Measurement of irregularity heights by the spaced receiver technique

The scintillation of radio signals from an artificial earth satellite has been analyzed by spaced receiver techniques to obtain the heights of the electron density irregularities responsible for scintillations observed at the ground. We report such data taken near the maximum of the present solar cycle. These results are also compared with results of data taken near the minimum phase of the solar cycle. Eighty-four passes of BE-B extending from January 1968 to July 1968 were reduced for height values. The heights were computed by measuring the time delays in the ground pattern by graphical cross-correlation techniques. These delays were then substituted into a height equation for a spherical earth and ionosphere. The spherical formula was developed so that height values for sub-ionospheric latitude from 36° to 50°N could be measured. The diurnal behavior and the latitude dependence of irregularity height are studied and compared with results obtained during the solar minimum.