Contents: VHF atmospheric studies and communications and navigation systems; The definition of scintillation index and its use for characterizing ionospheric effects; Summary of properties of F-region irregularities; Application of the statistics of ionospheric scintillation to VHF and UHF systems; Special problems in scintillations; and Propagation delays of VHF waves.
In the years since the pioneering efforts of Sir Edward Appleton, M. A. F. Barnett, G. Breit, and M. A. Thve, many radio techniques have been employed to investigate the terrestrial ionosphere. The purposes of this book are to exam ine the basic physical interaction process of radio waves with the ionosphere, scrutinize each of the radio techniques currently in use, and describe the elements of each technique, as well as assess their capabilities and limitations. I have included some of the history of each technique, since we often tend to forget the efforts of the "pioneers". The interaction of radio waves with the terrestrial ionosphere has been described in considerable detail in several "classic" treatments, e.g., Ratcliffe (1959), Al'pert (1963), Budden (1961) and Davies (1965), Rishbeth and e.g., Flock (1979), Davies Garriott (1969), and in other more recent books, (1990), Hargreaves (1979), and Budden (1985). A few of the radio techniques have been described by Hargreaves (1979) and a book by Giraud and Petit (1978) has also included discussion of several of the techniques. The "WITS" handbook No. 2 (1989) also contains description of several radio techniques.
