Anisotropy of ionospheric irregularities determined from the amplitude of satellite signals at a single receiver

A new method of determining the anisotropy parameters of small-scale irregu larities in the ionospheric F region is presented and experimental results are shown. The method is based on observations of amplitude fluctuations of radio waves transmitted by satellites flying above the F region. In practi ce, Russian navigational satellites are used and both the amplitude and the phase of the received signal is measured on the ground level. The method d etermines both the field-aligned anisotropy and the field-perpendicular ani sotropy and orientation of the spatial spectrum of the irregularities, assu ming that the contours of constant power have an elliptic shape. A possibil ity of applying the method to amplitude tomography is also discussed. Using a chain of receivers on the ground level, one could locate the regions of small-scale irregularities as well as determine their relative intensities. Then the large-scale background structures could be mapped simultaneously by means of ordinary ray tomography using the phase observations, and there fore the relations of small-scale and large-scale structures could be inves tigated.