Ionospheric Scintillation Studies

Irregular structure in ionospheric plasma density can significantly affect DoD communications and radar systems which utilize transionospheric radiowave paths. Transport and dissipation of ionospheric structure is therefore of direct relevance. Such an understanding can aid the long-term goal of developing a predictive capability for global ionospheric structure. Experimental observation of the ionosphere over the past few years has concentrated on high latitudes. This is the most complex portion of the global ionospheric system the auroral zone, the polar cap, and the boundary between them can all be regions of highly dynamic and structured plasma. In the polar cap, very large scale plasma patches and sun-aligned arcs occur, and can convect rapidly from their source regions to the entire high latitude region. Much of what has been learned about this extended regime of irregularity structure at high latitudes has been through the application of complementary diagnostics Optics, ionosonde, incoherent scatter radar, in-situ satellite, and scintillation measurements. These various techniques allow the observation of structure over several orders of magnitude in spatial scale. The optics, ionosonde and radar provide an overall view of large-scale production and dynamics the satellites diagnose the inputs to the large- and medium-scale irregularities from the scintillation data, the strength, shape, and motion of the kilometer-scale structure can be identified.