Concept information
Preferred term
INCOHERENT SCATTER RADAR
Definition
- The Incoherent Scatter Radar is the most powerful ground based technique for the study of the Earth's ionosphere and its interactions with the upper atmosphere, the magnetosphere and the interplanetary medium (solar wind). Typical Incoherent Scatter radars radiate effective powers measured in gigawatts, but the returned signals normally represent only picowatts. Powerful multi-mega-watt transmitters, large high-gain antennas (typically at least 1000 m2 in area), sensitive receivers and sophisticated radar control and data acquisition systems are all necessary for the sucful detection and evaluation of the weak incoherent scatter echoes received from the ionosphere. Incoherent Scatter radar systems provide a wealth of observational data and are complemented by detailed observations from balloons, rockets and satellites as well as a wide range of ground-based instruments including magnetometers, all-sky cameras, ionosondes and coherent (auroral) backscatter radars. Incoherent Scatter radars have attracted many such instruments to their vicinity and will continue to provide the focus of substantial research efforts for the foreseeable future. [Summary provided by the EISCAT Scientific Association] (en)
Broader concept
- Radar Sounders (en)
Change note
- 2021-08-04 17:14:31.0 [sritz] insert AltLabel (id: null category: primary text: INCOHERENT SCATTER RADAR language code: en);
URI
https://gcmd.earthdata.nasa.gov/kms/concept/ae74b4c1-18e6-4079-b740-d65a6394ba37
{{label}}
{{#each values }} {{! loop through ConceptPropertyValue objects }}
{{#if prefLabel }}
{{/if}}
{{/each}}
{{#if notation }}{{ notation }} {{/if}}{{ prefLabel }}
{{#ifDifferentLabelLang lang }} ({{ lang }}){{/ifDifferentLabelLang}}
{{#if vocabName }}
{{ vocabName }}
{{/if}}