射正交极化波;接收单元利用高速模数转换器实现信号的数字化,采用FPGA技术进行下变频处理.本数控系统的设计可直接获取回波信号的极化信息,高度分辨率为1.5km,探测周期小于2min.实验结果表明,该数控系统方案切实可行.      

由高频无线电波反射回波参数反演电离层运动和结构的高度剖面

本文从广义电波射线微分方程组出发,导出了时变、不均匀和各向异性电离层介质中高频无线电波反射回波的可测参数与电离层的运动和结构参数之间的积分方程组,并给出了利用现代数字测高仪中的多普勒图、定向图、频高图和测距图,反演电离层的结构和运动随高度的分布剖面的计算方法.根据这种反演方法,单站探测电离层运动和结构剖面时有多种可测参量的组合方式.文中提出了一种最佳的参量组合方案,为探测设备的改进和观测记录的分析提供了理论依据.      

1958年7月8日磁暴的电离层响应

本文用遍布全球的52个电离层垂测台站资料,研究1958年7月8日磁暴期间全球电离层扰动的发展变化;各扇区的响应特性;扰动的传播轨迹及速度等。获得以下结果:1.几大扇区的电离层扰动始于南北两极,美洲扇区除具这一特征外,其赤道地区在磁暴急始后不久,出现一个扰动中心,邻近区域的扰动受其控制。2.扰动由高纬向低纬发展,由扰动中心向外传播。3.扰动峰面几乎与地磁力线垂直,即扰动沿磁力线方向发展,其传播速度大约在150—600m/s范围。     

A new method for improving the performance of an ionospheric model developed by multi-instrument measurements based on artificial neural network

There are remarkable ionospheric discrepancies between space-borne (COSMIC) measurements and ground-based (ionosonde) observations, the discrepancies could decrease the accuracies of the ionospheric model developed by multi-source data seriously. To reduce the discrepancies between two observational systems, the peak frequency (foF2) and peak height (hmF2) derived from the COSMIC and ionosonde data are used to develop the ionospheric models by an artificial neural network (ANN) method, respectively. The averaged root-mean-square errors (RMSEs) of COSPF (COSMIC peak frequency model), COSPH (COSMIC peak height model), IONOPF (Ionosonde peak frequency model) and IONOPH (Ionosonde peak height model) are 0.58 MHz, 19.59 km, 0.92 MHz and 23.40 km, respectively. The results indicate that the discrepancies between these models are dependent on universal time, geographic latitude and seasons. The peak frequencies measured by COSMIC are generally larger than ionosonde’s observations in the nighttime or middle-latitudes with the amplitude of lower than 25%, while the averaged peak height derived from COSMIC is smaller than ionosonde’s data in the polar regions. The differences between ANN-based maps and references show that the discrepancies between two ionospheric detecting techniques are proportional to the intensity of solar radiation. Besides, a new method based on the ANN technique is proposed to reduce the discrepancies for improving ionospheric models developed by multiple measurements, the results indicate that the RMSEs of ANN models optimized by the method are 14–25% lower than the models without the application of the method. Furthermore, the ionospheric model built by the multiple measurements with the application of the method is more powerful in capturing the ionospheric dynamic physics features, such as equatorial ionization, Weddell Sea, mid-latitude summer nighttime and winter anomalies. In conclusion, the new method is significant in improving the accuracy and physical characteristics of an ionospheric model based on multi-source observations.     

Use of varying shell heights derived from ionosonde data in calculating vertical total electron content (TEC) using GPS – New method

The dispersive nature of the ionosphere makes it possible to measure its total electron content (TEC). Thus Global Positioning System, which uses dual-frequency radio signals, is an ideal system to measure TEC. When data from an ionosonde situated in polar region was observed, the height of an approximated thin shell of electrons (shell height) used in GPS studies was seen not to be fixed but rather changing with time. Here we introduce a new method in which we included the varying shell heights derived from the ionosonde to map the slant total electron content from GPS to obtain a more precise vertical total electron content of the ionosphere contrary to some previous methods which used fixed shell heights. In this paper we also compared the ionosonde derived TEC with the GPS derived vertical TEC (vTEC) values. These GPS vTEC values were obtained from GPS slant TEC (sTEC) measurements using both fixed shell height and varying shell heights (from ionosonde measurements). For the polar regions, the varying shell height approach produced better results than the fixed shell height and compared to exponential function, Chapman function seems to be a better function to model the topside ionosphere.     

