abstract: The goal is to provide accurate measurement of the channel between a ground source and a receiving satellite. The effects of the the ionosphere for ground to space propagation for radio waves in the 3-30 MHz HF band is an unstudied subject. The effects of the ionosphere on radio propagation is a long studied subject, the primary focus has been ground to ground by means of ionospheric reflection and space to ground corrections of ionospheric distortions of GPS. Because of the plasma properties of the ionosphere there is a strong dependence on the frequency of use. GPS L1 1575.42 MHz and L2 1227.60 MHz are much less effected than the 3-30 MHz HF band used for skywave propagation. The channel between the ground transmitter and the satellite receiver is characterized by 2 unique polarization modes with respective delays and Dopplers. Accurate estimates of delay and Doppler are done using polynomial fit functions. The application of polarimetric separation of the two propagating polarizations allows improved estimate quality of delay and Doppler of the respective mode. These methods yield good channel models and an effective channel estimation method well suited for the ground to space propagation. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Electrical Engineering 2017