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324

PROCEEDINGS
VOL.
IEEE, OF THE

70, NO. 4 , APRIL 1982

Radio Wave Scintillations in the Ionosphere


KUNG CHIE YEH, FELLOW,IEEE,

AND

CHAO-HAN LIU, FELLOW,IEEE

Invited Paper

Absfruct-The phenomenon of scintillation of radio


waves propagating through the ionosphere is reviewed in this paper. The emphasis is
on propagational aspects, including both theoretical and experhnental
results. The review opens with a discussion of the motivation for st*
chasticformulation ofthe problem. Based on measurementsfrom
radar, and propagationexperhnents,ionospheric irregularities
are found to be characterized, m general, by a power-law spectrum.
While earlier measurements indicated aspectral index of about4, there
is recent evidence showing that the index may vary with the strength of
the irregularity and possibly a two-component spectrum may exist with
different spectral indices for large and small structures Several scintillation theories including the Phase Screen, Rytov, and Parabolic Equation Method (PEM) are discussed next.Statistical parameters of the
signal such as the average signal, scintillation index, r m s phase fluctuaare
tions,correlationfunctions,powerspectra,distriiutions,etc.,
investipted. Effects of multiple scattering are discussed. Expedmental
results concerning irregularity structures and signal statics are presented.
These results are compared with theoreticalpredictions.The
agreements are &own to be satisfactory in a large measure. Next, the temporal behavior of a transionospheric radio signal is studied in terms of
a two-frequency mutual coherence functionand the temporal moments.
Resultsincluding numerical simulations are discussedFinally,some
areasof transionfuture efforts in ionospheric scintillation studies in the
aspheric communication and space and geophysics are recommended.

in-siru,

I.INTRODUCTION
A . History of Ionosphere Scintillation Studies
N 1946, Hey, Parsons, and Phillips [ 11 observed marked
short-period irregular fluctuations in the intensity of radiofrequency (64MHz) radiation from the radio star Cygnus.
At first it was thought that the fluctuations were inherent in
the source itself. Subsequent observations indicated that there
was no correlationbetween
fluctuations recorded attwo
stations 210 km apart, while fairly good correlation was found
for a separation of 4 km [21, [ 31 . This led to the suggestion
that the phenomenon was locally produced, probably in the
earths atmosphere.Indeed,as
later observations confirmed
[4] -[ l o ] , this marked the f i i t observation of the ionosphere
scintillation phenomenon.
Afterthe f i t artificial satellite was launched in1957,it
became possible to observe ionospherescintillations
using
radio transmissions from the satellite [ 1 1I -[ 151 . The interest
in the study of this phenomenon has continued in thelast two
decades. In general, the interests are twofold. On theone
hand, the study of the scintillation problem is directly related
t o the transionosphericcommunicationproblemssuch
as
statistics of signal fading, channel modeling, ranging resolution, etc. On the other hand, scintillation data contain infor-

Manuscriptreceived September 18, 1981; revisedJanuary 18, 1982.


This work was supported by the Atmospheric Research Section of the
National Science Foundation under Grant ATM 80-07039.
The authors are with the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801.

mation about the geophysical parameters of the ionosphere


and proper interpreation of the data is essential for a better
understanding of the physics and dynamics of the upper atmosphere. As observational data accumulated, it became
possible to discuss the global morphology of ionospheric
the early seventies, the discovery of
scintillation [ 161.In
scintillation at gigahertz frequencies [ 171, [ 181 presented
an additional challenge tothe field. Two satellite beacon
experiments specially designed for scintillationstudies, the
ATS-6 and the Wideband Satellite [ 191, [ 201, have provided
us with new observational data that helped to enhance o m
knowledge of the scintillation phenomenon. These include
coherent multiple frequencydataforbothamplitude
and
phase scintillations. Fig. 1 shows an example of such observations.Simultaneous
multiteehnique observational compaigns
were carried out [21] which yielded valuable information
about the structuresof the irregularities.
On the theoretical side, ionosphericscintillation was first
studied in terms of the thin phase screen theory [ 221, [ 231.
Advances in the study of wave propagation in random media
have helped in theeffort to develop aunifiedscintillation
theory [241. For weak scintillation, the single scatter theory
is quite well established and experimental verifications of the
theoretical predictions have been demonstrated in many instances. The multiple scattertheory for strong scintillation
has also mademuch progress in recent years but there still
remains quite a few unresolved problems.
In this review, the current status of the ionosphere scintillation of radio waveswill be reviewed, both from the observational and theoretical points of view. The emphasis will be on
transionospheric radio wave propagation and signal statistics.
The morphology of ionosphericscintillation
willbe
the
subject of another review paper [ 251 and will not be discussed
here.

B. Motivation for Stochastic Formulation of the Problem


Wave propagation is concerned with the study of the spacetime fields that are transferred from one part of the medium
to another with an identifiable velocity of propagation. To
identify the velocity of propagation, one may choose t o follow
aparticular feature of the field such as the peak, the steep
rising edge, or the centroid. As it propagates the field may
change itsmagnitude, change itsshape, and even change its
velocity provided this particular feature of the field can still
be identified and followed. Mathematically, wave propagation
problems are generally posed by an equation of the form

Lu

=q

(1.1)

where L is usually a linear differential operator and less frequently an integro-differential operator or a tensor operator

00 18-92 19/82/0400-0324$00.75 0 1982 IEEE

YEH AND LIU: RADIO WAVE SCINTILLATIONS

325

IN THE IONOSPHERE

1.

10

io

-10

IS

tS

3b

40

35

4
0
5
TIHE

3.

eo

lo

I S

t0

es

30

15

40

[8ECONOSI

-i
I

2.

-.
0.
0

tO

10

IS

30

LS

3s

40

-10 i
0

10

15

20

t S

30

3s

Fig. 1. Multifrequency amplitude and phase scintillation data from the


DNA Wideband Satellite received at Poker Flat, AL, March 8, 1978.
Time: 18:37:10 to 18:37:50 UT. Data were detrended at 0.1 Hz.

40

PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, VOL. IO, NO. 4, APRIL 1982

326

when dealing with vector fields; u is the field or wave function,


scalar or vector, and q is the real source function. In posing
propagation problems in (1.1) we need t o specify:
Usually localized in space
i) Real source function q :
and time.
i
i
) Virhial source function u o : The incident field uo satisfies the equationLuo = 0.
iii) Shape and position of
Boundary
conditions
need
be considered.
boundary surface S :
iv) Properties of propagating
The operator L depends on
medium:
these properties.
In many situations any one or a mixer of these four quantities may become very complex. When this is so the wave function is also expected t o be highly complex. In these cases one
may wish to adopt a stochastic approach as an alternate to the
usual deterministic approach in solving (1.1).Generally,a
stochastic approach is preferred if the information about the
above four quantities is incomplete and imprecise; or, even
when the four quantities are or can be specified exactly, the
mathematical demand in solving (1 . l ) is too formidable a task;
or, even when (1.1) can be solved deterministically, the obtained results are not physically intuitive,instructive,
and
useful. In these cases, one adopts a statistical characterization
of any one or a mixer of these four quantities. If such a characterization yields a stable and physically meaningful statistical characterization of u , the stochasticapproach is then a
useful approach.
In the stochasticapproach one may classify the problem
according to which one of the four quantities is stochastic.
Therefore, instudies of excitation of fields by random sources,
the real source q is random; in studies of diffraction by partially
coherent fields, the incident field uo is ranqom; in studies of
scattering by bodies having random shapes and positions, the
boundary surface S is random; and in studies of diffraction
and propagation through random media, the operator L itself
is random. In this way a large number of practical examples
have been discussed and classified in [26]. All these examples
are classified as belonging t o one of these four classes for their
mixtures. According to this scheme of classification the study
of ionosphericscintillations would normally belong tothe
classof problems dealing withdiffraction and propagation
througharandom
medium. However, under certainconditions and sometimes in an effort to simplify the mathematical
task, the phase screen idea is advanced. In this case the problem can be classified as diffraction of partially coherent fields.
In adopting a statistical approach, one has in mind, at least
implicitly, two probability spaces: oneproability space for
the specification of the problem and one proability space for
the wave field. A point in the probability space corresponds
t o a particular probability distribution that is used t o characterize the problem or the field. Our interest in solving (1.1) is
then to find the prescription that maps a point in the probability space of the problem onto a point in the probability
space of the field. Symbolically, the situation is represented
by Fig. 2. It should be realized that each point in the probability .space characterizes only the statistical properties. It is
entirely possible that two or more samples, known as realizations, may possess the same statistical properties, as usually is
the case. An example of one such realization obtainedby
computer simulation is shown in Fig. 3. Many such two-dimensional random surfaces can be generated [27], all having
the same statistical properties. If, for example, oneis interested
inthe behavior of radio rays, propagating in afluctuating
dielectric medium with certain statistical properties,
one can
first use the specified statisticalproperties t o realize many

Mopplng

Probabllity Space
of the Problem

Probabllity Space
of the Wave Function

Fig.2. A point in theprobabilityspace


of theproblemspecifiesthe
or electron
probabilitydistribution
of thedielectricpermittivity
density and apoint in theprobabilityspace
of the wave function
specifiestheprobabilitydistribution
of the wave function. Our
interest is t o find the mapping between these two probability spaces
as depicted symbolically by this illustration.

CORRELATION
LENGTH

Fig. 3. Arealization of atwo-dimensionalrandomsurfacewiththe


prescribed statistical properties. (After Youakim e t a l . [27].)

/I

4 1

-4

-6

10

I5

Fig. 4. Ray trajectoriesthroughrealizeddielectricmedia.


All media
have identical power spectrum for the fluctuating refractive indexand
a value of 1.5 percent in r m fluctuations of refractive index. Statistical properties of the rays can be compiled from these traced rays, thus
3. (After Youakim et al. [ 281 .)
achieving the mappingdepictedin Fig.

media and then trace rays, all with identical initial conditions
in these realized media. The results foronesuchstudy
are
shown in Fig. 4 [28]. The statistical behavior of the ray can
be obtained if a sufficiently large number of such rays have
been traced, as done in [28] and 1291. In this way, a method
known as the Monte Carlo method is thus constructed so that
the mapping between the two probability spaces is achieved.
Unfortunately, the Monte Carlo method is very cumbersome

321

YEH AND LIU: RADIO WAVE SCINTILLATIONS IN THE IONOSPHERE

to apply, and one would rather use an analytical method if it


is available. At the present time, analytical methods are
not
available in such a general framework. If one is willing to relax
his requirements by seeking a more modest answer, such as a
few finite numbers of moments instead of probability distributions, the problem usually becomes more mathematically
manageable. Even insuch cases, approximationsareoften
needed and introduced to facilitateasolution.Theproblem
of ionospheric scintillations is no exception.

00 100 IO
I
I

100 IO
I
I

0.1 0.01
I
1

Wanderlng of Normal
to Ionosphere
Multiple
Normals
.-

of TlDs

11. CHARACTERIZATION
OF IONOSPHERIC
IRREGULARITIES

SCALE I
MAGNETIC FIELD (m)

HORIZONTAL
SCALE (km)

(Gravitationally
Anisotropic 1

Phose
Sclntillatlon

e
e

$
H

A . Observational Evidence
The existence of ionosphericirregularities is required to
explainmanyexperimentalobservations.
The earliest is the
vertical soundingexperiment [30] in which aradarecho is
received as the carrier frequency is swept from about 0.5 MHz
to 15 MHz. The received data aretypicallydisplayedin the
time delay (or virtualheight) versus frequency format. Normally the echo traces in such a display are very clean, showing
distinct ionospheric layers. On
occasion, the echo traces are
broadened and diffused for heights corresponding to the ionospheric F region. When this happens the echoes are known
as spread F echoes and the irregularities that cause the spread
F echoes are commonly called the spread F irregularities.
Many experimental techniques have been used to study these
spread F irregularities. A historical account of the experimental effort can be found in [ 3 11 . The experimental techniques
can be broadly grouped into two: remote sensing techniques
and in-situ measurements. Most remote sensing techniques
utilizeradio waves and they canbe classified according to
whether the radio waves arereflectedfrom,scatteredfrom,
or penetrating through the ionosphere. In a low-power operation the radio waves are normally reflected fromthe ionpsphere
in experiments such as vertical ionosonde, backscatter ion@
sonde, and forward scatter ionosonde. Such experiments are
useful in detecting the existence of spread F irregularities and
their results have been used in morphologicalstudies as reviewed by Herman [ 3 2 ] . As the radio frequency is increased
beyondsome value, theradio wavebegins to penetrate the
ionosphere and almost all of its electromagnetic energy escapes
into the outer space. Nevertheless there is a very small amount
of its energy that is scatteredback.Underquiescentconditions the backscattering is caused by ionospheric plasma fluctuationsunderthermalagitations.Forsufficientlypowerful
radars the scattered signal may be strong enough to provide us
withusefulinformation.Radarsoperatingon
this principle
[33]-[35]. Ina
areknown
as incoherentscatterradars
monostatic mode the backscattered power
is proportional to
the spectral content of electron density fluctuations atone-half
of the radio wavelength. It mustbeunderstood,therefore,
that such radars can sense the irregularities only in a very narrowspectralwindow.
On occasion,during the presence of
spread F irregularities, the radar returns have been observed
to increase in power by80 dB in a matter of few minutes [ 3 6 ] .
Thismeans thatin afewminutestheirregularityspectral
intensity canincrease by as much as 10' fold.This suggests
the highly dynamic nature of the phenomenon under study.
Recent experiments at the magnetic equator show that a certain type of spread F irregularities take the form of plumelike
structures and maybe caused by Raleigh-Taylor instabilities
[ 3 7 ] . Another remote sensing technique deals with scintillationmeasurementsand
is thesubject of this review. Early
reviews on this subject have been made by Booker [ 381 using

Bac

Strong
Scottiring
and Transequatorlal

(Magneticoily

WAVE NUMBER

(nil)

Fig. 5. Acomposite spectrum summarizing intensityof ionospheric


irregularities as a function of wavenumber over a spatial scale from
the electron gyro-radius t o the radius of earth. (After Booker [ 461 .)

radiostars as sourcesand by YehandSwenson


[39] using
radio satellites as sources. Because of the simplicity of experiments, the scintillation observations canbe carried out atmany
that scintillationsare
stations. Globally it hasbeenfound
most intense in two auroral zones and the magnetic equator
[ 161 . Both the spectra of scintillating phase [40] and scintillatingamplitude [41] have anasymptotic power-law dependence,This
suggests thattheionospheric
irregularitymust
have a power-law spectrum as well [42] . More recent progress
on scintillationtheoriesandexperimentalobservationsare
reviewed in later sections.
The other experimental technique has to do with measuring
ionospheric parameters in situ. This generally implies carrying
out measurements on boardarocketora
s'atellite. Probes
have been made to measure the density, temperature, electric
field, and ionic drifts. As far as scintillation is concerned, the
quantity of direct concern is the electron density fluctuation
A N . Characteristics ofvarious types of A N are described in
[ 4 3 ] . The power spectrum of A N is found to follow a power
law [44],[45], confirming theexpectations based onthe
scintillation measurements [401 , [ 4 1] .
Therefore, the totality of all experimental evidence indicates
the existence of ionospheric irregularities over a wide spectral
range. This situation was best summarized by Booker [46] in
acompositespectrumreproducedin
Fig. 5. This composite

PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, VOL. 70, NO. 4, APRIL 1982

328

0045

0030

0015

0000

2345

Fig. 6. Sample data of 136-MHzsignals transmitted by the geostationary satellite SMSl parked at 90'W
andreceivedatNatal,
Brazil
(35.23OW, 5.8S'S, dip -9.6') on November 15-16, 1978. The bottom amplitude channel is approximately linear in decibels with a full
scale corresponding t o 18 dB. The top and middle polarimeter outputs vary linearly with the rotation of the plane of polarization. A
full-scale change corresponds t o a rotation of 180' or a change of
1.89 X 10" el/m2 in electron content.
The times given are in local
mean time with UT
= LMT + 03 : 00. Two successive depletions in
electroncontentwithaccompanied
rapid scintillations are separated by about 30 min in time.

spectrum spans an eight-decade range, corresponding to scales


from the electron gyroradius t o the earth radius. In this sevendecade range, irregularities responsible for i:nospheric scintillations vary from meters to tens of kilometers.
At the present time, there is a great deal of interest in one
kind of equatorialscintillations associated withionospheric
bubbles. One example is depicted in Fig. 6, where the top
trace shows the amplitude of 136-MHz signals and the bottom
trace shows the Faraday rotation indicative of change in total
electron content (TEC) [47]. Notice the simultaneous increase
in scintillation intensity and rate, as indicated by the top channel, and the depletion in TEC by 5.7 X 10l6 el/m2 as indicated by thebottom channel. While such bubble-associated
scintillations are of great interest, we mustremember that
most observed irregularities at other geographic locations and
even at the magnetic equator are not associated with ionization depletions. It is likely that there may exist many causative mechanisms. Readers interested in thissubjectshould
consult a recent review [48].
B. Correlation Functions and Spectra
As discussed in Section 11-A, there exists a large body of
experimental results which indicate that the electron density
in the ionosphere can become highly complex and irregular.
When this is the case, it may be more convenient t o describe
the propagation problem stochastically as discussed in Section
I-B. For this purpose we must first deyribe the medium, by
its statisticalproperties. Thus let A N ( r ) be the fluctuations
of electron number density from the background N o . Depending on the problem, we may let g = A N ( ; ) or let = AN(;)/
N o ( z ) ; in either case is assumed t o be ahomogeneous random field with a zero mean and a standard deviation ut. Its
autocorrelation function is, by definition,
B E(;I

- ;2)

= (E(;1)
E(;2

1)

(2.1)

where the angular brackets are used t o denote the process of

ensemble averaging. By the Wiener-Khinchin theorem,the


correlation and the spectrum form a Fourier transform pair
m

(2.2b)
Since .$is real, there must exist symmetry conditions
BE(-;)

and Qpg.(-2)
= ' D E (I?).

