Dynasonde Advanced Ionospheric Sounder

Last modified at Nov 7th, 2022, 15:48 GMT

Description

The Dynasonde evolved at NOAA between 1970-1980 as "an ionosonde competent to measure the dynamics of the ionosphere". In 1975, the original hardware prototype (called "NOAA HF Radar") was selected for operational implementation; total three copies were built by 1978. System #4 was built for EISCAT facility in Norway; another two modernized versions were built in the late 1980s. Continuing hardware improvements and software development have maintained the several operating original Dynasondes at a "state of art" functionality. In 2008, a next-generation Dynasonde hardware design was revealed under the name Vertical Incidence Pulsed Ionospheric Radar (VIPIR, registered separately in PITHIA). The software system for VIPIR data analysis, Dynasonde21, retained the original title coined in the 1970s.

Operational Modes

  • Standard ionospheric sounding

    ionosounding
    Description
    The instruments perform regular ionospheric soundings, nowadays typically down to 2 minutes. The instruments work by transmitting sets of pulses and sampling the return signals from individual receiving antennas in an array. The signal is processed with the DSND and NeXtYZ algorithms developed by N. Zabotin and coworkers. Analysed parameters are the standard ionospheric critical frequencies and heights, echo angles of arrival, E and F region drift velocities, electron density profiles, and irregularity parameters.

  • Special modes

    special
    Description
    The hardware is highly configurable and can also be used for special purposes, e.g. single-frequency sounding. As an example, the EISCAT Dynasonde was sometimes connected as an exciter and receiver for HF radar measurements with the EISCAT HF Heating facility before it was upgraded with its present digital synthesizers and software-defined receivers,

Further Information and Resources

Resources

Metadata Information
Editor EISCAT Scientific Association
Version 1
Created Monday 7th Nov. 2022, 14:00
Last Modified Monday 7th Nov. 2022, 15:48