A Frequency Selecting Method for High-Frequency Communication Based on Ionospheric Oblique Backscatter Sounding

Ionospheric oblique backscatter sounding is an effective means of monitoring the ionosphere which can be used as a frequency selection system to serve HF communication and ensure its quality and stability. But how to obtain effective information from the oblique backscatter ionogram is still a hot i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inRemote sensing (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 16; no. 21; p. 4095
Main Authors Cai, Chuqi, Yang, Guobin, Liu, Tongxin, Jiang, Chunhua
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.11.2024
Subjects
Analysis
Atmosphere, Upper
Backscattering
Echo sounding
Electron density profiles
Frequency ranges
frequency selecting
HF communication
ionogram inversion
Ionograms
Ionosphere
ionospheric oblique backscatter sounding
Liu, Timothy
Methods
Pattern recognition
Propagation
Radio communications
Ray tracing
Root-mean-square errors
Signal processing
Signal to noise ratio
Sounding
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Summary:Ionospheric oblique backscatter sounding is an effective means of monitoring the ionosphere which can be used as a frequency selection system to serve HF communication and ensure its quality and stability. But how to obtain effective information from the oblique backscatter ionogram is still a hot issue. Due to this situation, a frequency selecting method for HF communication based on ionospheric oblique backscatter sounding is proposed in this study. After obtaining the ionograms, pattern recognition is used to separate the vertical echoes and the oblique backscatter echoes. Next, the leading edge of the oblique backscatter echoes are extracted, and then a two-dimensional electron density profile can be reconstructed. Then, with the help of ray tracing, the usable frequency range can be estimated. Finally, according to the signal-to-noise ratio reflected by the ionograms, several optimal communication frequencies can be selected. In order to verify this method, oblique ionograms are obtained through oblique sounding experiments to evaluate its accuracy. The result indicates that the usable frequency range and the selected frequencies are in accordance with the echo of the oblique ionogram, so the practicability and accuracy of the method are validated. Eventually, the maximum usable frequencies (MUFs) obtained from oblique backscatter sounding are compared with the MUFs from the oblique sounding ionogram; its Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) is 7.8% and its root mean squared error (RMSE) is 1.34 MHz.
ISSN:2072-4292
2072-4292
DOI:10.3390/rs16214095