Coherent Ionospheric Doppler Receivers

The State University of New York at Oneonta (Prof. Hugh Gallagher), Siena College (Prof. Allan Weatherwax), and the Applied Research Laboratories, University of Texas at Austin [ARL:UT] (Dr. Trevor Garner) operate a network of passive receivers in the northeast United States. Together with collaborators at Cornell University and MIT’s Haystack Observatory, we  ake observations of total electron content (TEC), phase scintillation, and the rate of TEC fluctuations using Coherent Ionospheric Doppler Receiver (CIDR) systems. CIDRs, developed at ARL:UT, monitor beacon transmissions at 150 MHz and 400 MHz from low-earth-orbiting (LEO) satellites. A primary objective of this study is to determine the occurrence and distribution of intermediate scale irregularities observed along the equatorward edge of the aurora and in the trough. A suite of six CIDRs will form the North East CIDR Array (NECA) and enable us to address this aim.