= B E();

(2.3)

If the irregularities are $otrzpic, the correlation function in


(2.1) depends only on ( r , - r2 I. In this case, the three-dimensional Fourier transform given in (2.2) simplifies to

""I
m

BE(')=

@,(K)K sinKrdK.
(2.4b)

In someapplications, the one-dimensionaland two-dimensional spectra are needed and they are defined, respectively, by

OD

OSPHERE
THE
YEHSCINTILLATIONS
AND
INWAVE
LIU: RADIO

329

For the special case of isotropic irregularities, the three-dimensional spectrum is related to the one-dimensional spectrum by

The relation (2.7) is useful for it prwides a means of deducing


the three-dimensional spectrum from a one-dimensional
measurement such as those carried out in situ by probes on a rocket
orasatellite.
However, the isotropic property is paramount
in deriving the relation (2.7). In general when irregularities are
anisotropic, it is impossible to deduce @ E (2) from V t ( K ~ ) .
Intheionosphere,probe
measurements on board several
earlier satellites have all yielded a power-law one-dimensional
spectrum of the form Vt a K;"' with m close to 2 [44], [49],
irrespective of geographic locations and other conditions, for
spatial scales in a two-decade range from 70 m to 7 km. Assuming isotropic irregularities, these probe data would imply a
three-dimensional spectrum of the form

95( K )

0: K

- ~

whichhas the desiredpower-law


KTo >
> 1 , (2.10) reduces to

form given by (2.8). For

(2.12)
which decays exponentially for large K . The correlation function (2.9) has the desired properties in that, at the origin = 0,
B E has amaximum value, a vanishing first derivative, anda
negative second derivative as discussed by Shkarofsky [ 571.
The corresponding one-dimensional spectrum can be obtained
by substituting (2.9) into (2.5). The integral can be evaluated
exactly to give

(2.8)

where the spectral index p must be close to 4 for rn close to 2,


as is required by (2.7). This conclusion agrees closely with the
spectral index derived from the scintillation spectra of phase
[ 4 0 ] , [SO] and of amplitude [411, I511 by using,the phase
screen scintillation theory [42] or the Roytov solution [52].
Thereareindications,however,
fromrecentmultitechnique
measurements, thatthespectralindex
p mayvary
as the
strength of the irregularities changes [ 1621. The power spectrum maintains its power-law form to K > 2 m-' (or spatial
the
scale = 3 m) when the in-situ data are supplemented by
radar data at 50 MHz [ 531, [54]. There is indication, at least
sometimes, that such a spectrum can be extended to irregularities as small as 11 cm 1551, [561. Nevertheless, onmathematical and physical grounds, the power-law spectrum (2.8) is
expected to be valid only within some inner scale and outer
of
scale. This is so because, mathematically,themoments
(2.8) may not all exist; some of the integrals will diverge unless
propercutoffsareintroduced.
Physically, adeparturefrom
(2.8) is expected near an inner scale where dissipation becomes
important and also near an outer scale at which the energy
feeding the instabilityoccurs.Recentrocket-bornebeacon
experiments [ 211 and in-situ measurements [ 21 I ] covering
more than five decades of scale sizes have shown a possible
two-component power-law spectrum for the equatorialirregularities with a higher spectral indexfor the small structures.
To characterize the general power-law irregularity spectrum
withspectral index p , Shkarofsky [57] introduceda fairly
general correlation-spectrum pair

It canbe shown that the three-dimensionalspectrum (2.10)


and the one-dimensional spectrum (2.13) satisfy the relation
(2.7). For K O << K << l/ro, Vt reduces to

a-

(2.14)

P- 2

KX

which follows also a power law but with a spectral indexp - 2


instead of p as is the case for @'E.
Generalization to the anisotropic case can proceed in the followingway. Introduce the dimensionless scaling factors a,,
ay,and a, along thethree axes. Thecorrelationfunction
(2.9) is modifiedby replacing rz by x z / g + y 2 / a ; +z2/a:.
Accordingly, modifications on the three-dimensional spectrum
involve the multiplication of (2.10) by a a a and the re.. y . 2 the oneplacement of K' by a ; ~ :+CY;K; + g ~ : Smdarly,
dimensional spectrum can be modified by multiplying (2.13)
by a, and replacing K: by 4 K:. These modifications can be
easily introduced [71, [801, [991.

C. Optical Path and Correlation of the Total Electron


Content
In the homogeneous background for a ray initially pointed
along the z-axis, the fluctuations in the optical path are given
by
W P ' )=

where ro is the inner scale and I o 2 7 7 / ~is~ the outer scale,


and as such we must have KOrO<< 1 which is always implied.
Accordingly there exists a range of K values for which K O <<
K <
< l/ro and in this range the spectrum (2.10) simplifies to

J-

2)

dz

(2.15)

where p' = ( x , y ) is the transverse coordinate and theintegral is


carried out from some initial point to the final point. In the
ionosphere,therefractiveindexfluctuations
A n are caused
AN through an approxiby the electron density fluctuations
mate linear relation under the high-frequency approximation.
Accordingly, the deviation of the optical path from the mean
can be expressed as

PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, VOL. 70, NO. 4, APRIL 1982

330

these cases it is moreconvenient t o dealwith the structure


function D defined by
(2.16)
where e is the electronic charge, m is its mass, eo is the free
space permittivity, w is the circular radio frequency, and re is
the classical electron radius. The quantity A N , is the deviation in the totalelectron content defined by
AN,( p') =

A N ( p', z) d z .

The structure function for the optical path DA$( p ' ) is just the
mean square value of, the optical path difference between two
points separated by p on the z = constant plane. Carrying out
several steps, this optical path structure function can be shown
to be

(2.17)

The correlation of the optical path separated by a distance p' is

BA&) =(A@($)A@(;

+;I))

= C 2 B ~ ~ , <(2.18)
~ >

where C = eZ/2meow2. Since the electron content deviation


is given by (2.17), its correlation BAN, can be related to BAN
and @AN by

= 2lrZ fl@AN(;l,

0)

(2.24)
for path lengths z greater than the correlationlength as is
usually the case. The optical path structure function is therefore directly proportional t o theelectroncontentstructye
function. If ANis apmogeneous random field,thenDAN ( r ) =
2 [BAN(O)- BAN(^)] which reduces (2.24) t o

+
d 2 K l

(2.19)

-00

-b

where K~ = ( K ~ K,,).
,
As is usually the case, the background
path z is much larger than the correlation length, the limits of
integration in the middle expression of (2.19) are extended to
--DO and 00 asshown.Inserting
(2.19) into (2.18) relates directly the correlation of the optical path to the correlation of
ionospheric irregularities.
In the literature of wave propagation in random media, the
integrated correlation function occurs frequently and is usually
denoted by the symbol A, viz.,

where the optical patn structure function is simply related t o


the Correlation function of the electron content.

E. Frozen Fields and Their Generalizations


In practice the fluctu:tion
in electron density is a space-time
field and hence 5 = [ ( r , t). As such its space-time correlation
is

The space-time spectrum is given by the four-dimensional


Fourier transform

00

AANG)

=J

BANG,
(2.20)
dz.
z)

-00

Consequently, the electron content correlation is merely the


product of the propagation path z and the integrated correlationfunction (2.20). Forthe three-dimensionalcorrelation
function given by (2.9), A is found to be

(2.21)
The corresponding one-dimensional spectrum is then

with its Fourier inversion. In experiments where radio energy


is scattered by ionospheric irregularities, the received wave
shows both a Doppler frequency shift and a slight broadening
of the spectrum. These effects,aspostulated
in[59] and
[ 601, are caused by 1) the convection of scattering irregularities which is responsible for the Doppler shift, and 2) the time
variation of the irregularities which is responsible forthe
Doppler broadening. Forthemoment
if we take only the
convection into account, the random field then satisfies

E(;, t

+ t ' ) = ((;-

ZOt',
t)

(2.28)

for which the space-time correlation has the form


B E ( ; ,t) = E t ( ; - &t).
*

K ( ~ - ~( ) r/ ~o e ) . (2.22)

z0

(2.29)

Equation (2.22) shows that for a three-dimensional spectrum


of the form K - ~as given by (2.1 l), the one-dimensional speo
trum of the electron content is the form K ; ( ~ - ' ) . Notice the
change in the exponent.

is the convection velocity. A field


In(2.28) and (2.29),
that satisfies (2.28) is lfnown as the frozen field, since such a
field is convected with uo as if it were frozen. For frozenfields,
the correlation function satisfies (2.29) and their space-time
spectrum satisfies

D. Optical Path Structure Function


At times the electron density fluctuations and hence the optical path (2.15) contain a background trend so that they arenot
strictly homogeneous but only locally homogeneous [58]. In

If this frozen field is also isotropic, we can show that

YEH AND LIU: RADIO WAVE SCINTILLATIONS


THE
IN

IONOSPHERE

where W E(a)
is the frequency spectrum ona time series.$(;, t )
obtained by a fixed
observer. The prime on W indicates differentiation.Equation (2.31) relates the spatial spectrum to
the frequency spectrumof an isotropic frozen random field.
is generalized to includenonfrozen
When thespectrum
flows, we must take into account the possibility that irregularities maychange with time as they move. Indoing so it is
desirable to strikeabalancebetweenareasonablysimple
analyticexpression that can bemanipulatedmathematically
andthe physical notionthat large irregularities are nearly
frozen, at least for a short time, and small irregularitiesare
in the dissipation range and hence can vary with time. After
considering these factors, Shkarofsky [ 6 1] proposes to decompose the spectrum S in the following way:

$ Gw)

S E G ,a)=

(2.32)

with the normalization

:I

$(;,

w ) dw = 1.

(2.33)

by probe carrying satellites and rockets, So becomes the velocity of the p:obe.
The co2elation function of such in-situ data
then BE( r ( t ) , t ) where r ( t ) = G o t describes the probe trajectory as a function of time. A question that arises is whether
such an experimentally determinable correlation function can
yield the desirable information about the irregularity spectrum.
This problem has been investigated [ 621 in what is termed the
ambiguities of deducing the rest frame irregularity spectrum
from the moving frame spectrum. Let PE(a)
be the spectrum
deduced in the moving frame, viz.,

00

PE(a)= (27r)-1Im BE(;(r),

(2.39)

t ) ,-jut d t .

For a rectilinear motion of the probe we may :et ; ( t ) =z^uot


where z^ is a unit vector along the z-axis. Since a satellitetravels
with large velocities, therandom field as observed by+the
probe may be approximated as frozen. Consequently, BE( r ( t ) ,
t ) = Bg(z^uot)which when inserted into (2.39) yields
(2.40)

In the interest of not flooding this review paper with too many
symbols,letthe+argument of $ denote the Fourier domain.
For example $( K , t ) is obtained from $ (I?, w )by a one-dimensional Fourier inversion with respect to w . With such a notation, the spectral decomposition scheme (2.32) plus the normalization (2.33) implies that
$(Z,t=O)=l

BE(;, t = 0) =BE(;).

(2.34)

Comparing (2.32) with (2.30) shows that $( 2, w ) = 6 (w + I?


Go> or

$(;,

331

+ +

t )= e - i K . v o t

(2.35)

for frozen flows. When flows are generalized to include dissipations it is possible to propose many forms for $ [ 61 1. If
the decay is caused entirely by velocityfluctuationswitha
standard deviation uu,(2.35) can be generalized to

where V E is the one-dimensionalspectrumdefined


in (2.5).
Therefore, the moving frame spectrum P E ( ( ~is) related to the
one-dimensional rest frame spectrum V E ( C ,0, K , ) by (2.40)
with K , = a / u o underthefrozen
fieldassumption.
If the
frozen field is isotropic,thededucedone-dimensional
spectrum can in turn determine the three-dimensionalspectrum
by using (2.7). If the frozen field is anisotropic and of the
kind discussed atthe very end of Section 11-B, thethreedimensionalspectrum canberecovered
onlywhen we also
andtheorientation
of theprobemotion
know g,, a,,,
relative to thecorrelation ellipse.
If the probe is moving slowly such as a rocket near the top
of its flight, the frozen field assumption is no longer valid.
In this case the correlation function measured on the moving
frame becomes

(2.36)
The frozen field result of (2.35) is obtained from (2.36) for
large irregularities (viz., small K ) and short time as is desired
based on physicalreasoning
discussed earlier. By Fourier
transforming (2.36) withrespect to t andsubstitutingthe
result in (2.32), the space-time spectrum becomes

As an example, let
BE

and the corresponding correlation function becomes

= e- I r

(2.42)

then the integral in (2.41) can be integrated t o give

(2.43)
00

Because of the presence of B E ( ? ) in the integrand, ; in the


exponent in (2.38) makes contribution to theintegral only for
I; I less than several correlation lengths. Therefore, as t -+ m,
the triple integral is no longer a function of time which implies
BE,;( t ) must have the asymptotic behavior t- for large times,
The velocity Go in (2.38) does not necessarily have to be the
convective velocity of the fluid. In measurements made in situ

Hence
when
t <<I&,
(2.43) reduces to
which is
the one-dimensional correlation function along the path of a
moving probe,in agreementwith (2.40). Notice thatthe
frozen field is valid only for times short compared with the
time required to move through the irregularitywith an rms
the correlavelocity. In the other extreme when t >> I/&,
tion (2.43) approaches asymptotically to zero as r - 3 , as d e
duced earlier.
In general, instead of a Gaussian correlation function (2.42),
the integral in (2.41) is difficult to evaluate analytically. The
moving frame spectrum Pc(w) in this generalcase is related

PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, VOL. 70, NO. 4, APRIL 1982

332
TO TRANSMITTER AT-CD

lO.O.2

RECEIVER

Fig. 7. Geometry of the ionospheric scintillation problem.

to therest frame spectrum @E


(2) by

-00

(2.44)
for probes moving along the z-axis with a constant velocity &.
The relation (2.44) is complicated. By knowing P ( o ) only,
it does not seem possible t o invert (2.44) to get @E(2) without making additional assumptions.

