Temporal Statistics of Scintillation for Satellite Communication and Radar Systems

Analytic and simulation results are presented which describe the statistics of the duration and separation of scintillation which results when radio frequency signals propagate through randomly ionized media. This work is applicable to the problems of satellite communication and space based radar observation through disturbed ionospheric channels that result from high altitude chemical release or nuclear detonation. In these environments, a radio frequency signal that traverses the disturbed ionosphere a single time has Rayleigh amplitude statistics and power spectral densities that range from f minus to the third power in the slow fading limit to Gaussian in the fast fading limit. The amplitude statistics of the received signal are extended to monostatic and bistatic propagation through the disturbed ionosphere. The bistatic geometry is applicable to either a bistatic radar or to a two-way communication link that utilizes a linear transponder. The statistics of the amplitude used for demodulation in dual channel communication links are presented for systems that use spatial, frequency, or other diversity techniques. The distributions of the received amplitude are used to calculate bit error rates for two-way or dual channel communication links and for various PSK and FSK demodulation techniques. These results are compared with bit error rates in single channel or one-way communication links and with bit error rates in communication links through the ambient ionosphere.