ALTAIR VHF/UHF observations of multipath and backscatter enhancement

It is well-known that a propagating signal in the frequency range from VHF to L-band can experience disturbances due to naturally occurring F-region ionization. The DNA PEAK experiment was developed with the major goal of using the severely disturbed ionospheric propagation channel to measure and record worst-case propagation effects. The primary experiment utilized ALTAIR, a high-performance long range VHF/UHF tracking radar. During the experiment the authors recorded the first radar measurements of ionospheric-induced multipath and obtained the first radar measurements of an increase in average SNR caused by scintillation.<
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