111. SCINTILLATION
THEORIES
A . Statement of the Problem
With the statisticalcharacterization of the irregularities as
discussed in Section 11, we can model the ionospheric scintillation phenomenon. Let us consider the situationshown jn Fig. 7.
A region of random irregular electron density structures is
located from z = 0 to z = L . A time-harmonic electromagnetic
wave is incident2n the irregular slab at z = 0 and received on
the ground at ( p , z ) . It will be assumed that the irregularity
slab can be characterized by a dielectric permittivity
e = (E) [ 1

+ el (i,.t)~

(3.1)

where ( E ) is the background average dielectricpermittivity


which for theionosphere is given by
(e) = (1 -

flO/f

2)o

(3.2)

and el(;, t ) is the fluctuating part characterizing the random


variations caused by the irregularities and is given by

Here, f p o is the plasma frequency corresponding to the background electron density N o and f is the frequency of the incident wave. In the percentage fluctuation A N / N o = 5, the temporal variations, caused by either the motion of irregularities
as in a frozen flow or the turbulence evolution as in a nonfrozenflow, or both, are assumed to be much slower than
the period of the incidentwave.
As the wave propagates through the irregularity slab, to the
first order, only the phase is affected by the random fluctuations in refractive index. This phase deviation is equal to
k o ( A 4 ) , where ko is the free space wavenumber and A@is the
optical pathfluctuation defined in (2.16). Therefore, after
the wave has emerged from the random slab, its phase front
is randomly modulated as shown in Fig. 7. As this wave p r o p
agates to the ground, the distorted wave front will set up an
interference pattern resulting in amplitude fluctuations. This

diffraction process depends on the random deviations of the


curvature of the phase front which in turn is determined by
the size and strength distributions of the irregularities. Simple
geometric computation indicates that the major contribution
to the amplitude fluctuations on the ground comes from the
phase front deviations caused by irregularities of the sizes of
which is the size of the first
the order of dF = d-,
Fresnel zone [63]. Basically, this simple picture describes
qualitatively the amplitude scintillation phenomenon when the
phase deviations are small. The wave front remains basically
coherent across each irregularity which acts to focus or defocus the rays. However, when the irregularities are strong
such that el is relatively large, the phase deviations may become so intense that the phase front is no longer coherent
across the irregularities larger than certain size. These irregularities then lose their ability to focus or defocus the rays. The
interference scenario for the amplitude fluctuation described
above therefore is no longer valid. Qualitatively, one would
expect the saturation of the amplitude fluctuation. Another
refinement of this qualitative picture is that when the irregularity slab is thick one would expect to see amplitude fluctuations developing inside the slab such that as the wave emerges
from the slab it has suffered both phase and amplitude perturbations. Hence, the development of the diffraction pattern on
the ground is affected by both factors.
In scintillation theories, one attempts toinvestigate quantitatively the various aspects of the phenomenon. Thestarting
the
point is the wave equationin electrodynamics.Under
assumptions [ 5 8 ]
i) thetemporal variations of the irregularities aremuch
slower than the wave period,
ii) the characteristic size of the irregularities is much greater
than the wavelength,
the vector wave equation for theelectric field vector inside the
irregularity slab can be replaced by a scalar wave equation

where E is a component of the electric field in phasor notation


and k2 = kg ( E ) .
Equation (3.4) is a partial differential equation with random
coefficient, the solution of which, if available, will form the
basis for the scintillation theories. Unfortunately, the general
solution of (3.4) does not seem t o be possible. One has t o
settle for various approximate solutions for different applications. To discuss these solutions, we f i t specialize in the case
of normal incidence. The generalization of the results t o the
oblique incidence case will be discussed later in the develop
ment. For the normal incidence case, it is conven$nt to introduce the complex amplitude for thewave field u ( r )

Equation (3.4) then yields an equation for the complex amplitude

Based on this equation, an approach, known as the Parabolic


Equation Method (PEM), has been developed t o treat problems of wave propagation in random media [ 241. The following assumptions are madein this approach:
iii) The Fresnel approximation in computing the phge of
the scattered field is valid, corresponding to z >> I >> h
iv) Forward scattering: The wave is scattered mainly into a
small angular cone centered aroundthedirection
of
propagation. This corresponds to ( e t ) z / l < < 1, where z

OSPHERE
THE
YEHSCINTILLATIONS
AND
INWAVE
LIU: RADIO

333

is the distance the wave has traveled in the random medium and 1 is the characteristic scale of the irregularities,
which can be taken as certainmean scale size of the
In addition,the backscatirregularities [ 241,[213].
tered power is negligible, corresponding to ( E : ) kz << 1.
v) Theattenuation of thecoherent wave field perunit
wavelength is small, corresponding t o ( E : ) k2 << 1.
When assumption iii) is satisfied, it follows that (3.5) can be
approximated by

aU
aZ

- 2 j k - + + f ~ = - k ~ ~ l (O
; ) <~ Z, < L

(3.6)

where 0: = a2/axz + a2 lay2 is the transverse Laplacian. This


is an equation of the parabolic type whose solution is determined uniquely by the initial condition at z = 0. This equation has been used in quasi-optics and other propagation problems [641. Based on(3.6), with the additionalassumptions
iv) and v), a series of equations for the moments of the complex amplitude can be derived that constitute the basis for the
scintillation theory. Below the irregularityslab, underthe
assumption thatthe scalesof the random variation of the
field are large in comparison with the wavelength, the complex
amplitude satisfies

aU
aZ

- 2 j k - + V f uz=>OL, .

(3.7)

The initial condition for (3.7) is given by the solution of


(3.6) evaluated at z = L .
Therefore,(3.6)
and (3.7) are the basic equationsupon
which the ionospheric scintillation theories are developed. In
the following, we shall discuss several such theories.

Phase Screen Theory


Historically, the firstionosphericscintillation
theory was
based on the idea of wave diffraction from a phase-changing
irregular screen [221, 1231, [65,1-[731. This idea has been
qualitatively discussed in the previous section. Let us consider
an incident plane wave with constant amplitude A o . As the
wave passes through the irregularity slab, the ionosphere acts
as a phase-changing screen that modifies only the phase of the
wave. Therefore, upon emerging fromthe ionosphere, the
wave has the form
B.

uo(P> = ~0 exp [ - M A I .

(3.8)

The irregularity slab is considered to act as a thin screen located


at z = 0 that contributes to changing the phase of the incident
wave by the amount

Equation(3.10) is the starting point of the phase screen


theoryfor ionosphericscintillation.
To develop thetheory,
one assumes thatthe phase perturbationintroduced by the
screen is a Gaussian random field with zero mean. It is reasoned thatthecontribution
to the phase fluctuation comes
from many irregularities along the line of sight.Thecentral
limit theorem then predicts the Gaussian distribution for the
phase. Utilizing the property

we obtain from (3.10)


for the homogeneous Gaussian field @,
the expression for the mean field on the ground
( u ( $ , z ) ) = [-&/21
A
(3.12)
~exp
where
-+*
-00

(3.13)
We have used (2.19) in deriving (3.13) and L is the thickness
of the irregularity slab; @ A N ( ; L , 0) is the three-dimensional
spectrum of the density fluctuation AN with K , set equal to
zero.
The averaged field is attenuated according to (3.12). This is
due to the fact that part of the energy has gone t o the incoherent part of the total field which is generated by the random
phase front.
The average intensity on the ground can also be computed
from (3.10)
(u(p,z)u*(;,z))=A;

(3.14)

which is a constant equal to the incident intensity, consistent


with the forward scattering assumption.
In the experimental observation of the scintillation phenomenon, one often measures the fluctuations of the amplitude
(intensity) of the received signal. In recentyears,thanks to
several satellite beacon experiments1201, [ 741, the phase
fluctuations of the signal can also be simultaneously measured.
Therefore, it is of interest to derive useful formulas for these
observed quantities. In order t o facilitatecomparisonwith
results from other scintillation theyies, we proceed inthe
following manner. Let the field u ( p, z) in (3.10) be written
in the form
u(p, z) = A0 exp [x(?,

2)

- is1

(3,z)l

= A0 exp W G , z)l

(3.15)
where re = eZpo4nm is the classical electron radius and A N T ( p)
is the deviation of thetotalelectroncontentthroughthe
irregularity slab.
As the wave u 0 ( d ) propagates to the ground, the field can
be computed using the Kirchhoffs diffraction formula [ 231.
Under the forward scattering assumption, the Fresnel diffraction results in [ 231

(3,

where x(;, z) is referred to as the log-amplitude and S1 z )


as the phase departue of the wave.
For a shallow screen such that @
<< 1,:it is easy to &ow
from (3.10) that
A

(3.10)
It is interesting t o note that (3.10) satisfies (3.7) which is the
equation governing the wave propagating below the irregularity
slab under the forward scattering condition.

(3.16)
From (3.16) we obtain the following results for the moments

PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, VOL. 70, NO. 4, APRIL 1982

334

of

x and S1 : The mean


(x>= (SI)= 0.

(3.17)
Under the assumption of weak scintillationsuch that the
higher order term (VI$) can be neglected in (3.22), we obtain the equation for the Rytov solution
[ 241 , [ 581

The correlation functions

(3.23)

(3.18)
where @@(
by

The range of validity of this solution has been discussed by


many authors[87]-[89].There
is some evidence thatthe
Rytov solution may be applied t o ionosphericscintillation
data even for moderately strong scintillations [go].
The general solution of (3.23) can be obtained as

zl)is the power spectrum for thephase q5(p) given

@ ~ ( $ ~ ) = h 2 r ~ @ A N T ( $ ~ ) = 2 ~ L h 2 r 0~).@ A N ( ~ ~ ,

(3.19)
From (3.18) and (3.19), we obtain the mean-square fluctuations for and S1

exp [-jkl; - pI2/2(z - f)1 dp

(3.24)

where $ o ( p ) = In u(p, 0) corresponds to the incident wave.


The field emerging from the bottom of the slab is given by
exp [ JI (p; L)] , which contains modifications for both ampli-tude and phase. The amplitude variations come about from
the diffractional effects inside the slab, as is evident from the
second term in (3.24). The field on theground can be obtained
L)] as its initial condifrom (3.7) with u (p, L ) = exp [ $(;,
tion. The Rytov solution for (3.7) is

+-

/-r

(3.20)
and the powerspectra
departure

for the log-amplitude and the phase


exp[-jk

ax(2~)
=Sin2 (K:Z/2k)@~($l)
= 2nLh2r,? S h 2 ( K f Z / 2 k ) @ ~ ~ ( 20)
1,

@s(;l)= COS2 (K:Z/2k)@,#,($l)


= 2nLhr:

COS

(K:Z/~~)@AN($~,
0). (3.21)

As mentioned above, the phase screen theory has been used


quite extensively in ionospheric scintillation work as well as
interplanetary and interstellarscintillations [4],[75]-[77].
Although the derivation was specialized for an incident plane
wave, the results can be readily generalized t o cases of spherical wave, beam wave [ 781, extended source [ 791, etc.
The expressions derived above are no longer valid if one
considers adeep screen where & is no longer small. One
has to go back t o (3.10) to derive general expressions for the
various parameters. Mercier [69] considered this problem in
somedetailand
derived integral expressions forthe higher
moments of the field. Recently, several authors have derived
analytic asymptotic expressions for the intensity correlation
function and the spectrum [ 801-[ 861. Some of these results
will be discussed in latersections.
C. Theory for Weak Scintillation-Rytov Solution
When the effects of scattering on the amplitude of the wave
inside the irregularity slab are to be included in the treatment
of the scintillation phenomenon, one has t o go back to (3.6)
and (3.7). With the substitution of (3.15), (3.6) becomes

lp

p 1/2(z - L)1 dp

(3.25)

L ) is obtained from (3.24).


where
Equation (3.25) gives the formal solution for the
ionospheric
scintillation problem under the Rytov approximation. It can
be used to derive the various statisticalparameters forthe
wave field.
Again, let us specialize t o a plane incident wave with unity
amplitude. Then the mean values
= (Sl>= 0. The power
spectra for S1, and the cross spectrum between and SI for
the field on the ground are given, respectively, by [ 9 1 ]
$(pf,

x,

(x>

K?
KfL ?rk3
@,s(K;) = 7 sin -sin - (z - L/2)@&,
K l
2k
k

0).

(3.26)
The correlationfunctions can be obtainedfrom (3.26). We
note that by letting L + 0 in the expressions for @,,@s, we
obtainthe phase screen results (3.21) if thesubstitution
=
(r:h4/nz)@AN is made.
Several aspects of this result are specially useful in the anal-

YEH AND LIU: RADIO WAVE SCINTILLATIONS IN THE IONOSPHERE

10

335

I?

14

16

20

18

Fig. 8. Filter
function
for
amplitude
scintillation
plotted
against
normalized wavenumber Kfzlk. Dashed line, marked L = 0 km,
corresponds to the phase screen model.

ysis and interpretation of scintillation data.


these points in the following.
I) ScintiZZation Index S4: One of the
parameters in ionospheric scintillation study
index defined as the normalized varianceof
signal [ 9 1 ]

sf

We shall consider
most important
is thescintillation
intensity of the

( I Z )-

(3.27)

Other definitions for the


scintillation index have been proposed
[ 9 2 ] , [ 9 3 ] ,[44]. However, the S4 indexhas beenadopted
by most investigators for digitally processed scintillation data.
For weak scintillations, it is easy t o show [ 9 1]

sf

= 4(X*).

From ( 3 . 2 6 ) and the definition of correlationfunction,


have

we

This quantity measures the severity of intensityscintillation


underthe
weak scintillationassumption.
The integralin
( 3 . 2 8 ) indicates that the contribution to the intensity scintillation from the irregularities is weighted by a spatial filter function, i.e., the expression in the square brackets of ( 3 . 2 8 ) . Fig.
8 shows the filter function versus K ' ( Z - L ) / k for three values
of the slab thickness L . The height of the slab is 350 km. The
oscillatorycharacter of the filterfunction is known as the
Fresnel oscillation, which is more pronounced for a smaller L .
The irregularity spectrum is, in general, of a power-law type,
which decays as K increases. Therefore,theproduct of the
filter function and the spectrum has a maximum around K fi
K F = 2 n / d ~corresponding
,
to the first maximum of the filter
function. This is consistent with the intuitive picture
presented
in Section 111-A that when multiple scattering effects are not
important, irregularities of sizes of the orderof the first Fresnel
zone are most effective in causing amplitude scintillation.
For a power-law spectrum QAN K I P , with an outer scale
much greater than the Fresnel zone size, it is possible to show
from ( 3 . 2 8 ) that [ 5 2 ]

s4 a ~

( + 2~ ) 1 4a f - ( 2 + ~ ) / 4 .

This frequency dependence of the scintillation index has been


observed in many experiments, someof which will be discussed
in later sections.
From ( 3 . 2 8 ) we also note the dependenceof the scintillation
index on thethickness of the slab L ' I 2 , and on rms A N .
2 ) Mean-Square Phase FZuctuations: From ( 3 . 2 8 ) we have

(3.29)

..
The phase filteMg function given in the square brackets of
( 3 . 3 0 ) is very different from the amplitude filtering function,
which as discussed in the lastsection shows Fresneleffects.
In fact, the major contribution to (St)comes from the large
irregularities. It is easy to showfrom ( 3 . 3 0 ) that (St)is
proportional to l / f z .
3) FrequencyPowerSpectra:
Inpracticalsituations,
the
irregularities in the ionosphere are in motion mostof the time.
This motion will cause the diffraction pattern on the ground
to drift. This process is responsible for producing a temporal
variation of the signal received by a single receiver. In most
cases, forradio signals transmittedfromthe
geostationary
satellite, this is what one observes as the scintillation signal.
If the "frozen-in'' assumption discussed in Section 11-E for the
irregularities is valid, then the temporal behavior of the signal
can be transformed into the spatial behavior.In other cases
where the radio signals are transmittedfromatransit
satellite, the speed of the satellite usually is much faster than the
drift speed of the irregularities so that the temporal variations
of the signal received by a single receiver can be considered as
the result of the radio beam scanning over the spatial variations of frozen irregularities. In both cases, therelation between temporal and spatial variationsis a simple translation by
themotion.Thefrequency
powerspectrum of the signal
received at a single station denoted by
is related to the
spatial power spectrum by[ 5 1 ]

@(a)

,-+-

where thecoordinate system is chosensuch thatthedrift


velocity is in the x-z planewith the tranverse ( x direction)
speed uo .