电离层虚高的高精度测量与分析

为了提高电离层虚高测量精度,介绍了利用电离层回波相位实现高精度虚高测量的方法,并以CADI(Canadian Advanced Digital Ionosonde)电离层数字测高仪为研究平台,进行组合脉冲控制和回波相位测量分析,开展了一系列虚高测量实验,并与传统的利用回波时间延迟的虚高测量方法进行了分析比较.实验结果表明,基于回波相位的测量分析方法与回波时延测量分析方法相比,其虚高测量精度高一个量级以上,这对精确反演电离层峰下电子浓度剖面及研究电离层精细结构具有重要意义.      

Effects of a “day-time” substorm on the ionosphere and radio propagation

Propagation mechanisms of lateral (non-great-circle) signals on a high-latitude HF radio path during magnetospheric substorms that occurred in the day-time have been considered. The path is equipped with oblique ionospheric sounding (OIS) from Murmansk to St. Petersburg. The OIS method gives the possibility to determine propagation modes, MOF (maximum observed frequency) values, signal delays, etc. Data of the CUTLASS radar, the IMAGE magnetometer system, the Finnish riometer chain, and the Tromso ionosonde were also used for the analysis. The main results are the following: (1) the lateral signal propagation takes place, as a rule, if the path midpoint is located near the irregularity region that moves sharply from high to low latitudes. The lateral signal propagation appearing during day-time is a new effect. (2) Formation of dense field-aligned irregularities during a substorm leads to decreasing F2MOF values on radio paths. These results can be useful for problems of radiolocation, HF communications and navigation.     

A global survey of COSMIC ionospheric peak electron density and its height: A comparison with ground-based ionosonde measurements

With a network of ground-based ionosondes distributed around the world, the ionospheric peak electron density and its height measured by FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC satellites in terms of GPS radio occultation technique are extensively examined in this article. It is found that, in spite of the latitude, the mean values of the peak electron density measured by COSMIC satellites are systematically smaller than those observed by ground-based ionosondes. The discrepancy between them is dependent on the latitude, namely, it is small in low and mid-latitudes and large in high-latitude region. Moreover, statistical analysis shows that the slopes of the regression line that is best fitted to the scatter diagram of occultation-retrieved peak electron density (ordinate axis) versus ionosonde-observed peak density (abscissa axis) are universally less than one. This feature is believed to be the result of path average effect of non-uniform distribution of the electron density along the GSP ray during the occultation. A comparison between COSMIC-measured peak height and ionosonde-derived peak height hmF2 indicates that the former is systematically higher than the latter. The difference in the two can be as large as 20% or more in equatorial and low-latitude regions. This result implies that the peak height hmF2 derived from the virtual height through true height analysis based on Titheridge method seems to underestimate the true peak height. The correlation between COSMIC and ionosonde peak electron densities is analyzed and the result reveals that correlation coefficient seems to be dependent on the fluctuation of the occultation-retrieved electron density profile. The correlation will be higher (lower) for the electron density profiles with smaller (larger) fluctuations. This feature suggests that the inhomogeneous distribution of the electron density along the GPS ray path during the occultation plays an important role affecting the correlation between COSMIC and ionosonde measurements.     

昆明上空电离层D区电子密度季节变化的首次观测分析

通过分析2008年8月至2009年7月昆明站(25.6°N, 103.8°E) 中频(MF)雷达观测数据, 研究了太阳活动低年电离层D区电子密度的季节变化特性,发现D区电子密度主要呈现半年变化特征, 即在春秋季电子密度较大, 而在夏冬季则较小, 这与国际参考电离层(IRI)预测的年变化趋势不一致, 但与昆明站电离层测高仪的最低回波频率f_min的观测结果相符. 同时比较了D区电子密度半年变化与纬向风半年变化的关系, 发现二者之间保持了非常一致的变化趋势并对这种一致性的内在原因进行了分析.      

