Abstract
This chapter examines the radio wave scattering in the ionosphere. Scatter propagation is used for a number of important methods of information transmission. With the increase in radar sensitivities, various scatter modes have proven to be increasingly annoying sources of clutter and interference. The scattering of radio waves arises from fluctuations or irregularities in the otherwise smoothly varying distribution of ionization density in the ionosphere. The presence of ionization results in a local refractive index often differing considerably from the free space value, and the radio waves are therefore refracted where the ionization density varies. Very high frequency scatter from the lowest part of the ionosphere offers a partial solution to these communications problems as the propagation almost never fails. In general, ionospheric scattering is to be understood to arise from spatial fluctuations of electron number density per unit volume. It is found that at frequencies well above the plasma frequency the alteration of the incident wave by the free electrons is slight and the scattering effects are consequently less involved.
Published Version
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