PROCEEDINGS O F THE IEEE, VOL. 70, NO. 4, APRIL 1982

336

Substituting the expressions for spatial power spectra from


(3.26) into (3.31), we obtain the frequency power spectra for
the log-amplitude and phase, respectively,

where

For a power-law irregularity spectrum of the form K i p , the


general b'ehavior of ax and 9s can be estimated. At the highfrequency end such that 52 >> 5 2 =~ V ~ K F ,both 9
, and
vary asymptotically as a('-P)

layer relative to the direction of propagation. The s c a n effect


produced by the relative motion of the source and the irregularity slab acts to select only spatial frequencies normal t o the
line of sight [46]. That is to say that instead of the irregularity
sizes in the x-y plane as appeared in the above derivations, it is
now the dimensions of irregularities transverse t o the line of
sight that enter in the
scintillation formulas. This results in
the replacement of th+e irregularity spectrum @ A N ( K ~ 0)
, by
+ A N (21,-tan e i?kl ~ 1in) the expressions derived, where e is
the incidence angleof the wave (with respect to the vertical
axis) and i?kL is the unit vector transverse to the propagation
direction [991. In addition, the slanted path of propagation
should be taken into account. The geometric dependence of
scintillation becomes more important when the irregularities
areanisotropic.
With the combinedeffects of propagation
geometry and anisotropy of the irregularities, enhancement of
scintillation can sometimes result [ 1001.
The above derivations can also be extended t o the case of
spherical waves [ 1011-[ 1031.

D. Parabolic Equation
And for 52 <<

5
2
,
(3.34)
O
*D

(3.35)
For the amplitudespectrum

ax,the

two asymptotesmeet as

I is the ratio of the two integrals in (3.33) and (3.34). Therefore, on the log-log plot of the spectra, one observes the highfrequency asymptotes having a slope of (1 - p ) . At the lowfrequency end such that 52152~<< 1, the amplitude spectrum
approachesa constantindependent of 52, while the phase
spectrum s t i l l has an asymptotic slope of (1 - p ) . The rolloff
52~.This
for the amplitude spectrum occurs near 52 =
again reconfirms the intuitive picture that irregularities of sizes
greater than the size of the f i t Fresnel zone do not contribute
much to the amplitude scintillation. We note from this result
that large-scale irregularities dominate the phase fluctuations.
+m
, and
For a Gaussian irregularity spectrum, the behavior of 9
!& are quite different [95]. Indeed, the investigation of the
shape of the observed scintillation spectra has played an important role in determining the power-law nature of the ionospheric irregularity spectrum [41], [ 421.The above are the
basic results for weak scintillation under the assumptions of
Rytovapproximation.
There is experimental evidence that
the Rytov results for the amplitude scintillation remain valid
for S4 approachinga value of 0.3, while phase fluctuations
have a wider range of validity [ 901.
The above derivations are based on the normal incidence of
the wave upon the irregularity slab. The results can be generalized to cases of oblique incidence [70], [96]-[991. It can be
shown that under general ionospheric conditions the effects of
diffraction are not altered by the orientation of the scattering

52,-

Method

The Rytov solution, in essence, is a single-scattering solution


As el (thefluctuationinthe
for the scintillationproblem.
relative dielectric permittivity of the medium) increases, multiplescattering by these irregular structures becomes more
important. For a given frequency, el increases with increasing
density fluctuation A N . In a &en ionospheric condition, el
increases for waves at lower frequencies. In either case, when
multiplescatteringeffectsbecome
significant, scintillation
theory based on Rytov solution will no longer be applicable.
Indeed, the assumption of small phase fluctuations is often
not satisfied if the data interval is large. One has to go back
to (3.6) and (3.7) and develop a theory free of theRytov
assumption of smallness in fluctuations of the field quantities.
The development of such a scintillation theory is based on
the realization that i) under theforward scattering assumption
the field at any height z' depends only on those irregularities
in the region z < z ' and ii) as the wave propagates in the random medium for a distance much greaterthan the longitudinal
correlationdistance of the e l , the field varies onlya small
amount in a correlation scale of el in the z direction. Therefore, for the computation
of the statistical moments of the
field, one can approximately replace the correlation function
for theirregularities by

where

=IOD
+m

A,(;)

B E ( ; , f) df = 2nJ

0) ei'l.'dZKL
-m

(3.37)

is the two-dimensionalcorrelationfunction.This
is the socalled Markov approximation [ 581, [ 661.
Starting from theparabolic equations (3.6), with the Markov
approximation (3.36), it is possible to derive a closed set of
equations for the statistical moments of the field u , by using
functional derivatives or diagram techniques [ 1041, [ 1OS].
Let us now introduce the general moments for the complex
amplitude u(p', z , k ) where the frequency of the wave is explicitly denote?bythe
paramete: k . For convenience, we
introduce s' = ( p , k ) and express u ( s , z ) as the field. The mnth

YEH AND LIU: RADIO


SCINTILLATIONS
WAVE

THE

IN

IONOSPHERE

337

moment of the field is defined by

+ +

+
rm,n(Z,Sl,Sz,...,Sm;S1,...rSn)

=(u1u2 *
+

.1(

u*

a2

- up) (3.38)

-GAUSSIAN
-.

- POWER LAW

+I

where ui = u ( q , z), ui = u ( q , 2).


This general moment for the field can be shown t o satisfy
the following equation [ 1061 :
a r m * n (z,

C =I55
&=1.6%9
=2.97

+I

a, . . .

.s . . Sn)
+

i
i

Sm,
+

01

02

03

54

05

06

07

08

IO

09

P/fO

Fig. 9. Contours of constant correlation coefficient C,,,for frequencyspaceseparations.


Both power-law andGaussianirregularities
are
included.

(3.39)

v;

= a2/ax; + a21ay,? and vj2 = a2/axjZ+ a2/ayj2. For


z > L , i.e., outside the slab, (3.39) is still valid if one sets
A A N = 0 in the last term. Therefore, we have now a general
set of equations describing the behavior of the higher statistical moments of the scintillation signal. This set of equations
was first used t o develop a multiple-scatter scintillation theory
for the ionmpherecase in [ 531, [ 1071.
= ( u ) . The equations
From the definition, we note that
for the averaged field thus become

rl,o

z > L.

coherence function [ 105 1. The general analytical solution of


(3.42) is difficult and has not been obtained. Certain special
aspects of the equation are of interest. If one sets k = k in
(3.42), one obtains the equation for the
coherence function
r2=(u(z, p)u*(z, 7 ) )which, for plane wave incidence, has
the analytic solution
r2(Z,p,Z)=A: exp

{-~~AL[AAN(O)- AAN(Z-

= A : exp [-

3 D+($- 311

?)I}
(3.43)

where De is the structure function+for the phase fluctuation


defined in (2.25). We note that forp= ;such that r2= (u2 ) =
A: from (3.43) which is consistent with the energy conservation requirements for forward scattering.
A Rytovtype of solutionfor rl, can be obtained from
(3.42) by writing 11,1 = exp ($) and neglecting the nonlinear
terms in the resulting equation for $. Under this approximation, we have [ 1081, [ 1091

rl, (z, 6, ?, k,k)

(3.40)

= ~ X [$I
P

(3.44)

For plane wave incident such that 02. = 0, (3.40) yields the
solution, forz > L
( U ) = A exp
~ [ - ~ ~ A ~ L A ~ =( o A) /exp
~~ I[-&/21.

{exp [jAkKf(z - L)/2kk] - exp [ j # r ~ f z / 2 k k ] }


(3.41)

This agrees with the plane wave solution from the general
phase screen approach (3.12). We note that the measurement
of ( u ) will enable one t o obtain the important parameter 4:
for the ionospheric irregularity slab. In the following, we shall
presentsomeresults
obtainedfromthe
scintillation theory
based on (3.39) and other equivalent versions of it. Emphasis
will be onquantitiesthat
are observed inthe scintillation
experiments.
1 ) Mutual Coherence Function: Consider 11,1 = ( u ( z , p,
k)u * (z,
k)). The equation for rl, becomes

z,

eXp

[ jzl (p - ?)I d 2 K l / K f

where Ak = k - k.
This Rytov solution has been used t o study pulse propagation in the ionosphere [ 1101 and t o characterize the transionospheric communication channel [ 1 1 1,1 [ 1 121.
Although certain asymptotic solutions of (3.42) have been
studied [ 1091, the general solution can only be obtained by
numericalintegration.
Fig. 9 shows someresults from such
computations [ 1131.Intransionosphericcommunication
applications, it is useful to define a correlation coefficient for
the complex amplitude

c,

I((u - ( u ) ) (U* - ( U * ) ) ) I

I(

Iu - ( u ) 12) (Iu - (u)2)l 12

- l r 1 , 1 ( s , ~ , k , k ) -( u ) ( u * ) ~
[( ( u 2 > - ( u > 2 ) ((Ut? - (u>2)]lI2 *
(3.42)

rl.,l is

known as the two-frequencytwo-position

mutual

(3.45)

(3.46)

In Fig. 9, C, is plotted for a set of values of normalized


parameters defined by

338

PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, VOL. 70, NO. 4, APRIL 1982

C = 8nl:rzX ( ( A N ) )

to= L / k , l $

( = z/kol $

X=- A k

(3.47)

k+ k

where lo is some characteristic size for the irregularities.


The contours in Fig. 9 indicate the level of correlation for
sig+& at different frequencies received at stations separated
by p. They can be used t o study frequency and/or space diversity schemes for transionospheric communication. The results
are given for both Gaussian and power-law irregularity spectra.
Recently, using datafrom Wideband Satellite, thetwo-fre
quency coherence function has been measured experimentally Fig. 10. Scintillation index S, as a function of r m s A N computed for
frequencies 125 MHz, 250 MHz, and 500 MHz. The irregularity slab
[2121.
has a thickness of 50 km. The distance between the bottom of the
2 ) Scintillation Index:
computedforthe
same freslab and the observer is 237.5 km. The background electron density
quency corresponds to the coherence function known in the
1012/m3 is assumed with p = 4 and an outerscale of 500 m.
=(u(z,pl)u(z,pz>u*(z,~~)u*(z,~~))
literature
where the frequency dependence is omitted. From (3.39), we
have
(3.39) can be put into a dimensionless form

r2,
=r4 =r2,2

(3.48) with

(3)

where D@
is the
structure
function
for
the
Introducing new variables
-+

+& +& + & )


P=j& +pz - p; - &

R =+

(Jl

1;

(=Z/LT

phase.
=

(;l

- pz

i1= 3 (511

an initial condition

+p; - 3;)
- pl

(3.55)
and
IT = (87~rzC&X)-(/~)
LT = [8n2(2n)-P/r ~ C & k ~ ~ Z ) ] - ( ~ p ) (3.56)
.

(3.49)
(3.48) can be transformed to

41

r4 = A : at z = ( = 0. Here in (3.54)
/IT
& =2; /IT q+ = KllT

For z

> L , the dimensionless equation is


(3.5 7)

(3.50)
where F is the expression in the curly brackets in (3.48) involving the combination of the phase structure functions ex%ressed in the new variables. Note that F does not depend on
R ; this is due t o the fact that the random field involved is
homogeneous. If we specialize in plane wave incidence, V R = 0
and we can set p = 0 in F without loss of generality. Equation
(3.50) then becomes

with r4 at z = L computed from (3.56) as its initial condition.


Since (3.54) and (3.57) are dimensionless, their solutions
must be independent of the irregularity strength and the geometry. Indeed, it will be possible to obtain a universal solution
for the problem [114], [1151. Equations (3.54) and
(3.57)
constitute the basis for multiplescatter ionospheric scintillais known, one
tion theory for intensity scintillations. Once
can compute the scintillation index S4.

r4

st
In terms of the power spectrum, the F function can be expressed as
+-

F ( ~ 1 , ; 2 ) = 4 ~ [ ( J @ ( z l ) ( 1-

C O S ~ ~ - ; ~ )

-OD

(1 - cos 21

;2)

dK1

(3.52)

where (J@ is given in (3.19).


For a power-law irregularity spectrum of the form
a A N ( 2 1 ) = C&

I Z 1-P
~

(3.53)

1
=A40

r4((,0,01 - 1.

(3.58)

This indicates that the scintillation index is a function of ( =


z / L T . From (3.28), it can be shown thatthe scintillation
approximation (the subindex S40 computedunderRytov
script 0 indicates theRytovsolution)
is proportional t o (.
This implies that the scintillation index in the general case is a
function of S40 [ 1 151.
General analyticsolutions to (3.54) and (3.57) have not
been found although certain asymptotic solutions have been
obtained [85], [ 1161. Numerical solutions have been attemptedfor some cases [ 1161, [ 1171. Fig. 10 shows the
results from one of such computations [53]. The scintillation

INTILLATIONS
WAVE
YEH
RADIO
AND LIU:

IONOSPHERE
IN THE

339

2ow

tion for (3.57) t o yield an analytical expression for the power


spectrum function for the intensity on the
ground [ 81 1 , [ 821

(3.59)
where
0.0
0.0

0.1

0.2

0.3

a4

0.5

S, AT 5 0 0 MHz

Fig. 11. Spectral indices for two frequencies against scintillation index
S, . The ionosphere conditions are the same as those in Fig. 10.

2 L=SOkrn fP=707MHz
3. L = 5 0 k r n f,=IOMHz

Frequency f (MHz)

Fig. 12. Spectral index as a function of frequency for different ionospheres. The irregularity model is the same as in Fig. 10.

index S4 is plotted against the rms electron density fluctuation


for three different frequencies in the VHFandUHF bands.
We note that for small values of rms A N , S4 for all three frequencies increases linearly with A N r m s , as predicted by the
weak scintillation theory (3.28). As ANrms increases, m d tiplescatteringeffects
become important, and saturation of
the scintillation index becomes apparent, first atthe lower
frequency. This saturationeffect causes the frequency dependence of S4 t o depart from that predicted by the weak
n = -(2 + p)/4 as given by
scintillation theory, viz., S4 af-,
(3.29). For strong scintillations, the spectral index n is not a
constant any more; it depends on S4. Fig. 1 1 showstwo curves
of spectral index as function of S4 obtained from the same
numerical computations as in Fig. 10. We note that for the
same ionosphericconditions,
the spectral index curves are
different for different frequencies. This is due t o the fact that
at different frequencies the degree of S4 saturation is different.
Fig. 12 shows the spectral index n as a function of frequency
for different ionospheric conditions.
Althoughanalyticsolutions
for (3.54) and (3.57)are not
available, over the years researchers have attempted t o derive
asymptotic formulas for the scintillation index under strong
scintillation
conditions,
using the phase screen
approach
[801-[86]. The starting point is (3.8). With the assumption
of Gaussian statistics, r4 at the bottom of the irregularity slab
can be computed. This can then be used as the initial condi-

Again the phase structure function D6 appears in the expression. The scintillation index S: can be obtained from (3.59)

-00

For weak scintillation, (3.59) can be approximated by expanding exp (g), which will then lead to results similar to
those shown in (3.21) and (3.26). For power4aw ionospheric
irregularities of the form of (3.53) (valid for K~ < I K I I < ~ i ) ,
the scintillation index can be found explicitly [ 861

where J is a numerical factor dependent on the degree of anisotropy of the irregularities [ 861, r is the gamma function,
and { is the normalized propagation distance defined in (3.5 5).
As discussed above, the general solution for S4 will be a function of 5 only (3.58). From (3.62), it-follows that thegeneral
scintillation index will depend on S40 in a universal manner,
independent of the ionospheric condition and the propagation
and hence S40 can be
geometry [ 1151. The parameter
considered as the strengthparameter that characterizes the
level of scintillation for the ionospheric applications.
Based on (3.591, asymptotic expressions for S4 and the
power spectrum for large values of 5 (or S40) have been derived for different ranges of values for p [ 8 l l , 182 l , [85 l ,
[ 861 . For the case p 2 4, the scintillation index is found to exceed unity for certain intermediate values of {. This is known
as focusing. As 5 increases further, S4 approachesunity.
This behavior is also found in results from numerical computations [53], [ 1721.
3 ) CorrelationFunction and CoherenceInterval: The correlation fynctionfortheintensity
scintillationis given by
r4(5,rl, r2 = 0). For weak scintillation this function can be
approximated by the results from the Rytov solution (Fourier
transform of (3.26)). For strong scintillation, numerical solutions of (3.54) and (3.57) give us this correlation function.
Fig. 13 shows an example from such computation. Two intensity correlation functions are shown for certainionospheric
conditions. It is interesting t o note the faster dropoff of the
correlation atthe
lower frequency, corresponding t o the
decorrelation for stronger scintillations. This decorrelation is
caused by multiple scattering of the wave from irregularities.
As discussed in Section 111-A, at higher frequencies so that the
scintillation is in the single-scatter regime, the most dominant

tp/

340

PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, VOL. 7 0 , NO. 4 , APRIL 1982

D@(Tcuo)= 1
(3.64)
for the multiple-scatter regime. For the power-law irregularity
spectrum of the type (3.531, it can be shown that [86]
(3.65)

f,=5MHr

LI00krn
r,=Wrn

Transverse C o a h t e a (m)

Fig. 13. Transverse


correlation
functions for the intensityof
the
scintillating signal. Power-law irregularity spectrum with p = 4.

