NSWP: Coherent Backscatter Radar Imaging Studies of Equatorial Spread F with the Sao Luis Radar in Brazil

本项目将研究F区电离层等离子体不规则结构的二维空间分布及其与称为赤道扩展F（ESF）的密度扰动发展的关系。 更好地了解这种电离层扰动及其产生与无线电波传播、通信和导航应用密切相关。该项目将获得一组新的F区不规则的干涉雷达图像，并对其进行分析，以确定雷达波束内散射结构的空间分布，确定与底层等离子体波有关的模式或周期性，并量化ESF结构与海底不规则集群之间的相关性。该项目将对干涉测量系统进行微调，以研究带状尺度尺寸为几公里或更大的散射结构，该项目将侧重于尺度尺寸小于几十公里的结构，迄今为止对这些结构进行的调查很少。

This project will investigate the two-dimensional spatial distribution of plasma irregularity structures in the F-region ionosphere and their relationship to the development of density perturbations known as equatorial spread-F (ESF).  Better understanding of such ionospheric disturbances and their generation is highly relevant to radio wave propagation, scintillations, and communication and navigation applications. The project will obtain a new set of interferometric radar images of F-region irregularities and analyze them to determine the spatial distribution of scattering structures within the radar beam, to identify  patterns or periodicities related to underlying plasma waves, and to quantify the correlation between ESF structures and clusters of bottom-type irregularities. The project will fine-tune an interferometric system to study scattering structures with zonal scale sizes of several kilometers or more, and the project will focus on structures having scale sizes less than a few tens of km, for which few investigations have been conducted to date.