Applications of broadband radio signals for diagnostics of electron density profile dynamics and plasma motion in the HF-pumped ionosphere

A technique for studying inhomogeneous structure and motions in the ionosphere by measurements of the amplitude and phase characteristics of wideband radio pulses is developed and demonstrated in investigations of the HF-pumped ionospheric volume above the Sura facility. For the study of the vertical structure (electron density profile and vertical velocities) with high altitude and temporal resolution, a Tikhonov regularization algorithm for the solution of the inverse problem using phase sounding data is implemented. Horizontal velocity data are obtained by means of a correlation analysis of the reflected signals received by the diversity technique. The application of the technique described allows measurement of the HF pump-induced modifications of the electron density profile, particularly the plasma expulsion from the plasma resonance and upper hybrid resonance regions, with high accuracy.