O 5 0

00

200

5ooIxx)x)(x,

Frequency f (MHz)

where C is a parameter depending on the strength of the irregularity and the propagation geometry.
The power spectrum for the intensity can be obtained from
the solution of (3.54) and (3.57). One approach is to Fourier
transformthetwoequationsin
andcarryoutcertainiterative solutions for the resulting differential-integral equations
[581, 1 181, [ 1 191. Some asymptotic results have been obtained from the phase screen approach [ 811-[83]. The spectrum has the same high-frequency asymptote as for the weak
scintillation case, but the rolloff frequency is increased, indicating a broadening of the spectrum which corresponds to the
decorrelation of the signal. There is also anincrease in the
low-frequencycontent of thespectrum,corresponding to a
long tail of the correlation function.
In this section, we have presented the results of a multiplescatter theory for ionospheric scintillations based on the PEM.
Some related analytic results from phase screen theory are also
discussed.Recently,there
have been somepromising new
developments using the path-integral method
[ 1201 -[ 1233.
The method is especially suitable for strong scintillations in
the saturation region.
The discussion of any scintillation theory will not be complete if one does notmentiontheprobabilitydistributions
of the scintillating signals. Indeed, t h i s is an area that is least
developed in ionosphericscintillationtheory.Inthefollowing section; abrief discussion on this subject will be given.

Fig. 14. Correlation distance as a function of frequency.Ionosphere


condition is the same as in Fig. 13.

E. Probability Dismbutions of the Scintillating Signuls


Tostudytheprobabilitydistributions
of thescintillation
contributions to intensity scintillation come from irregularities signal theoretically, several approaches have been adopted in
of the sizes approximately equal to the dimension of the first
theliterature. One is to use heuristicarguments to analyze
Fresnel zone 4-j.
Therefore, the correlation distance the scattering process and then apply the central-limit theorem
from the intensity fluctuations should be approximately equal in
probability
study
to determinethedistribution.
This
to the Fresnel zone dimension which is proportional to l / g .
approach has led to the prediction of joint Gaussian distribuAs thefrequencydecreases,themultiplescatteringeffects
tions for the real and imaginary parts of the complex signal.
enter the picture and eventually dominate. These effects cause Application of the arguments to the Rytovsolutionresults
decorrelation so that the correlation distance will decrease as in the log-normal distribution for the intensity [ 1241. In the
thefrequency decreases. These twocompetingcontrolling
weak scintillation regime, the theoretical predictions seem to
mechanisms for the correlation of the intensity at high- and
[ 1251. There have been
agree with theexperimentaldata
many statistical theorems developed governing when the cenlow-frequencylimits
will resultin a maximumcorrelation
distanceoccurringat
some intermediatefrequency.
Fig. 14 tral limit theorem can be used. However, these theorems are
difficult to apply to propagation problems [ 1261. The second
shows two examples of such behaviy where the correlation
approach is to theoretically calculate first the moments of the
distance is defined as the distance Ip I at which the intensity
distribution and thencomputethedistribution.In
many
correlation is one-half of its maximum value [53I . Although
of the signal are
cases, if the moments of, say, the intensity
the results are for correlation distance, they can
be transformed
to those for the coherence interval corresponding to the tem- known, the characteristic function$ z ( a ) can be determined
poralbehavior of the scintillating signal. If the frozen in
$z(w) = (exp (-jwI))
idea is valid, then the relation between correlation distance I ,
and coherence time 7, is simply T, = I,/UO, where uo is the
(-iwl2
(-10)~
=I-jam,+m2 + -m3 + . .
transverse drift speed.
2!
3!
In the phase screen approach, a more quantitative estimate
(3.66)
of T, is possible. It can be shown that for p <4, the asymp
totic intensity correlation function for strong scintillations is
where m, =
). The probabiliy distribution function for the
given by 1861
intensity p ( I ) can then be calculated

(r

(3.63)
r 4 ( z , & , o ) = 1 +exp [-D@(;~)I.
Therefore, the coherence intervalT, can be defmed by

-00

YEH AND LIU: RADIO WAVE SCINTILLATIONS


IONOSPHERE
IN THE

34 1

For this approach t o work, the moments must satisfy certain


convergenceconditions
[ 1271, [ 1281.Furthermore,the
moments themselves usually are not easy to obtain. In optical
scintillation problems several authors have attempted to use
this approach to determine the distribution [ 1291 ;the results
have not been very promising. Using the phase screen theory
to compute the moments for the intensity,
Mercier [691 has
shown that for a deep phase screen, the intensity of the signal
satisfies the Rayleigh distribution.
The third approach to the problem is t o use the characterhave been obtainedfor
isticfunctions [ 1301.Someresults
the optical propagation case [ 13 1I .
To this date, these approaches and efforts notwithstanding,
asatisfactorytheoryfortheproabilitydistributions
of the
variousparameters of thescintillating signal has not been
developed.
Recently,
for
optical
propagation
problems,
several authors [ 1321 have adopted a practical procedure to
studythisproblem.
This amounts toa trial anderror a p
proach in which a distribution based on plausible reasoning is
taken as the basis for carrying out certain calculations for the
signal statistics. The computed results are then checked against
experimentaldata to see if thedistribution yields correct
predictions. Some insights can be gained fromthistype
of
investigation. As theobservationaldatafromionospheric
scintillationexperimentsaccumulate,it
w
l
i be desirable to
apply this technique to study the problem of probability distributions of the signal.

F. Polarization Scintillation
In previous discussions of this chapter, the background medium is assumed to be isotropic. This is of course not exactly
true in theionosphere.Thepresence
of the earth magnetic
field makes the ionosphere a magnetc-ionic medium and hence
anisotropic. Fortunately, most radio frequencies
used in the
ionosphericscintillationexperimentsor
in transionospheric
communicationsare
all much higher thantheionospheric
electron gyrofrequency, which is roughly 1.4 MHz. Under the
high radio-frequency h i t , the chief magneto-ionic effect on
wave propagation is the Faraday effect [ 1331. The Faraday
effect is caused by continuouschangeinrelativephase
between the two characteristic waves which are counter rotating
andcircularlypolarized.Eachcharacteristic
wave will experience scattering if there are present electron density irregularities. Under the high-frequency apcroximation a stochastic
wave equation for the electric
field E can be derived and it
shows thatthecharacteristic
waves arenotcoupled by the
scattering process [ 1341. Making the weak and forward scatter approximation, this wave equation can be solved using the
Rytov method by assuming
~ ( i =)

1;(i)
2

e-pc(i)z

i=O

or x

(3.68)

8')

where
is the normalized ith characteristic vector (circular
in the present case), k(') is the propagation constantof the ith
mode, and @(j)is given by [ 1341

exp [-jk(')I; - p'I2/2(z -

I)]d'p'.

(3.69)

Here k is the propagation constant in the isotropic ionosphere


and el is givenby (3.3). Let theincident wave be linearly
polarized with a unit amplitude, which when received in the

absence of irregularities is polarized along the x-axis. In the


presence of irregularities, the resultant wave can be obtained
by summing up the characteristic waves given by (3.68)

This expression suggests that the resultant wave has a fluctuating phase given by Re (@('I + &))/2 and a fluctuating ampli+ @(x))/2. On the receiving plane, the
tude given by Im (@('I
resultant is linearly polarized but its plane of polarization fluctuates about the mean (in our case the mean is polarized along
the x-axis because of the choice of coordinate axes) with an
angle 52 =(@('I
- @(x))/2.Analyticalexpressionsforthe
variance of these fluctuations have been obtained for irregularities with Gaussian spectrum [ 1341 and power-law spectrum
[ 1351.Theyshowimportantdepolarizationeffectsup
to
136 MHz in the ionosphere.

IV. EXPERIMENTAL
RESULTS
A . Irregularity Structures
We have seen from the earlier discussions that the scintillation of radio signals is intimately related to the structure of
ionospheric irregularities, i.e., the space-time behavior of AN.
Even when restricted to the part of the structure or the spectrum that affects transionospheric radio
waves only, the spatial
scaleswill range fromsubmeters to tens of kilometers. At
present there is no single experimental technique that is capable
of producing information over a volume of tens of kilometers
on each side with fine details down to submeter range instant
by instant. What one can hope for is to design an experiment
so that a particular piece of information can be extracted. If
one desires moreinformation,amultitechniqueexperiment
has to be designed, as has been done recently
in many campaigns [ 1361-[ 1381. As far as scintillation is concerned, one
is interested in knowing the horizontal size of the irregularity
patch, its height, its thickness, the background electron density, the variance of fractional electron density fluctuations,
and the irregularityspectrum.
Only after possessing such
information on a global basis can one attempt to construct a
global scintillation model [ 1391. We review briefly such information in the following.
At equator the irregularity patch size has been measured to
be up to 1000 km in the east-west direction with a preference
in the 150-300-km range [ 1401-[ 1421 and t o be 1000 km in
thenorth-southdirection
[ 1431. This north-south size is
comparable to the airglow meaurements made recently, which
areindicative
of regions of depletedelectronsorbubbles
[ 1441, [ 1451. The east-west patch size is somewhat larger
than the average buble size of 70 km measured by the Faraday
is reasonable since it is
station and drift methods [471; this
known that scintillations may exist even when the radio ray
path is outside of an equatorial bubble. In temperate latitudes,
the east-west patch size may exceed 1000 km and the northsouth size is generally of the order of several hundred kilometers [ 1461-[ 1481. In all geographic regions, the nighttime
irregularities that produce scintillations are foundt o be mostly
embedded in the F region ionosphere from about 200 km to
1000 km [138], [145], [149]-[151], but daytime scintillationsare caused mainly by E region irregularities [ 1491,
[ 1521, [ 1531. The thickness of the patch is found to vary
fromtens of kilometers to hundreds of kilometers [ 1381,

342

1141, [371,[1541,[1551.
There is some evidence, at least
at temperate latitudes, that the fractional fluctuation of electron density is roughly uniform even though the background
plasma density may vary with height [ 1561. This means that
the electron density fluctuations near the F peak are generally
larger than that at other heights. The percent fluctuations in
electron density are usually very small, but can be as large as
nearly 100 percent at the equator [ 1391.
In early days of scintillation study the irregularity spectrum
was assumed t o be Gaussian mainly for mathematical convenience [231, [ 101]. The first suggestion that the spectrum
might follow a power-law form came from satellite scintillation data [40], [41]. Making use of the phase screen scintillation theory, it was then deduced that the implied irregularity
spectrum had a power-law form given by (2.8) [42]. At about
the same time the electron density data measured by the probe
on board the satellite OG06 became available and a power-law
spectrum was also obtained [43],[44], [ 1571. However,
these in-situ measurements limited the spectrumgiven by (2.8)
to a two-decade range from K = lo-' m-l (scale size about 7
km) to K = lo-' m-l (scale size about70 m). The ground
scintillation observations also had difficulties in extending the
spectrum because of data noise and the well-known Fresnel filtering effect discussed in Section I11 [ 1581. Yeh et al.[ 531 then
suggested to combine the scintillation or in-situ data with the
radar backscatter data for the purpose of extending the spectrum. This is useful because aradar senses the irregularity
spectrum at one-half of its operating wavelength when conAs a matter of fact using
figured in the backscattermode.
the published radar data at 50 MHz for the equatorial spread-F
[36] , a preliminary calculation showed the power-law could
be extended t o K = 2 m-' (scale size down to,3 m) [531. With
more careful calibration of the radar and the use of coordinatedscintillation data, the radar returns were found t o be
more than 40 dB less than that expected,based on the extrap
olated power law down to 3 m [54]. Therefore, these authors
suggested a Gaussian cutoff of the power-law spectrum near
the 0
' ion gyro-radius which they took to be 3.35 m. Such a
cutoff was found to be inconsistent, at least sometimes, with
thelater observed radar returns at 1mand 36 cm [ 1591[161], and even as small as 11 cm [551. Even thoughthe
precise nature of the spectrum down to such a small scale (not
much larger than the Debye length of 6.9 cm as estimated in
[55]) is not known, its generation must require a sequence of
plasma instability processes peculiar to the equatorial
geometry
and environment.Coordinatedexperimentsshowed
that the
3-m radar scatter would usually disappear around or later than
local midnight even when the UHF and L-band scintillations
were very strong [ 138I . This suggested the possible change of
the inner scale with time. Furthermore, more careful analysis
of both the scintillation data and the in-situ data gave evidence
that even the spectral index itself evolved with the irregularity
intensity [ 1621. These data showed a power-law index decreasing with the strength of phase scintillation.There was
also evidence indicating that the equatorial irregularities may
have a two-component power-law spectrum witha higher
spectral index forsmaller irregularities [ 2 11 .
As to the three-dimensional nature of the irregularities, the
f i t suggestion for magnetic field alignment was made by
Spencer [ 1631. Early reports of experimental measurements
on the size showed an axial ratio of 4 through 8 to 1 as r e
viewed by Herman [32] and the more recent results using a
large array [ 1561. The enhancement of scintillations when the

PROCEEDINGS
IEEE, OF THE

VOL. 70, NO. 4, APRIL 1982

orbiting satellite moved within the same L-shell as the observational station led Rino and his colleague [ 1641, [ 1651 t o suggest sheet-like irregularities in the auroral zone.

B. Signal Statistics
As discussed in Section 111-E, there does not exist at present
a satisfactory and rigorous theory which predicts the probabilitydistributionfunction
of ascintillation signal. It is only
known that when the scintillation is well inthesaturation
regime, the amplitude distributionapproaches that given by
Rayleigh [ 12 11. Several heuristic arguments have been proposed that lead t o simple distributions as working models.
Over the years, four models have gained popularity among
investigators inthe field. The first is based onthe phasechanging screen idea plus some assumptions about the statistics of electrondensity irregularities. This modelpostulates
that the phase undergoes a random walk in a phase-changing
screen and becomes a Gaussian process [ 671. When this idea
is extended by using the Rytov solution, it is natural t o s u p
pose that the logarithmic amplitude and the phase are jointly
Gaussian [ 1321, [ 1661.Under this postulate, theintensity
has a log-normal distribution, and the phase has a normal distribution.If, instead of logarithmic signals, similar assump
tions are applied to the quadrature components
themselves, the
in-phase and quadrature components become jointly Gaussian.
This is our second model. In this case the general expressions
for the intensity and phase distributions are complicated, but
they lead naturally to Rician statistics and Rayleigh statistics
in limitingconditions [ 921, [ 1671. Thethird model is an
approximation t o Gaussian stastistics and is known as Nakagami-m distribution for intensity [ 1681, given by

The parameter m is equal to theinverse square of the scintillation index S4 [ 941. The recent realization that theirregularity
spectrum falls slowly in a power-law form with the wavenumber suggests the coexistence of large irregularities that produce
only refractional effects and small irregularities that produce
only diffractional effects. This suggestion led Fremouw e t 171.
[ 1691 t o propose a two-component model, which decomposes
multiplicatively the complex signal into a slow refractive component and a fast diffractive component. The diffraction component is postulated t o obey generalized Gaussian statistics,
and the refractive component obeys log-normal statistics. In
all these four models, the intensity and phase distributions are
uniquely defined by the second-order moments of the received
sg
i nas
l , which can be computed easily from the observed scintillation data. The distributions so obtained in each case can
be subjected t o chi-square tests against histograms of the
observed intensity and phase. This procedure has been carried
out by Fremouw et al. [ 1671 who find that the normal distribution has the overall best fit for thephase and the Nakagami-m
distribution has the overall best fit for theintensity.The
amplitude(orintensity)
distributions of scintillating radio
signals have been studied by many investigators [ 1251, [ 1701,
[ 171] and the Nakagami-m distributions have been found t o
represent a good fit for the intensityby Whitney et al. [ 1711.
This is furtherdemonstrated in Fig. 15takenfrom
Rino
[ 1721. But the results of Fremouw et al. [ 1671 suggest that
a suitable bivariate distribution would be one that reduces t o
the product of the Nakagami-m distribution for the intensity

YEH AND
IONOSPHERE
LIU: THE
RADIO
SCINTILLATIONS
WAVE
IN

-"-.
2

ANCON, VHF,
DAY 0 6 3 , 0349 U T

08B. 0346 UT

RELATIVEINTENSITY

ANCON, L-BAND,
DAY 089.0415 UT

ANCON, VHF.

