Phase Matching Method for Inversion of Venus Radio Occultation Signals

Abstract

AbstractRadio occultation is a spacecraft remote sensing technique used to study planetary atmospheres. Among the available spacecraft remote sensing techniques, radio occultation offers the highest vertical resolution. In this paper, we present for the first time the implementation of the radio‐holographic method called phase matching (PM) for the analysis of planetary radio occultation signals. We show that by using this novel approach (originally developed within the Earth atmospheric research community) multi‐path interference can be detected and accounted for. Additionally, using the complex representation of the radio signal, PM achieves higher (sub‐Fresnel) vertical resolutions than the traditional approach used to date for the inversion planetary radio occultation signals. This is of particular importance for studying atmospheric processes that have short vertical scales and correctly characterizing refraction disturbances that induce various propagation features. Such a region is the base of the Venusian top cloud deck where thin instability layers have been detected.