Measurement of total electron content by means of differential phase shift method using coherent SHF signals from a geostationary satellite

Abstract

The total electron content along the radio wave path (TEC) is directly measured by observation of the differential phase shift between two SHF signals, which are transmitted with phase coherence from the Japanese geostationary satellite ETS-II. It is shown that the differential phase shift method has advantages over the Faraday rotation method, viz., independence of geomagnetic field and greater sensitivity.