0 8 4 , 1306
D A YU T

, li"$,

0
2

KWAJ. UHF,

K W A I . L-BAND.
DAY
1218
104. DAVUT

34

ANCON, VHF,
DAY 056.MZO UT

15

26

RELATIVE INTENSllY

Fig. 15. Intensityscintillation

probability distribution atvarious scintillationlevels


(solid curve). (After Rino [ 1721 .)

and the normal distribution for the phase in the limit of zero
correlation between the two variates.

and the correspondingNakagamidistributions

1 .

C. Scintillation Index
Experimentally the scintillation index is conveniently used
as an indicator of scintillation strength. In the literature there
are a number of such indices in general use. These indices of
course can be converted and related to each other empirically
or through a given probability distribution [ 941. For quantitative work, the scintillation index S4 defined by (3.27) has
been found to be most useful. Under weak scintillation conditions, the scintillation index S40 has a f-" frequency dependence with n = ( p + 2)/4 as given by (3.29). In the ionosphere
the spectral index p is found to be 4 1 [42], which implies
n = 1.5 f 0.25. Since experimentally S4 indices are measured
at discrete frequencies, t o testthe
frequencydependence
between any two pairs of frequencies, say f l and f z , one can
define [ 173I

When n is independent of frequency, (4.2) is consistent with


the frequency scaling law of S4 af-" as desired. Using the
40-MHz and 140-MHz data recorded at Boulder, the scintillation index n(40/140) has been obtained and is plotted against
s4(140) in Fig. 16 [ 1741. The behavior of the data points
shows thatfor weak scintillations, the spectral index n a p
proaches a value of 1.6, which implies a p value of 4.4. This
is in agreement with the in-situ data. However, as the scintillation index S4(140) increases, the data points of Fig. 16 clearly
depict the dependence of n on S4,suggesting the dependence
of non f. The general trend, indicated by the solid curve,
shows the weaker dependence of n on f as S4 increases. This
is in agreement with the numerical results [ 531. The weakened
dependence of n on f is caused by multiple scattering. To take
multiplescattering intoaccount one needs to solve the r4
equation (3.48) and relate F4 to S4 through (3.58). Unfortunately, even though some numerical and asymptotic solutions

L
00

0.1

02

03

a4

05

S I 0 9 WO MHz

Fig. 16. The dependence of spectral index n(140/40) defined by (4.2)


as a function of S, (140). The experimental datawererecordedat
Boulder, CO, from radiotransmission of thegeostationarysatellite
ATS-6. (After Yeh and Liu [ 1741 .)

of F4 do exist in the literature, there is no analytical solution.


What can be done is to realize that the
equation can be
put into a dimensionless form (3.54) by proper normalization,
in which the only parameter is the spectral index p . As discussed in Section 111-D2, we would expect a universal solution
parameterized in p but independent of geometry and irregularitystrength.Therefore,
in multifrequency observations,
one can assume that S4 computedor the highest frequency
satisfies the Rytov solution and hence follows the frequency
scaling law f-", n = ( p + 2)/4. Forother frequencies, the
observed S4 is organized according to S40 based on the frequency scaling law f - ( p + 2 ) / 4 fromthe highest frequency.
This has been done by Rino and Liu [ 1151, with their results
shown in Fig. 17. In spite of diversity of observational locations and the limited data points, the general trend of linear
increase for small S40 and asymptotic approach to unity for
The
large S40 is clear. There are also distinctdifferences.
equatorial data from Kwajalein and Ancon approach unity S4
from below whereas both the temperate latitude data from
Boulder and high latitude data from Poker Flat show focusing

r4

344

PROCEEDINGS OF THEIEEE, VOL. 70, NO. 4, APRIL 1982


1

discussed in Section 111-Dl and the intensity correlation funcil,


i2= 0) discussed in Section 111-D3. These function
0
of their applications are interesting in their own right because
0
+
tions
to
spatial
diversity.
Under
the
condition
of frozen flow
C
A
the spatial fluctuations can be converted to temporal fluctuations. Therefore, these functions can also be taken to describe
1
the fading rate as observed by a fmed observer. The rate of
fading has implied impact on communications.
Section 111-D3 describes the behavior of intensity correlation
s4
distance as being controlled by thetwocompetingfactors:
+
Fresnelfilteringandmultiplescattering.
As afunction of
+
frequency,
this
correlation
distance
behaves
as those shown
WIDEBAND
- +
in Fig. 14.Tocheckthisbehaviorexperimentally,onecan
0
+ KWAJALEIN
make use of multifrequencyscintillationdata.Onesuch
A POKER FLAT
+
:
mY
ANCON
study,
made by Umeki et al. [ 1731, uses radio transmissions
A
ATS-6
of the geostationary ATS-6 at 40, 140, and 360 MHz. First
0 BOULDER
theintensitycorrelationfunctionsarecomputedfromthe
I
multifrequencydataundervariousscintillationconditions.
I
I
I
Thecorrelationtimesarethen
scaled from the correlation
1
2
3
4
5
6
curves by noting the time required for the normalized correlas40
To avoid dependence on
tionfunctionto
be reduced to
Fig. 17. Multistation and multisatellite S, scintillation data plotted
the ionospheric drift velocity u o , the correlation times in each
against S, . (After Rino and Liu [ 11 5 1 .)
set at lower frequencies are further normalized by the correlation time at 360 MHz. All data points thus obtained are then
organized by using S4 at 360 MHz, and the average behavior
PHASE SCINTILLATION
within each S4 range is indicated by curves shown in Fig. 19.
Fora weak scintillationcase, as indicated by curve 1, the
'Of
Correlation interval follows closely the f-l12 behavior. As the
scintillation level increases,such as curve 2, thefrequency
dependence departs from f-l12 behavior. When the scintillaas curve 3, thecorrelation
tion level is fairlystrong,such
shows a peak near140 MHz. In this way, anexperimental
verification of thetheoretical curve depictedin Fig. 14 is
obtained.
InSection 111-D3, an expression forthecoherencetime
based on phase-screen theory was given in (3.63). Experimental verification of the formula has been demonstrated by Rino
and Owen [ 1771 using data from the DNA Wideband Satellite.
10.2 I
I
For phase fluctuations, the behavior of the correlation time
to2
10'
FRECUENCY (MHz1
is quite different. Fig. 20 shows the mean normalized correlationtime TO derived fromphasecorrelationfunctions
using
Fig. 18. Standard deviations of phase scintillations as a functionof
frequency from Wideband Satellite data. The curves are average values
multifrequency data from the Wideband Satellite [ 1781. The
over many passes. (After Quinn [ 1781.)
data were grouped into three categories according to the value
of scintillation index S4 at L-band (1239 MHz). Those sets of
data with & ( L ) > 0.3 are the first group. The second group
near S40 valuesof approximately 1.5 where the scintillation
correspondsto 0.1 < S4(L)< 0.3 and thethirdgroup
to
index S4 exceeds unity.
S4(L)< 0.1. We note that for weak scintillation, as in group
In Section 111-C2 the variance of the phase fluctuation (Si) 3, T+ is almost a constant across the whole frequency band.
under the Rytov solution was shown to vary as l / f 2 . Fig. 18 This is due to the fact that the Fresnel filtering
is absent in the
shows the standard deviationof the phase fluctuation from the phase scintillation, and therefore,no
f-Y2 dependence is
Wideband Satellite data [ 178 1 . The l/fdependenceis apparent
present. For strong scintillations in groups 1 and 2, however,
ingeneralexcept
fortheAncondata.Certainsaturation
there are some indications of decorrelation of the phase fluctutendency is seen in this case at lower frequencies. This may
ation due to multiple scattering at the VHF frequencies.
be due to multiple scattering effects in the stronger scintillaIn the statistical characterizationof the signal, power spectra
tions at Ancon.
have been found to be useful because of their intimate relation
Globalbehavior of scintillationmorphology and modeling to the irregularity spectrum. For the received signal, the spechave been investigated and studied because of their importance trum can be computed for the amplitude, the phase, and the
to geophysics and their applications [ 16 1 , [ 1751, [ 176 1 . This two quadrature components. Each of these will be described
subject is being reviewed in the companion paper
[25], and
in turn in the following.
hence will not be reviewed here.
In case of weak scintillations, the theory is well developed as
discussed inSections 111-B and 111-C. Thespectrumofthe
D. Spatial Signal Characteristics
amplitude is nearly flat up to arolloff frequency known as the
,
which the spectrum falls with a
The spatial signal characteristics are essentially described by Fresnel frequency C ~ Fabove
power-law dependence S2-1-p. Phase, ontheotherhand,
is
the one-frequency two-position mutual coherence function r2

r4(3',

4.

0
t

345

YEH AND LIU: RADIO WAVE SCINTILLATIONS IN THE IONOSPHERE


'

S, at 360MHz
2.5

RMS S ~ E A DRMS SPREAD


ii(140/40) ot 40 MHz I at I40 MHz

c0.02

1.6
IJB

093

2 II %

f 13%
f 9%

+25%

214%

+20?4

a91

0.06,0.13

I'4 \
r

H
z

O5

1
40

360

I40

FREQUENCY (MHz)

Fig. 19. Normalizedintensity


correlationintervals
as a function of
frequency for four scintillation conditions. (After Umeki er al. [ 1731.)

2 r - - - - - l

GROUP I

dominated by the low-frequency components, and its spectrum is of theform ! 2 2 - ' - p down to the lowestfrequency
allowed by detrending of the data. An example of the 4@MHz
amplitude and phase spectra is shown in Fig. 21 [ 501. The
fact thatthe phase is dominatedby low-frequency c o m p e
nents poses a practical problem, viz., the results on statistical
analysis of the phase data depend on the cutoff frequency of
the detrending process as found by several authors [ 501, [ 901.

Since our understanding of the spectrum under weak scintillation conditions is nearly complete, it is possible t o compare
with the theoretically computed spectrum by adoptinga
model irregular ionosphere. This has been done [ 5 1 I . The
degree of agreement between the experimentally observed
spectra of a 40- and 140-MHz amplitude and the corresponding spectra computed based on the theory are depicted in Fig.
22. The agreement is striking. Furthermore,the S4 indices
for the data are 0.54 rf. 0.04 at 40 MHz and 0.076 rf. 0.006 at
140 MHz, while the corresponding theoretical S4 indices are
0.59 and 0.077, respectively. This comparison again shows
good agreement. The spectra at both frequencies show a highfrequency asymptote with
dependence
a
which yields
p = 4.5, a value close to 4.4 deduced from the consideration of
the radio-frequency dependence of S4 index discussed in the
last section. Additionally, the experimentally observed rolloff
frequencies are 0.025 Hz at 40 MHz, 0.045 Hz at 140 MHz,
and 0.07 Hz at 360 MHz which follow closely the theoretical
f1I2 dependence. When thespectra are normalized by their
respective rolloff frequency, the spectral curves on these three
radiofrequencies fall very closely on top of each other as
shown in Fig. 23 by Umeki et al. [511. These discussions
demonstrate not only the agreement between the theory and
experiment but also the internalconsistency of the results.
When the scintillation level increases to the saturationregime,

FfiECUENCY
iii

HZ

I .E-1

Fig. 21. Powerspectraforthe


40-MHZ amplitude and phaserecordedatBoulder,
0921-1000 UT. The scintillation index S, is 0.523 and the rms phase fluctuation
frequency of the detrendingprocess is 0.003 Hz. (After Myers e t al. [SO] .)

1 .E-2

\
L

= 3.3

SET 1A 40
PHASE
AMPLITUDE
DET9ENDEDDATA

.c2
is 1.628 rad. The cutoff

CO, December 26,1974,

I1

9 0 % CONFIDENCE LIMITS

40 MHz

THEORETICAL

Fig. 22. A comparison of theoretical and experimental power spectra


of amplitude data received at Boulder from ATS-6, 0920-1000 UT,
December 24, 1974. The ionospheric parameters used for theoretical
computations are: background plasma frequency = 5 MHz, irregularity
slab thickness = 90 km, distance from the slab = 310 km, irregularity
spectral index p = 4.5, outer scale = 9 km, anisotropic factor
= 3,
rmselectrondensityfluctuationsfromthemean
= 1.6 percent.
(After Umeki et al. [ 5 11.)

-40

+HI-

-___

- EXPERIMENTAL

YEH AND LIU: RADIO WAVE SCINTILLATIONS

341

IN THE IONOSPHERE

3 -10

S E T 1
NORMALIZED

40 MHz

IH+

- 30
-40

F1 I

140

MHz

360 MHz

90% CONFIDENCE LIMITS

I-

-I

FREQUENCY
Fig. 23. Power spectra BS a function of normalized frequency n / n ~ ,
where S2p is the rolloff frequency or the Fresnel frequency. The S,
scintillation indices are 0.54 at 4 0 MHz, 0.076 at 140 MHz, and 0.016
at 360 MHz. The data set is identical to that shown in Fig. 22. (After
Umekieral. [Sl].)

thetheory is on a weaker foundation.To


investigate the
saturation effects on spectra, adifferent data set is selected
[ 5 1 1 . The results are depicted in Fig. 24. The three spectra
are again normalized by the corresponding Fresnel frequency
as in Fig. 23. A comparison of the two figures shows that for
strong scintillations the rolloff is more gradual and the spectrumextendsoutto
high frequencies. This increased highfrequency content during severe scintillations is entirely consistent with the decreased correlation interval discussed earlier.
Even though thedataatthree
frequencies have different
scintillation indices, the high-frequency asymptotesin
all
three spectra have very closely the power-law dependence
Using
of
a phasescreen model, Rumsy [82] and
Marians [ 831 find thatthe
high-frequency asymptote is
independent of the scintillation level, in agreement with our
experimental results. Other numerical and asymptotic results
indicate that the intensity spectrum first rolls off very rapidly
and then develops the power-law tail [ 1 161. However, a more
complete theory valid in the multiple scatter regime is not yet
available at present time.
The decomposition of a complex signal into amplitude and
phase is certainly useful. For some applications, however, it is
moreconvenient
to decompose the s i g n a l intoquadrature
components defined by
X = A cos4

Y=Asin@

(4.3)

where A = A o + A l is the detrended amplitude with the mean


A . restored, and 4 is the detrended phase. Here X is referred
to as the in-phase component and Y the phase-quadrature
component. For weak scintillations, 4 is small and thus (4.3)
can be expanded to the second order,withthe fluctuating
components given by

x1 = A 1 -A042/2

Y1 = A o 4 + A , 4 .

