SAMEERDU—Digital Ionosonde: Brief System Description and Initial Results from a Low‐Latitude Location Dibrugarh

Abstract

AbstractA digital ionosonde was designed and built by Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering and Research (SAMEER), Mumbai in collaboration with Dibrugarh University to suit the needs of equatorial‐ and low‐latitude regions of India. The design objectives were to obtain good signal‐to‐noise ratio to mitigate the heavy noise due to interference, obtain short duration ionograms, estimate vertical drifts, reconstruct vertical electron density profile, and make antenna size smaller. Transmission of maximum 1 kW power using modified delta antenna is used with dual channel magnetic loop receiver antenna. Pulse compression by 8‐ and 16‐bit biphase codes are employed to increase noise immunity and the height resolution. The preliminary results of the ionogram mode only are presented in this work. The basic ionogram recorded by this system called SAMEER‐Dibrugarh University Ionospheric Radar is compared with colocated Canadian Advanced Digital Ionosonde ionogram which is in operation in Dibrugarh since 2010. A reasonably clear trace of E and F layers is obtained even without coherent pulse integration and pulse coding. The performance of the coding schemes is investigated with and without coherent integration. Some sample ionospheric experiments conducted with SAMEER‐Dibrugarh University Ionospheric Radar, and interesting results like the detection of travelling ionospheric disturbances, Es layer substructures, ionospheric irregularities, and the generation of bottom‐side vertical electron density profile are presented to highlight the potential and capabilities of the system.