K. Schlegel et Av. Gurevich, RADAR BACKSCATTER FROM PLASMA IRREGULARITIES OF THE LOWER E-REGION INDUCED BY NEUTRAL TURBULENCE, Annales geophysicae, 15(7), 1997, pp. 870-877
Recently, one of the authors (A. V. G.) developed a theory of low-freq
uency plasma irregularities which are created as a consequence of neut
ral turbulence in the D and lower E regions. In the following this the
ory will be applied to coherent backscatter experiments with radars in
a frequency range between 5 and 150 MHz. We discuss the dependence of
the backscatter cross-section on ionospheric as well as on turbulence
parameters. The backscatter increases strongly with decreasing radar
frequency. Above 15 MHz the effects discussed here can probably only b
e detected by very powerful radars with large antenna arrays.