Abstract
This paper describes a novel sounding system for which the functions of the medium frequency (MF) radar and the ionosonde are integrated on the same hardware platform and antenna structure, namely the middle atmosphere-ionosphere (MAI) system. Unlike the common MF radar, MAI system adopts the pseudo-random (PRN) phase-coded modulation technology, which breaks the limitation of the traditional monopulse mode. Through the pulse compression, only a small peak power is needed to achieve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) requirement. The excellent anti-jamming performance is also very suitable for the ionospheric sounding. One transmitting and six receiving modes are adopted for the MF sounding. While neglecting the structure of the T/R switches, the coupling interference between the transmitter and the receiver may also be avoided. Moreover, by employing a miniaturized antenna array composed of progressive-wave antennas for the MF receiving and ionospheric sounding, the MAI system takes account of the requirements of the inversion algorithms of MF radar and the large bandwidth need for the ionospheric sounding concurrently. Such an antenna structure can also greatly simplify the system structure and minimize the difficulty of deployment. The experiments verified the availability of the system scheme and its engineering application significance. Through further analysis of the sounding data, the wind field of the mesosphere, the electron density of D layer and electron density profile from layers E to F were obtained at the identical location. The capability of MAI system can play an important role in studying the interaction and coupling mechanism between the mesosphere and ionosphere.
Highlights
The mesosphere and ionosphere are both important transitional regions of the Earth’s atmosphere.Among them, the mesosphere is defined by temperature gradients, located at 50–85 km, while the ionosphere is defined by the degree of atmospheric ionization, embedded in the middle of the thermosphere, generally referring to the partial ionization area above 60 km
It mainly consists of pre-driver, power divider, 4 × 600 W linear amplifier, and power combiner, directional coupler, monitoring unit and power supply apparatus
Breaking the limitation of the traditional monopulse mode, the interpulse coding waveform is Breaking the limitation of the traditional monopulse mode, the interpulse coding waveform is applied to the medium frequency (MF) sounding in middle atmosphere-ionosphere (MAI) system. 16-bit bi-phase complementary sequences are selected applied to the MF sounding in MAI system. 16-bit bi-phase complementary sequences are selected asPower the pseudo-random modulation codeSwitching for MAI
Summary
The mesosphere and ionosphere are both important transitional regions of the Earth’s atmosphere. Radar was built in Japan and, based on the sounding data, Igarashi and Murayama et al reported their coordinated observations of the dynamics and coupling processes of the mesosphere and lower thermosphere winds at the middle-high latitude in 1995 [14]. Through the flexible switch between the working modes of the mesospheric and ionospheric sounding, the wind field of the mesosphere, the electron density distribution of the lower ionosphere, the ionogram and its inversion profile at the same location can be obtained. The acquisition of these parameters may have important value to the study of the interaction and coupling mechanism between the mesosphere and ionosphere
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