Reflection of optimum pulses from the ionosphere

The reflection of RF pulses having linear frequency variation off an inhomogeneous, anisotropic, dispersive, and absorbing ionospheric layer is considered in this paper. It is found that moderate pulse compression (10 to 20 db) can be achieved by utilizing the intrinsic dispersive properties of this transmission channel. Results are presented which indicate how this compression varies with magnetic dip angle, solar zenith angle, transmitter-receiver separation distance, and propagation direction with respect to a magnetic meridian.