基于积谱的雷达目标高分辨率距离像识别

针对飞机目标的识别问题,将一种用于语音识别中的积谱特征引入雷达目标一维距离像识别领域.积谱定义为功率谱与群延迟的乘积,该特征能够充分利用目标一维距离像的幅度谱与相位谱信息.在目标分类阶段,选择基于弹性传播(RPROP)算法的多层前馈神经网络作为分类器.利用4种飞机模型的重点散射源二维分布测试数据和频率步进法得到目标的一维纵向距离像,对距离像积谱的分类性能进行了测试,结果表明基于积谱的特征对于一维距离像具有较高的识别率,并具有较好的抗噪性能.      

Digisonde observations of TIDs with frequency and angular sounding technique

A technique for studying ionospheric wavelike phenomena, primarily AGW/TID events, is developed based on the solution of the problem of radio wave propagation in ionospheric plasma disturbed by wavelike processes. A perfectly reflecting surface model is used for representing TIDs propagating at ionospheric heights. This technique is a generalization of the Frequency-and-Angular Sounding (FAS) method developed earlier for oblique TID diagnostics using transmitters of opportunity. Trial measurements were made in November 2003 with two DPS-4 systems at Millstone Hill Observatory, providing experimental validation of the developed method by comparing the results of disturbance diagnostics to those simultaneously obtained with the original (oblique) FAS method. The TID parameters recovered during the November 2003 campaign suggest that the observed disturbances predominately propagated equatorward which likely indicates their sources to be in the auroral region. The equatorward propagating AGW/TIDs are typical for disturbed geomagnetic conditions which were observed during the campaign. Implementation of the generalized FAS technique in the DPS sounder allowed development of a dedicated data acquisition system for ionospheric disturbance diagnostics. Routine measurements with the developed technique using the existing world-wide network of Digisondes (GIRO) will make it possible to conduct large-scale studies of the AGW/TID phenomena.     

电离层Es离子分布数值建模

从离子连续性方程和动量方程出发,比较全面地考虑了太阳光电离、星光电离、地冕电离、星际背景电离和流星离子流等电离源,综合分析Es层的主要动力学过程和光化学过程,以风剪切理论为基础,研究中性成分碰撞、电场作用、金属离子作用和分子离子作用等机制对离子分布的影响,建立了一维时变电离层Es物理模型.对离子产生率、垂直方向的离子速度在高度和时间上的变化进行仿真和计算,得到了在电场及风剪切作用下的离子密度剖面24h内的变化规律.根据建立的模型,以昆明相干散射雷达观测的径向风结果作为模型输入参考,仿真并得到了电离层Es电子密度的时空分布,据此反演出电离层Es临界频率f₀E_s.与昆明站电离层测高仪同时间观测的情况进行对比,结果比较一致,验证了建立的Es层物理模型正确性.      

Venera-15 and -16 spacecraft: Images and maps of Venus

The main purpose of the spacecraft Venera-15 and -16 was to radar map the north hemisphere of Venus. From October 1983 to July 1984, when this experiment was conducted, an area of 115 million km² was mapped. It stretches from the north pole to the latitude of 30°. The images (radar swathes) and height profiles of the whole surveyed territory were constructed.

At present mosaic maps of Venus were drawn by computer combining of individual swathes in a certain map projection. The height of the local topography was taken into consideration. Topographic maps of Venus were also drawn by interpolation of individual height profiles. They are the most detailed maps of Venus available.     

从多站观测研究电离层主槽特性

本文利用位于不变纬度∧=46°—70°S之间的四个电离层站的观测数据,分析了电离层主糟的基本特性.分析结果表明,电离层主槽有如下特征:(1)槽在冬季夜间出现较为明显,春秋季夜间较弱,夏季夜间和所有季节的白天均观测不到;(2)槽的特点有二,一是其电子密度异常地低,二是层的虚高有较大的增加;(3)槽的极向壁较稳定,且有较陡峭的电子密度梯度,而槽的赤道向壁较多变,电子密度梯度较平缓;(4)槽出现的主要时段是在20:00—03:00(LT),在此期间,槽处于不断的变化和运动之中.