The Features and Improvements of the Topside Ionospheric Data Extraction from the Irkutsk Incoherent Scatter Radar

This work is dedicated to improving the data processing quality of the Irkutsk incoherent scatter radar (IISR). The software for processing IISR data was developed on the base of an adaptive simplex processor (ASP) using a new radar equation. The ASP test processing results showed an unprecedented high fitting accuracy of the full spectral profile and full power profile of the IISR. Accounting for the refraction correction in the new radar equation allows us to re-evaluate the characteristics of ionospheric plasma movement in the Siberian region. The new technique using based on the ASP improves the accuracy of the determination electron density profiles on which small variations become visible. The estimates of the ionospheric plasma chemical composition at low ionospheric altitudes were first obtained.