Application of the coded long-pulse technique to studies of thermal balance in the ionosphere This project is a collaborative effort involving Geospace Research Inc. and Utah State University. The research plan has two components including radar observations of the ionosphere and an assoicated modeling effort. Incoherent scatter of radar waves produces two distinct signals: an ion line and a plasma line. Usually, radar experiments are performed using either one or the other, but a new technique partly developed by Geospace Research Inc. allows both ion line and plasma line to be measured simultaneously. The radar experiments are to be performed at Arecibo in Puerto Rico and with the EISCAT facility in Europe. The resulting data provides a comprehensive set of measurements of the density and thermal properties of the ionospheric plasma. When combined with modeling, the measurements will be used to study a number of different processes that affect the observed behavior of the ionosphere.
