Comparison of RADARC High-Frequency Radar Performance Prediction Model and ROTHR Amchitka Data

Data collected with ANTPS-71 radar has been used to validate the RADARC model. For the first ten days of January , April, and July, noon and midnight, the vertical ionograms, oblique backscatter soundings, radar ground backscatter amplitudes and noise levels have been compared with Model predictions. The differences between the Model and median ionospheric soundings are small enough to have negligible effect on predictions. The coverage predicted for oblique backscatter soundings agrees well with observed median data except for sporadic E effects which were under-estimated. Medians of observed ground backscatter agree fairly well with predictions. The actual noise that controlled radar performance was the most significant deviation from the model all nighttime and January day noise was higher than that predicted and this was due to multiplicative noise.... Ionospheric Models, OTH RADAR, Skywave Transmission