History of the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN)-I: pre-SuperDARN developments in high frequency radar technology for ionospheric research and selected scientific results

Abstract

Part I of this history describes the motivations for developing radars in the high frequency (HF) band to study plasma density irregularities in the F region of the auroral zone and polar cap ionospheres. French and Swedish scientists were the first to use HF frequencies to study the Doppler velocities of HF radar backscatter from F-region plasma density irregularities over northern Sweden. These observations encouraged the author of this paper to pursue similar measurements over northeastern Alaska, and this eventually led to the construction of a large HF-phased-array radar at Goose Bay, Labrador, Canada. This radar utilized frequencies from 8–20 MHz and could be electronically steered over 16 beam directions, covering a 52∘ azimuth sector. Subsequently, similar radars were constructed at Schefferville, Quebec, and Halley Station, Antarctica. Observations with these radars showed that F-region backscatter often exhibited Doppler velocities that were significantly above and below the ion-acoustic velocity. This distinguished HF Doppler measurements from prior measurements of E-region irregularities that were obtained with radars operating at very high frequency (VHF) and ultra-high frequency (UHF). Results obtained with these early HF radars are also presented. They include comparisons of Doppler velocities observed with HF radars and incoherent scatter radars, comparisons of plasma convection patterns observed simultaneously in conjugate hemispheres, and the response of these patterns to changes in the interplanetary magnetic field, transient velocity enhancements in the dayside cusp, preferred frequencies for geomagnetic pulsations, and observations of medium-scale atmospheric gravity waves with HF radars.