First application of the radioholographic method to wave observations in the upper atmosphere

Abstract

Wave phenomena in the upper atmosphere can be studied using the high‐precision Global Positioning System (GPS) radio navigational field. In this paper, basic principles, accuracy, and vertical resolution of the radioholographic technique for studies of ionospheric wave phenomena are presented for the general case when the orbits of the satellites are arbitrary. Results of testing of the radioholographic method are discussed using orbital station MIR and geostationary satellites (MIR/GEO) and GPS/Meteorology (GPS/MET) radio occultation data. The radioholographic method has high vertical (12–30 m) and angular (4–8 μrad) resolution, which has been validated by directly observing multibeam propagation in the atmosphere and revealing signals, reflected from the sea, in GPS/MET and MIR/GEO radio occultation data. We show that this method allows one to determine the vertical profile of the electron density and monitoring wave structures in the upper atmosphere. As an example of this approach, observations of the summer Antarctic mesosphere on 7 February 1997 are presented. We show, by combining phase and amplitude analysis, that a vertical resolution of 0.3–0.5 km reveals wavelike structures with spatial periods from 1–2 km to 8–10 km in the vertical electron density distribution in the D and E regions. Variations in the gradient of the electron density from ±5 × 10 3 to ±8 × 10 3 el/(cm 3 km) at altitudes of 72–95 km were observed. The obtained results demonstrate the high‐technology level of the radioholography approach and open new perspectives for radio occultation experiments: measurements of the characteristics of the natural processes in the atmosphere, mesosphere, and ionosphere and observations of the state of the sea surface by measuring parameters of reflected signal simultaneously with radio occultation experiments.