Improved spectral observations of equatorial spread F echoes at Jicamarca using aperiodic transmitter coding

Abstract

We present preliminary radar results obtained with a new method of spectrum estimation of moderately overspread equatorial spread F (ESF) echoes over Jicamarca. This new method is similar to the classical pulse-to-pulse methods but with nonuniform pulse spacings, i.e., using aperiodic transmitter pulses, allowing us to avoid range and frequency aliasing, at the cost of extra clutter at some ranges. We also present different ways of dealing with the extra clutter, depending on the spectral characteristics of the clutter. We have identified two kinds of clutter: ground clutter (due to mountains and transmitter pulses) and ionospheric clutter (due to ESF and equatorial electrojet echoes). Preliminary radar results are very encouraging, and ways of improving them are proposed based on Monte Carlo simulations. Particularly, we propose alternating the phases of the uncoded aperiodic pulses using random binary phase codes to flatten the spectrum of the ionospheric clutter. The theoretical implications of the newly estimated spectra, particularly from topside echoes, are presented and discussed in a companion paper.