Scintillation effects of scattered electromagnetic waves in the ionospheric plasma

Second order statistical moments of the phase fluctuations are obtained taking into account the boundary condition, diffraction effects and polarization coefficients of the ordinary and extraordinary waves. The variance and the correlation function are calculated for arbitrary 3D spectral function of electron density fluctuations containing both anisotropic Gaussian and power-law spectra. The phase scintillation index and the scintillation level are analyzed numerically. Splashes are revealed for different anisotropy factor of elongated large-scale irregularities varying orientation angle with respect to the lines of force of geomagnetic field. Log-log plots of the power spectrum satisfies the “standard relationship” of scattered ordinary and extraordinary waves. Growing orientation angle splashes arises in fully developed scintillation region.