SATELLITE STUDIES OF ISOLATED IONOSPHERIC IRREGULARITIES

Ground-based observations of the radio signals propagated through the ionosphere from artificial satellites provide useful information about ionospheric irregularities. The technique has been extended to include recordings of the relative phase of the radio waves received at two stations as well as the customary amplitude recordings. This additional information is useful in interpreting the records. In particular, when relatively isolated single irregularities occur, a rather complete physical description can be derived including the location of each irregularity in three dimensions and a quantitative electron-density profile for the irregularity.