MEASURING IONOSPHERIC DENSITIES, TEMPERATURES, AND DRIFT VELOCITIES SIMULTANEOUSLY AT JICAMARCA

Incoherent scatter autocorrelation function measurements are difficult to make in the F region at Jicamarca because of very strong clutter c ontamination by coherent echoes from unstable plasma waves in the E-re gion electrojet that are aligned with the magnetic field. We have deve loped a more effective way to deal with this clutter that improves the quality of the temperature (and composition when light ions are prese nt) data. Other coherent echoes (much weaker than electrojet echoes bu t stronger than incoherent scatter) are also received through the ante nna sidelobes from field-aligned irregularities in the 140-170 km alti tude range during daytime. These latter echoes have a very narrow band width, and so it is easy to measure their Doppler shift and obtain the vertical plasma drift velocity, which is proportional to the zonal el ectric field.