Ship-borne VHF radar for mesospheric and ionospheric research

Abstract

This paper describes a VHF coherent radar installed on board the Peruvian research vessel "Humboldt". The system has been designed and developed at Jicamarca Radio Observatory. The radar's antenna is a COCO array of 21 x 24m, specially designed to be installed on a ship. System description is included, as well as first results from observations of Polar Mesospheric Summer Echoes (PMSE) in Antarctica, and Equatorial Electrojet along the southern Peruvian coast.