Ionospheric probing with an HF radar

The JINDALEE radar has been designed primarily for extended coverage air defence surveillance of Australia´s northern coastline. It achieves its long-range over-the-horizon (OTH) capability by employing ionospheric reflection; therefore ionospheric information is obtained as a by-product of radar operations. This paper describes some radar results concerning TID´s (travelling ionospheric disturbances), effects of the dawn terminator passage, geographic variations of ionization density and meteor backscatter. Examples are given of geographic variations and dynamic behaviour of the measured ionospheric parameters. In addition, the results obtained from the observations of meteor trail backscatter are summarised.<>