(4.4)

Equation (4.4) indicates that, for weak scintillations, the statistics of the in-phase component X1should be very similar t o
those of the .amplitude A l , and the statistics of the phasequadrature component Y l should be very similar to those of
the phase 4. These notions are born out by data plotted in
Fig. 25, which shows similarity between the amplitude and the
&-phase component, and Fig. 26, which shows similarity
between the phase and phasequadraturecomponent. However, situations change as scintillation levels increase. In the
saturation regime, the amplitude fluctuation is fast, due to the
decorrelation effect discussed earlier, and the phase fluctuation is large but slow because of domination by large irregularities. This combination of amplitude and phase fluctuations
renders the power to be divided nearly equally in the quadrature components. Support for this observation can be found
in Fig. 27, where the spectra for two quadrature components
nearly lay on top of each other. Additionally, the quadrature
components agree with the amplitude spectrum, as depicted

PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, VOL. 70, NO. 4, APRIL 1982

348

30

I I I l l

I l l 1

I l l

SET 3

NORMALIZED

40 MHz

S4=1.42

*
-

MHz

S4.054

360 MHz

S4 = 0.13

90% CONFIDENCE LIMITS

140

FREQUENCY
Fig. 24. Power spectra as a function of normalized frequency 52152F.
The S, scintillation index for each of three radio frequencies is shown
in thelegend. The ATS-6 data wererecorded on January 7, 1975,
0700-0750 UT. (After Umeki e t al. [S 11

.)

in Fig. 28. These results suggest that, under intense scintillation conditions, the power spectra of the two quadrature
components are controlled by the fast fluctuating amplitude.
The equalization of power between the two quadrature components comes about because of the slow but large phase
fluctuations [SO].

E. The Mean Field and the Coherence Function


In Section 111-D, it was shown that the mean field received
on the ground is given by
( u ) =A,-, exp [ - r ~ h Z L A ~ N ( 0 ) / 2 ] .

(3.41)

TABLE I
IONOSPHERIC SCINTILLATION STRENGTH PARAMETERS

c ~ N
DERIVED FROM

WIDEBAND
SATELLITEDATAAND

COMPARISON OF OBSERVED
AND COMPUTED PHASE FUNCTIONS

Pass

Freq. ( H H ~ )

K2R4"
1.02

378
0.984

2.06

0.854
447

K4

"

0 cs
- (rad)
~ ~

computed a

.1.90

0.86

0.241
1239

1.35

0.3

mean

1.76

378 0.59

1.43

Themultifrequency Wideband Satellite data provide us the 1.46


447
0.59
mean field ( u ) atdifferent frequencies. Fromthe values of
1239
0.25
1.13
0.15
( u ) , the parameter C%N = LA*N(O) for a given satellite pass
mean
1.34
can be determined. From the theory, this quantity should be
P3
0.54
378
0.59
a constant independent of frequency for a given satellite pass.
propagationgeometryand
the0.47
It is only dependentonthe
0.46
447
0.59
irregularities. Table I gives some examples from the Wideband
0.17
0.14
1239
0.43
data [178], [179].
mean
0.54
We notethat forthese examples, the-strength parameter
P3R16
378
1.11
2.75
C i N is approximately constant for the same pass. Using these 1.17
parameters and geometric optics, the rms fluctuations of phase
447
2.67
0.94
us have been computed. They compare quite nicely with the
0.29
1239
1.75
observed US.
mean
2.39
It should be mentioned that the data often
showed mean
field ( u ) with significant imaginary parts, especially for VHF
signals at137 MHz contrary t o the theoreticalprediction.
aK2R4 and K4 are passes over Kwajalein.
bP3 and P3R 16 are passes over Poker Flat.
Several possible causes may contributetothis discrepancy:

0.85
0.72

0.55

0.99
0.35

349

YEH AND LIU: RADIO WAVE SCINTILLATIONS IN THE IONOSPHERE

P B H E R S P E C T R R . SET I V 1 I I O M H Z
AMPLITUDE
0
0

+I N - P H A S E

d
m

COMPONENT

9
0

90% C O N F I D E N C E L I M I T S

0
0

0
0
0

md
0

Eg
WO

57
c.

5s
ad

=?
0
0

m
I

=I
0
0

d
YI

. - ,

1. E-2

. .

F R E Q U E N C Y IN HZ

. .

...
1.bo

l.E-1

Fig. 25. Comparison of amplitude and in-phase component power spectra fy data recorded at 140 MHz, August 25, 1974, 0525-0548 UT.The S, scintillation index is 0.522 and the r m s phase fluctuation is 1.397.
(After Myers e t al. [ 501

.)

the assumption of forwardscatteringmay


be violated; the
spherical nature of the incident wave may become important
and uncertainties in measuring thephase may play a role.
r 2 ( z , p') is anotherfunctionthe
Thecoherencefunction
exact solution of which can be obtained from theory (Section
111-Dl ). Experimentalverification of thistheoreticalresult
has not been as successful as for other cases. Some prelimi-

naryexamplescanbefoundin[1781,[1791.

V. TEMFQRALBEHAVIOR
A . Average Pulse Intensity and Two-Frequency
Mutual Coherence Function
The theoretical and experimental discussion in the previous
chaptersontheionospheric
scintillationphenomenon have
been mainly for monochromatic signals. In many situations,
especially for communication applications, and lately for
the
interstellar scintillation of pulsars [ 1801 -[ 1821, the evolution
of the temporal behavior of a signal as it propagates through
the irregularities is of interest. Consider a pulsed signal with a
carrier frequency w, and frequency spectrum f(o)incident
on the ionosphere irregularity slab (Fig. 7). The average pulse
intensity received on the ground can be shown to be given by
[I831
+(l(t))=IIF*(i12fF(i11)r1,,(i11,i12)
-00

. exp [i(ill- i 1 2 ) t - ( k , - k 2 ) z 1 d i l l

di12 (5.1)

where i l i = w . - w,, F ( n ) = f ( w , + ai),and ki = k o i [ 1 4 m e N o / k ~ i'I4,


l koi = w i / c .
is the two-frequencyoneposition mutual coherence function defined by (3.38), satisfying (3.42). Note that if the electron density variation of the
background ionosphere N o ( z ) is to be taken into account, the
term (k, - k 2 ) z should be replaced by I:(k, - k 2 ) d { .
From ( 5 . 1 ) , we see that the two-frequency mutual coherence
function
plays the important role indescribing the propagation of the average intensity in a random
medium. It has
beenmeasuredexperimentally
[ 2121. Indeed,acoherence
bandwidth A i l , can be defined as the value of A i l = w2 - w1
at which
reduces to l / e (or
of its maximum value at
A i l = 0 [ 1821, [ 185 1. Comparison of this coherence bandwidth with the bandwidth of the signal f ( w )will indicate how
much the averaged pulse will be distorted. For the Rytov solution of rl, ( 3 . 4 5 ) ,this coherence bandwidthis approximately
given by [ 1081

rl,

rl,,

3)

rl,,

(5.2)
where @o is given by ( 3 . 1 3 ) and
dt =

32' - 3 z L + L 2 A4

4 kz

A0

(5.3)

Here, kc = w , / c , A0 , and A4 are the expansion coefficients for


the transverse correlationfunction
A A N fortheelectron
density fluctuations such as the one given in (2.21). We have
adopted an expansion

PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, VOL. 70, NO. 4, APRIL 1982

350

POHER SPECTRR.

SET I V lUOMHZ

-PHASE
-8- PHASE QUADRRTURE
CBMPONENT

9OZ CONFIDENCE L I M I T S

1. E-2

FREQUENCY I N HZ

1. E - 1

1.00

Fig. 26. Comparison of phase and phasequadrature component power spectra for the same data as those shown
in Fig. 25. (After Myers er a2. [ S O ]

.)

= A o + A2p2 + A4p4

(5.4)
tions

On the other hand, underextremely strong scintillation conditions such thatthe transverse correlationdistance of the
field becomes small as compared with that of theirregularities,
asymptotic solutions for
can be obtained [ 1091, [ 1861,
[ 1871. These asymptotic .expressions can then be used in
(5*1) to compute the average
calPulse
in general,
cannot be obtained analytically.Instead,
(3.42) has been solved numerically as discussed in Section
111-Dl. However, these numerical solutions are not easily a p
plicable in (5.1) to obtain the average pulse intensity.
In many applications, the exact shape of the pulse may not
be needed.Rather,
rough descriptionssuch as thetime of
arrival and the pulse broadening caused by the
random scattering are important. This leads naturally tothe idea of the
temporal moments.

rl.

rl,l

:l

M(")(z) = 2n(j 1"

F * ( s ~ , ejkzz
)

. {a" [F(Stl)rl,l
e - j k l z ~ / a ~ : } n., = n-,d n 2 .

(5.6)

In order to interpret the temporal moments in terms of physiwe impose two conditions: i)
condition M ( O ) ( z )= 1 which normalizesthe energy of received
signal t o unity and ii) time origin condition M(')(O) = 0 which
sets the time origin at the center of the symmetric envelope of
the incident signal. The normalization condition requires

F * ( S t ) F ( S t ) rl, (St, St) dS2 =(5.7)


1
and the time origin condition implies

(5.8)

P +-

(5*5)
Substituting (5.1) into (5.5), we obtain after some manipula-

We note from (5.6) that for the temporal moments, the complete expression for the tw6frequency mutualcoherence function is not needed. Instead rl, and its derivatives evaluated

351

YEH AND LIU: RADIO WAVE SCINTILLATIONS IN THE IONOSPHERE

POWER SPECTRA. SET 'I1 UOHHZ


IN-PHRSE

*PHRSE

1. E-2

CBHPONENT

OURDRRTURE COMPONENT

90% C O N F I D E N C E LIMITS

F R E Q U E N C Y I N Hi!

1.00

1.E-1

Fig. 27. Comparison of power spectra of two quadrature components of signals at 4 0 MHz, August 23, 1974,
0505-0558. The scintillation index is 1.30 and the rms phase fluctuation is 2.677 rad. (After Myers eral. [ S O ] . )

a,

at
= sZz are the quantities that are required in evaluating
M ( " ) . This suggests the expansion of
in terms of the
variable 6 = ( k z - k l ) / k z

torted pulse. To see how tne rl(f)l'scan be solved analytically,


we again specialize in the case of plane wave incidence. For
this case (3.42) becomes

and

If we let

rl,

(5.10)

I'!:!,

.* ,
The temporal moments M(") depend only on rl:],
Itturnsoutthatalthough
r l , l cannot be obtained
analytically in general, its derivatives evaluated at 6 = 0, the
r,cf)l's,can be solved exactly, independent of the strength of
the irregularities.
The physical interpretation of the first few temporal moments are quite obvious. M(')(z) can be interpreted as the
mean arrival time of the signal at position z. The second
moment is related t o the mean-square pulsewidth since M ( 2 ) [ M ( ' ) ] ' measures the broadening of the pulse. The higher
order moments are related t o the skewness, etc., of the dis-

rp).

then from (5.11) we obtain

(5.13)
At z = 0, F l , l = 1 so that W = 1. Equation (5.13) is then
solved for W by letting
W=Wo+w16+Wz6~+-~*.

(5.14)

A hierarchy of equation for the Wi'sis obtained from (5.13)

LW, = g n ,

n = 0 , 1 , 2 , * .*

(5.15)

PROCEEDINGS O F THE B E E , VOL. 70, NO. 4, APRIL 1982

352

POUER SPECTRA. SET I 1 UOMHZ


AHPLITUOE
IN-PHASE COMPONENT

1 .E-2

90% CONFIDENCE LIMITS

FREOUENCY IN HZ

1 .oo

l.E-1

Fig. 28. Same data as Fig. 27 but for amplitude and in-phase component. (After Myers e t aZ. [ S O ]

derived from the equation

where L is an operator of the form


(5.16)

aI'1,1
--

aZ

rl,

=o

v2rl,l,

z >L .

(5.20)

Equation(5.15)can
besolved in astraightforwardmanner.
With the initial conditions W O = 1, W1 = W 2 = . = O a t z = O ,
we obtain

(5.18)

and
PZ

.
I

-gn(f)

w~ .Io w o w

df,

n = 1,2,. *

I'ifik,

(5.21)

tu (z) = M(')(Z)/M(O).

(5.17)

wn =

-i
2(1- 6 ) k 2

Therefore, a procedure has been developed which enables us


to obtain the derivatives of
1 , the
for any strength
of the irregularities. These derivativescan then be used t o
computethetemporalmoments.
Although theprocedure
described appliesonly
to plane wave incidence, it canbe
generalized to the case of beam waves [ 1891.
In terms of the temporal moments, a mean arrival time of
the pulse can be defined by

and
go

.)

Forionospheric
[1911

that [ 1901,

application, it canbeshown
ta (z) = z/c

+',fI.

+ plf: + -

(5.22)

where the fmt term is the free space travel time at the speed
of light c. The second term is the excess time delay due to the
total electron content (TEC) of the ionosphere andis inversely
proportional to the square of frequency. a is given by

(5.19)

Equations (5.18) and (5.19) together with (5.12) determine


the rl, 's for z < L . These functions evaluated. at z = L can
then be used as initial conditions to solve for I'{:i's below the
irregularityslab,which also satisfyahierarchy of equations

where f, = ( e 2 N o / 4 a 2 r n e o ) 1 /is
2 the plasma frequency of the
background ionosphere.
Thethirdterm
in (5.22) is inversely proportional to the

YEH AND L N : RADIO WAVE SCINTILLATIONS IN THE IONOSPHERE

353

0'

(5.28)
Here ~ ( 0=)To is the original pulsewidth, T~ represents broadening due to dispersion,and r2 representsbroadeningcontributed by scattering Some numerical examples for the pulse
broadening effects in the ionosphere are given in [ 1911.
Moments higher than the second have also beenobtained
11931. The third moment is related to the skewness of the
pulse and the f o a moment is related to the kurtosis. These
of
higher momentscan be used to estimatethestretching
pulses due to propagationeffects.Theseestimates
have obvious implications in digital communications [ 191 ].

\
1 0 0

5oom

200

Frequency ( MHz 1

Fig. 29. Excess distance as afunctionof


frequency for a Chapman
e l / n ~ -H
~ ,= 100km, h, = 300 km.
ionosphericlayerwith N o =
The ionospheric irregularities are assumed to have rms fluctuations of
100 percent from the mean, an inner scale of 10 m, an outer scale of
5Okm,andasignalbandwidthoflOMHz. (AfterYehandLiu[191].)

fourth power of the signal carrier frequency. It is given by

C. Construction o f the Mean Pulse Shape from the


Temporal Moments
When the temporal moments M(")are known, it is possibIe
to reconstruct the mean pulse envelope ( I ( t ) >by applying the
technique of orthogonal polynomial expansion [ 1941.
Let us consider a set of orthogonal,polynomials d e f i e d by
$ ? J n ( t ) = 2 s k t k , n=0,1,2;..;ol,,#O.
k =O

(5.29)

1'

f,'(z -

These polynomials satisfy the orthogonal relation

5)d f

(5.24)

where A,, is the expansion coefficient of the transverse correlation functionA , of A N / N o


A , @ ) = A r o + A r 2 p 2+Ar4p4 + - . - .

(5.25)

We note that instead of the correlation functionA A N for electron density fluctuation A N ( ; ) , the correlation function for
the percentageelectrondensityfluctuation
A N / N o is used
here. This is due to the fact that when the background density
field A N / N o ,
variation is taken into account,therandom
rather than A N itself, is more likely to be homogeneous[ 1921.
,
Therefore, in deriving (5.24), A,, instead of A A ~appears.
The first term in (5.24) is due to higher order dispersion of
the ionospheric plasma; the second term is due to the finite
bandwidth v2 of the pulse. The third term is due to random
scattering.In
casesofsevere
ionosphericscintillations, the
third term dominates the 1 / f : contribution to the excess time
delay. Fig. 29plotsthe l/f: and l/f: contributions to the
ranging errors caused by the excess delay in arrival time for
certain ionospheric conditions [ 19 11.
Another quantity of interest is the meansquare pulsewidth
defined by

r Z ( z )= M(2)(z)/M(O)(z)

- t(:(z).

