THE EFFECTS OF RECEIVER LOCATION IN 2-STATION EXPERIMENTAL IONOSPHERIC TOMOGRAPHY

Experimental results are presented of the imaging of a narrow field-al igned trough in electron density with an associated boundary blob usin g the techniques of ionospheric tomography, with verification by means of independent measurements from the EISCAT radar. An authentic image is still obtained when observations from only two receiving sites are used if the structure is in the vicinity of the stations. However, th e image quality is degraded when the feature, with its strong horizont al gradients, is far from overhead. The results are of importance to t he application of ionospheric tomography to the study of spatial struc tures in electron density over remote and inhospitable regions like th e polar caps where the location of ground stations is restricted. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.