INITIAL RESULTS FROM THE ZHONGSHAN HF RADAR IN ANTARCTICA

doi:10.3724/SP.J.1084.2012.00397

Abstract

Abstract: The HF coherent scatter radar is one of the most powerful tools to probe the ionosphere convection. Zhongshan HF radar has been built and operational since April, 2010 and became one of the SuperDARN radars. Firstly, the operational principle and mode of Zhongshan HF radar in Antarctica have been introduced, then the distribution of ionospheric echoes at each of 16 beams and the variation of ionospheric echoes with frequency have been analyzed with the first year’s observation. Finally, the occurrence of ionospheric echoes in different frequencies has been presented. The results from observation and simulation by ray tracing show that, statistically, the difference of ionospheric echoes occurrence between beams for different frequencies is arising from the direction of beam pointing and the area that the beam can achieve the orthogonality condition between the wave vector and the earth’s magnetic field.

Key words: Zhongshan Station, HF coherent radar, ionosphere, ray tracing

LIU Erxiao, HU Hongqiao, LIU Ruiyuan, WU Zhensen, WU Mingjun, YANG Huigen, ZHANG Beichen. INITIAL RESULTS FROM THE ZHONGSHAN HF RADAR IN ANTARCTICA[J]. ADVANCES IN POLAR SCIENCE, 2012, 24(4): 397-407.

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