Modeling the D‐region partial‐reflection experiment

Abstract

Recently published results on D‐region partial‐reflection amplitude distributions indicate that below 80 km, the distributions are Rayleigh‐like in character. Because of this, this paper describes a model of the partial‐reflection mechanism which employs multiple reflectors as opposed to the single‐reflector concept now in use by most experimenters using the partial‐reflection experiment. The particular new feature incorporated by this model is the variation of the reflection coefficient throughout the reflecting volume; previous multiple‐reflector models considered only the variation of the differential absorption in the reflecting volume. It is shown, for example, that for 50‐μsec pulse lengths, serious errors in electron density can result in the analysis of partial‐reflection data for which multiple reflectors are present.