Abstract
The OEDIPUS-C rocket payload included a bistatic tethered HF instrument transmitter-receiver pair HEX-REX (High Frequency Exciter — Receiver for Exciter) which acted as a topside sounder. The relatively low altitudes through which OEDIPUS C carried out topside sounding make the resulting ionograms a novel data set. Ionospheric reflections of the 10-W HEX transmissions were detected at payload heights between 780 and 160 km on the down leg. Near apogee at 824 km, extremely low in-situ densities ( ≈ 100 cm −3) were observed. The monotonic rise of density from apogee to re-entry clearly showed that there was no ionospheric F layer. The ionospheric echoes came from altitudes near the payload down to ∼ 100 km. Ground-reflection traces were often seen at frequencies below both f o E and f x E. OEDIPUS C provided a close-hand view of a thick but porous auroral E layer sounded at small ranges.
Published Version
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