J-

9, ( t ) w ( t ) 9, ( t ) d t = 0,

(5.30)

where ~ ( tis) the weighting function associated with the given


set of polynomials. Depending on the forms of the weighting
functions, different orthogonal polynomials canbe obtained.
Among the mostcommonly
used onesaretheLegendre,
Laguere, Chebyshev, and Hermite polynomials [ 1951.
Toreconstructthe
pulse shape,define
an approximate
average pulse by a series
N

(5.31)
This approximationis based on thecriterion that theweighted
meansquare error of the approximation from the exactaverage
pulse defined by

is minimized. From (5.30) and (5.31), it


can be shown that
this minimization condition leads to the following determination of the coefficients c, :

(5.26)

For ionospheric applications, it is given by three terms [ 1901

mfn

lW
1;
( I ( t ) )4, ( t )d t

c, =

(5.33)

w ( t )4; d t

where

Substituting (5.29) into (5.33) and making use of the definition for the temporal moments,we obtain

354

PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, VOL. 70, NO. 4 , APRIL 1982

(5.34)
1.6
l29
I .4

c,, in the expression forthe


The expansioncoefficients
approximate pulse shape are now related tothetemporal
moments A d k ) , k = 0, 1, * ,n. Therefore, knowing the first N
temporal moments, we can COnstNCt the polynomial expansion I N ( t ) as an approximation to the average intensity of the
pulse ( I ( t ) )in the least square sense defined by (5.32). For a
given value of N , the error in the approximation can be estimated [ 1951.
The choice of the weighting function and the corresponding
polynomials seems to be quite arbitrary. In practice, however,
one can start from the original incident pulse. The weighting
function is chosen as a nonnegative function that can be made
to approximate the intensity function of the original signal
closely. Thecorrespondingorthogonalpolynomials
can be
found using the Schmidt orthogonalization procedure [ 195 I .
In [ 1941, this procedure was used t o construct the average
pulse shape of an original Gaussian pulse as it propagates
through a random medium.

D. Numerical Experiments
Although it is common knowledge that temporal radio signals are usually degraded after propagating through the ionosphere under the scintillation environment, there are very few
precise data sets against which the theoretical predictions can
be checked. However, there are a number of simulation studies
carried out on computers which attempt t o check the theory,
t o enhance our physical understanding of the problem, or to
elucidate the phenomenon. As described in the previous two
sections, both amplitude and phase of a sinusoidal wave will
experience fluctuations when there exists scattering from
ionospheric irregularities. For propagation of temporal signals,
is how the amplitudeand phase vary
theimportantpoint
across the signal bandwidth. Let A (0)
be the amplitude function and $(a)be the phase function. Then it can be shown
that the time delay in the arrival of the pulse is related to the
slope of the phase function at the carrier frequency, the pulse
spreading is related to the curvature of the amplitude function
at the carrier frequency,and the skewness is related to the
third derivative of the phase function at the carrier frequency
[ 1961, [ 1971. For a particular realization of the turbulent
ionosphere corresponding t o an equatorial bubble, A ( w ) and
#(a)
may have the behavior shown in Fig. 30 which is obtained
numerically [ 1971. Substantial distortions in A and $ can be
seen across the frequency band above the 500-MHz carrier
frequency.Thesedistortions
in A and # are responsible for
theinstantaneous deviations intime delay,pulsewidth, and
skewness. As the-irregularities drift such as in a frozen flow,
the timedelay, the pulsewidth, and the skewness will fluctuate with time. The mean valuesof these quantities should
agree withthose derived earlier by using thetemporal moments((5.22)for
mean arrival time and (5.27)for meansquare pulsewidth). Such simulation studies
have been made
and good agreement with the theory has been found [ 1981.
For spread spectrumsystems
using adirectsequence
PN
scheme the received degraded signal plus noise is correlated
with an approximately delayed PN modulation waveform.
The correlator outputunder threescintillation
levels may

.6

.4

0.

.2676 .3376 .3676


-4376 4876 .5376 .5676 .6376 .6876
.3126 ,3626 . 4 1 M .4626 . 5 1 2 6 . 5 6 2 6 .6126 . 6 6 2 6

q.

5 '-h
E

6.

I.
0.1

.2876
.3376
.3176

.3876 .4378 .4876 .6576


. S O 7 8 .6378 . E 0 7 6
.3676
.4126 .4628 6 128 .6826 .6 128 .E626
a

FREOUENCY

IN GI42

(b)
Fig. 30 The amplitude (a) and the phase (b) of the transfer function
aaoss the frequency band centered at a 500-MHz carrier frequency.
The ionosphere is simulated from the in-situ data corresponding to
an equatorial bubble. (After Tucker (1971 .)

behave in amannershown in Fig. 3 1. When the coherence


bandwidth is comparable to or greater than the signal bandwidth (top frame of Fig. 31),the shape of the correlator
output suffers littledistortion even thoughthe peak value
fades up and down with time. With the increased scintillation
level, the coherence bandwidth shrinks t o one-fourth (middle
frame of Fig. 31) or one-tenth (bottom frame ofFig. 31) of
the signal bandwidth; severe distortions in the correlator output are possible [ 1991.Suchdistortions
may pose difficult
problems to receiver designers to assure proper lockingand
consequentlyproper
decoding. This problem is especially
acute in spread spectrumcommunications
because of the
wide bandwidth needed to achieve the desired process gain
12001.
The loss of coherence bandwidth with the increased scintillation activity has been experimentally documented by the
Wideband Satellite data [ 201. A comb of seven equally spaced
frequencies (413.02 5 11.47n MHz, where n = 0, 1,2, 3) were
used to obtain the discrete two-frequency one-position mutual
coherence functionsunder various scintillation levels. The

YEH AND LIU: RADIO WAVE SCINTILLATIONS IN THE IONOSPHE:RE

355

[207] showthat thesesharpgradients


can indeedbethe
sources of large amplitude fluctuations beyond those that can
bepredictedby
using thestochastictheory.
Large fluctuationsinamplitudeareapparently
caused by scatteringand
diffraction near the sharp gradients and are especially apparent
(a)
at gigahertz frequencies. The deterministicapproach tothe
problem is new,andfurtherinvestigationsin
this area are
desirable.
Section I1 reviews structures of ionospheric irregularities.
Exuerimental evidence for their existence is abundant. Howr - T T - - T 7
-e
- --.T -&ever, the
quantitative
characterization of these
irregularities
is improving. For applications in which thefrozenflow assumption is adequate,the
three-dimensional
spectrum
is
known to beof the form @ N ( K ) Q K - ~ with p = 4 1 [421,
[ 1571.There
is some evidence t o indicatethedependence
of the spectral index p on the strength of fluctuations or the
local time in the equatorial region. The outer scale, if it exists,
is not known, although tens of kilometers have been used in
many computations. It is possible that other prevailing ionosphericperburbations of different origins, such as traveling
ionospheric disturbances, may have prevented the true outer
scale from experimental disclosure. On the other hand, radar
measurements [ 541, [ 551 strongly suggest the existence of an
inner scak-and a possible change of spectral law far yery small
irregularities. Very liffle is known a b u t the nonfrtJzen flow
nature of the ionospheric irregularities. Radar returns show a
Doppler shift, indicativeof the ionosphericdrift, and a Doppler
broadening,indicative of turbulentmotion.The
review of
Section I1 stresses irregularity characterization, but it does not
touchtheproduction mechanisms for these irregularities. It
TI.iIE D E L A 1 (CHIPC)
is generallybelieved that some plasma instability mechanism
is responsible for initiating irregularities. This subject matter
Fig. 31. The correlator output in a direct sequency spread spectrum receiver as a function of time for three levels of scintillation activities.
is covered in several reviews [48], [208], [ 2091.
(a) The coherence bandwidth of the ionospheric propagation channel
Section 111 is concernedwith
the scintillationtheories.
is comparable t o the PN spread spectrum signal bandwidth. (b) The
coherence bandwidth is aboutone-fourth of the signal bandwidth.
Ionosphericscintillationsdiffer from the usualdiscussionof
(c) The coherence bandwidth is about one-tenth of the signal bandrandom medium propagation in at least two aspects. The first
width. (After Bognsch er al. [ 1991.)
difference is that the background medium is highly dispersive,
so that severity of scintillation is frequency dependent. The
resultsshowgoodagreementwith
the theory [ 2011. Using seconddifference
is the propagationgeometry.Since
the
these experimentally obtained discrete mutual coherence funcionospheric irregularities can be anisotropic,
the propagation
tions,theapproximate
waveformof asynthesized pulse is path can make an arbitrary angle relative to the irregularities.
obtained, from which the mean time delay can be computed
Also the existence of free space below the ionosphere allows
andchecked against thetheory.
Againgood agreementhas
diffraction effects to take place after the wave has traversed
been obtained.
the irregularregion.
Thetheories under weak-scatterregime
seem to be well at hand. The S4 scintillation index, the mutual
V I . CONCLUSION
coherence functions, and the spectra can
be computed using
We have reviewed in this paperboth theories and experiments the phase screen or Rytov approximations as long as the scintillation is weak. When the scintillation is strong, some of the
of radio wave scintillations after transversing the ionosphere.
momentequationsaredifficult
to solve. Somenumerical
previously
This review attempts to updatetheinformation
solutions do exist and they have been helpful in indicating the
reviewed using radio star observations [38] and satellite transmissions [ 391, [ 2021, [ 2031. This review opens with a discus- nature of behavior in the strong scatter regime. Work is still
sion of the motivation for stochastic formulation, on
which needed to develop a comprehensive theory which would indithe scintillation theory is based. Even though the scintillation cate regorously the probability distribution of the scintillating
theory agrees in a large measure with the experimental results, signal. Several heuristic arguments have been used in support
there are areas in which the stochastic approach may not be
of someprobabilitydistribution models.Chi-square tests of
fruitful.
Irregularities
inside
the equatorial
bubbles
show
these models have been devised using experimental data. The
wedgelike structures with steep gradients[ 2041, [ 2051. These
results as reviewed in Section IV indicate the preference of a
steep gradients show high coherence and do not appear to be
bivariate distribution that would reduce to the product of a
statistically homogeneous. Crain er ai. [206] note that these Nakagami-m distribution for the intensity and a normal
dissharp gradients can provide a refractive scattering mechanism
tribution for the phase in the limit of zero correlation between
whereby gigahertz scintillation can be explained.
By numeri- the two variates [ 1671.
cally solving the parabolicequation in adeterministic ion*
In addition to reviewing the signal statistics in Section IV,
sphere model constructed from the in-situ data, W e d et ai. other experimental results have also been summarized. Experi-

356

mentally measured or deduced irregularity structures are summarized first. Thestructureinformation


includes not only
irregularity spectrabut also the dimensions of irregularity
patches and the propagation geometry. In the weak scintilla
tion limit, a frequency law of the form S4 af-,n = ( p + 2)/4,
has been confirmed. For any level of scintillation a universal
solution can be constructed by adopting the Rytov scintillation index S40 as an ordering parameter [ 1151. In this way
the true scintillation index S4 can be scaled from the universal
curve if the Rytov scintillation index S40 is known.
Becauseof thesaturation of scintillation due to multiple
scattering, the spectral index n for the frequency dependence
of the scintillation index becomes frequency dependent itself.
Experimental results are shown to agree with theoretical predictions. Phase fluctuations seem to follow the geometric
optics result which predicts the l/f behavior for rms fluctuations of the phase. The data show that except for intensescinl/f dependence is not
tillation cases, thedeparturefrom
appreciable. This is the consequence of the dominance of
phase fluctuations in ionospheric scintillations by large-scale
irregularities.
The correlation distance (or coherence time) of the intensity
fluctuations is controlled by two competing factors: Fresnel
filtering and multiple scattering. In the weak scintillation regime, the f-/ dependence of the correlation distance is an
indication that the controlling factor is the Fresnel filtering.
As the frequency decreases, decorrelation due to multiple
scatteringbecomes
important and the correlationdistance
decreases with frequency. The maximum correlation distance
will occur at a frequency somewhere between those two limiting cases. Experimental data clearly bear out this prediction.
For phmeflwfCtUgfhns,since the Fresnel filtering is not effee
tive, the correlation time is almost a constant with possible
decomhtion effects at the low end of the frequency spectrum
when multiple scattering becomes important.
The power spectra for the intensity, the phase as well as the
quadrature components of the field are also studied in Section
IV.In the caseof weak scintillation, the theoretical predictions agree very well withobservational results. Forstrong
scintillations, however, only
qualitative
comparisons
are
possible.
Someexperimentalresults
onthe
average field and the
coherence function are also presented in Section IV and compared with theoretical computations.
In studying the temporal behavior of the signal in Section V,
the importance of one-position two-frequency mutual coherence function is stressed. Oneconvenient way of describing
the temporal behavior is to use temporal moments. For many
applicationsone is interested only in quantities such as the
mean arrival time, the mean pulsewidth, and the pulse skewness. These quantities can be related to temporalmoments.
A method developed to compute these temporal moments is
reviewed in Section V. Although the method is general and
capable, at leastformally, of computing temporalmoments
to any order, the algebraic complexities increase rapidly as one
moves to higher order moments. At present, analytical expressions up to the fifth order have been derived in the literature.
Once the beginning few moments are known, an orthogonal
polynomial expansion technique can be used to construct the
approximate mean pulse shape. Very few data sets are available against which accurate comparison can be made to verify
thesetheoretical
results. Some numerical experiments are
available, which suggest good agreement.

PROCEEDINGS O F THE IEEE, VOL. 70, NO. 4, APRIL 1982

The subject matter reviewed in this paper is expected t o have


applications in transionospheric communications. These applications are only touched upon in thisreview. Interested readers
should consult several publications [ 199I , [ 2 101.
Another topic that has not been included in this review is
the subject of generating mechanisms for the ionospheric irregularities. Therearefast developing activities in that area.
Interesting readers are referred to several recent review papers
on that subject 1481, [2091.
coordinated observaIt is fair to state that, thanks to the
tional programs and advances in theoretical studies, our understanding of the phenomenon of radio wave scintillation in the
ionosphere has improved quite significantly. We are now in a
better position t o apply this knowledge t o the two major areas
mentioned in the Introduction that have helped to sustain the
interests of ionosphericscintillation study.The first is the
application t o improve the transionosphericcommunication
systems, involving channel modeling prediction, design of
adaptive system, etc. The other area is the application to the
investigation of the geophysical processes that generates these
irregularities. This will involve the search for moreeffective
methods to deduce fromscintillation
datatheimportant
geophysical parameters, in other words, the inversion problem,
Future progresses is expected in these two directions,

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
C. H. Liu would like t o thank the Department of Electrical
Engineering, National Taiwan University, for their hospitality
and assistance during his stay in the Department where part of
the workwas carried out.
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C.

Global Morphology of Ionospheric Scintillations


JLES AARONS,

FELLOW, IEEE

Invited Paper

One m d is now available which will yieldamplitudeandphase


Abmct-Starting with post World W u I1 studies of fading of radio
predictions for varying sites and solar conditions. Other models, more
star sources and continuing with fading of satellite signals of Sputnik,
se,are also available. The models are outvast quantities of data have built upon the effect of ionospheric irregu- limited m their output and u
larities on signals frombeyondthe F layer.Thereviewattempts
to lined with their limitations and databases noted.
Newadvances m morphologyand m understanding the physics of
organize the available amplitude and phase scintillationdata into equatorial, mid&, and high4atitude morphdogies The effect of magnetic

activity, solar sunspotcycle, and time of day is shown for each ofthese
three latitudinal sectors.
The effect of thevery high levels of solar flux during thepast sunspot
maximum of 1979-1981 is stressed During these years unusuallyhi@
levels of scintillation were noted near the peak of the Appleton quatorialanomaly (- +15 awayfrom themagneticequator) as wen as
over polar latitudes. New data on phase fluctuations are summarized
for the auroralzone with its sheet-like irregularity structure.
Manuscript received October 19, 1981;revised February 2, 1982.
The author was with the Air Force Geophysics Laboratory, Hanscom
AFB, MA 01731. He is now withtheDepartment
of Astronomy,
Boston University, Boston, MA.

irre%uity developmentintheequatorialandauroralregionshave

taken place. Questions and unknowns in morphology andthe


in physics
of heguhity developmentremain.Theseincludethe
origin of the
Beeding sources of equatorinl irreguluities, the physics of development
of auroral irresulority patches, and the morphdogy
of F-layer irregularities at middle latitudes.

I. INTRODUCTION

RADIO WAVE traversing the upper and lower atmosphere of the earth suffersadistortion
of phaseand
amplitude.
When it traverses drifting
ionospheric
irregularities, the radio wave experiencesfadingand
phase
fluctuation which varywidely with frequency, magnetic and

U. S. Government work not protected by U. S. copyright

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