On the Ion Line Calibration by Plasma Line in ISR Measurements

Abstract

The radar constant calibration in incoherent scatter radar ion line processing is essential for the data quality and was not paid enough attention in previous studies. In this investigation, based on several experiments made by the newly built Sanya incoherent scatter radar (SYISR), we made and evaluated the ion line calibration by plasma line both in case study and statistically. The calibration factor had local time and altitude variations, due to the corresponding variations of the transmitted power, the radar gain, and the noise temperature. We obtained a mean calibration factor of 1.35 by the simultaneous measured plasma line and ion line electron density and applied it to a one-month ion line observation calibration. Through a co-located ionosonde measured foF2 evaluation, the calibration decreased the mean deviation from −1.92 MHz (−18%) to −0.33 MHz (−3%), which resulted in much better agreement between the ion line foF2 after calibration and the ionosonde results. The existed deviations between after calibration and ionosonde results were due to the uncertainties either in the used calibration factor or the ionosonde measurements. An empirical Te/Ti usage in raw electron density estimation and ignoring the seasonal and short-term variations of the effecting factors might influence the calibration performance. Using the to-be-completed SYISR Tristatic System, the performance of plasma line calibration technique is expected to be improved in the future.