Electron density profiles in the equatorial E region ionosphere derived from a bistatic coherent scatter radar experiment in Perú

Abstract

A new bistatic radar system has been developed at the Jicamarca Radio Observatory. The system is a permanent addition to the facility designed to monitor electron density profiles in the equatorial electrojet region using a coherent scatter radar technique that utilizes the Faraday rotation of the scattered signal. A series of radar experiments has been conducted at Jicamarca since March, 2004. In this report, representative E region electron density profiles of the equatorial ionosphere are presented. We compare our electron density estimates with: theoretical electron densities derived from the Chapman production function, electron densities measured by rocket experiments, the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI‐2001) model, and peak electron density estimates from the Jicamarca Digisonde. Overall, the radar measured density profiles have magnitudes and shapes comparable to the electron density estimators mentioned above. However, the measured and IRI‐2001 model density profiles disagree significantly below the E region peak.