Viktoriya A. Pavlova

In December 2021, we presented a prototype of a fast ionosonde for vertical sounding based on the usage of publicly available radio-electronic components. This approach led to a major reduction in the cost of the created device. We called our development ION-FAST, which characterizes the key feature of the ionosonde: the possibility of continuous operation at a speed of one ionogram per second, which is required to study the rapid processes of redistribution of the electron concentration during heating experiments. In May 2022, an ionosonde for vertical sounding of the ionosphere, developed at the Radiophysical Research Institute of Nizhni Novgorod (NIRFI), was put into continuous operation at the SURA facility. This report provides a description of the improvements made to the prototype over the last year and the path to be passed from idea to implementation. The results of the first months of the prototype’s operation (especially the results of the supporting optic experiment in August 2022), as well as prospects for further use and modernization, are provided. In addition, the realization of the oblique chirp-sounding receiver prototype as an extension of the proposed diagnostic platform’s functionality, including the first results, is presented.

The description and test results of the prototype of a fast ionosonde for the vertical sounding of the ionosphere, which makes it possible to record ionograms once a second, are presented. Such a high rate of registration of ionograms is required to study the fast processes of redistribution of electron concentration during heating experiments, for registration of fast quasiperiodic and moving ionospheric disturbances in the F, E, and Es layers. The key feature of the presented development is the usage of publicly available radio-electronic components. This provided a significant reduction in the cost of creating the prototype. In the current version, the prototype is based on the software-defined radio (SDR) devices Red Pitaya SDRlab 122-16 and LimeSDR. The test results showed that the quality of the ionograms recorded using the prototype is not worse than the quality of ionograms recorded using the professional CADI ionosonde. The low cost of the components allows providing multi-position registration of ionograms for determination the dynamics of natural and artificial ionospheric disturbances in 3D region of space at a lower expenses rate, as well as to create a network of ionospheric observation points with an increased number of ionosondes.