We investigate the possibility of measuring and using the phase delay of radio frequency transmissions in the amateur satellite band as a method to determine the distribution of currents systems in the ionosphere. The amateur satellite transmissions at 7MHz, 14M Hz, and 144M Hz are low enough for Faraday rotation to cause a significant phase delay on the propagating signals in addition to the phase delay produced by the total electron content (TEC) in the ionosphere. The ionosphere in the E and F regions is modeled as an equivalent thin planar shell of collision free cold plasma 100 km in thickness located in an altitude range of 100 � 200 km. The earth's magnetic field is superposed with a weaker magnetic field due to a narrow Gaussian strip of current representing an ionospheric electrojet. The prole of the current system is obtained by numerically optimizing the Appleton-Hartree dispersion relation for rays of simulated radio frequency (RF) signals that propagate through the ionosphere shell. The optimization procedure is performed with a differential evolution algorithm. From the optimization procedure, we obtain the ionosphere total electron content (TEC) and the strength, prole, and orientation of the ionospheric current system.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UTAHS/oai:digitalcommons.usu.edu:etd-2527 |
| Date | 01 May 2013 |
| Creators | Kasturi, Prajwal M. |
| Publisher | DigitalCommons@USU |
| Source Sets | Utah State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | All Graduate Theses and Dissertations |
| Rights | Copyright for this work is held by the author. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user. For more information contact Andrew Wesolek (andrew.wesolek@usu.edu). |
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