S. Saito (1), A. Strømme (1), T. Grydeland (1), C. La Hoz (1) T. Hagfors (2)
(1) Department of Physics, University of Tromsø,
N-9037 Tromsø, Norway
(2) Max Planck Institute for Aeronomy,
Max-Planck-Strasse 2, 37191 Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany
We have operated the EISCAT Svalbard Radar (ESR) in interferometry mode with two antennas (32 m steerable and 42 m fixed) during the aurora/OPTI campaign from January 21st to 30th, 2001. It is known that the scale size of the auroral fine structure is often much smaller than the beam width (~ 1 km at E region height). By operating ESR in interferometry mode, we look for small scale structures, within a scattering volume. Both of the two antennas were pointed in a field-aligned direction. Transmission was done by the 42 m antenna and echoes were received both at the 42m and the 32 m antennas simultaneously. Signals were sampled by our own PC at an intermediate frequency, and normal ESR raw data were also recorded as usual. In our experiment, the transmitted pulses are encoded with alternating-code, the same as the tau0 experiment, to obtain high range resolution down to 9 km. The complex coherence function of the signals from the two antennas are calculated. At the workshop, some results of the interferometry experiment will be presented, and will be discussed in connection with ionospheric parameters derived from simultaneous ESR raw data, spectral shapes, and optical observations.
Communications to Susumu Saito