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Ann. Geophys., 14, 1480-1486, 1996
www.ann-geophys.net/14/1480/1996/
© European Geosciences Union 1996

Errors due to random noise in velocity measurement using incoherent-scatter radar

P. J. S. Williams¹, A. Etemadi², I. W. McCrea³, and H. Todd^4
1Adran Ffiseg, Prifysgol Cymru Aberystwyth, SY23 3BZ, Wales
²Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London SW1, England
³Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot OX11 0QX, England
⁴University of Fiji, Fiji

Abstract. The random-noise errors involved in measuring the Doppler shift of an 'incoherent-scatter' spectrum are predicted theoretically for all values of T_e/T_i from 1.0 to 3.0. After correction has been made for the effects of convolution during transmission and reception and the additional errors introduced by subtracting the average of the background gates, the rms errors can be expressed by a simple semi-empirical formula. The observed errors are determined from a comparison of simultaneous EISCAT measurements using an identical pulse code on several adjacent frequencies. The plot of observed versus predicted error has a slope of 0.991 and a correlation coefficient of 99.3%. The prediction also agrees well with the mean of the error distribution reported by the standard EISCAT analysis programme.

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Citation: Williams, P. J. S., Etemadi, A., McCrea, I. W., and Todd, H.: Errors due to random noise in velocity measurement using incoherent-scatter radar, Ann. Geophys., 14, 1480-1486, 1996.   Bibtex   EndNote   Reference Manager