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Hist. Geo Space Sci., 4, 19–33, 2013
www.hist-geo-space-sci.net/4/19/2013/ Geo- and Space
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doi:10.5194/hgss-4-19-2013
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A short history of geophysical radar at Drinking Water

Engineering and Science
Arecibo Observatory Open Access

J. D. Mathews
The Pennsylvania State University, Radar Space Sciences Lab, 323A EE East Univ. Park, PA 16802-2707, USA
Earth System

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Correspondence to: J. D. Mathews ([email protected])
Science
Data
Received: 21 November 2012 – Revised: 15 February 2013 – Accepted: 20 February 2013 – Published: 13 March 2013

Abstract. As Arecibo Observatory (AO) approaches its 50th anniversary, it is appropriate to review the many
radars and ionospheric heaters that have been deployed on or near the 305 m dish and to summarize some of the

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innovative radar-based geophysical research that has resulted. The reasons William E. (Bill) Gordon developed

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the 305 m Arecibo dish are well known but are briefly reviewed. The early and then more recent radar/feed
designs are reviewed as geophysical uses of Arecibo have evolved and as the full potential of the dish and
nearby facilities was and is being realized from HF through S-band frequencies. This history surely has some Geography
gaps and there are a few mysteries. The community is encouraged to fill these gaps and to help complete the
history.

1 Introduction and ionospheric studies, planetary radar astronomy, and ra-

dio astronomy. It remains the most sensitive such facility and
has been or is being used over a frequency range from about
The initial manifestation of Arecibo Ionospheric Observatory 3 MHz (on-dish high frequency (HF) heating; Sulzer et al.,
(AIO) was built over the period from June 1960 through Au- 1982) through about 10 GHz (radio astronomy).
gust 1963 via US Department of Defense ARPA (Advanced The significant role of AO in planetary radar is nicely
Research Projects Agency) funding under the initiative of, recounted in Buderi (1996) and in Butrica (1996). Gor-
and design specifications developed by, William E. Gordon don (1958b) notes that the parabolic-dish version of what
and his colleagues Henry Booker and Ben Nichols (Gor- would become Arecibo Ionospheric Observatory would en-
don et al., 1958; Altschuler, 2002). A series of construction able radio astronomy observations and be suitable for plan-
photos for this period are available at the AO website (http: etary radar. Here we concentrate on the various geophysical
//www.naic.edu/history gal/historicgal.html). Professor Gor- radars – and the science thereby enabled – that have been
don was then a faculty member in the Cornell University placed on or adjacent to the 305 m dish.
School of Electrical Engineering. A short but compelling bi-
ography of Dr. Gordon as of 1966 is given by Clarey (1966).
Cornell managed AIO – first for the Air Force and then, be- 2 In the beginning
ginning in 1969, for NSF (National Science Foundation) –
from its inception through 30 September 2011, after which The story of the path William E. Gordon traversed on the way
new management under the lead of SRI International began to the 1 November 1963 dedication of Arecibo Ionospheric
operations. AIO was primarily intended for incoherent scat- Observatory is well recounted by Butrica (1994), Robinson
ter radar studies of the earth’s ionosphere. However, as re- et al. (2009), Cohen (2009), Appendix A of Subcommit-
counted by Gordon, Cornell Astronomy Professor Thomas tee (2008), and others. However highlights include his having
“Tommy” Gold realized that the new AIO system could also conceived the concept of incoherent scattering and ultimately
function as the most sensitive instrument for the also rel- of the Arecibo 305 m dish in the spring of 1958. The rapid
atively new fields of radio and radar astronomy (Butrica, evolution of Gordon’s idea of incoherent scattering from free
1994). Today Arecibo Observatory is used for atmospheric electrons in the earth’s ionosphere is reflected in the 29 May

Published by Copernicus Publications.

20 J. D. Mathews: A short history of geophysical radar at Arecibo Observatory

1958 Cornell School of Engineering seminar announcement

reproduced as Figure 6 in Cohen (2009). Cohen also reports
an April 1958 presentation to the Cornell ionosphere group
on these earliest ideas. The idea progressed rapidly with his
submission of the first paper on the subject to the Institute of
Radio Engineers (IRE). This was received on 11 June 1958
and published in November 1958 (Gordon, 1958b).
While Gordon was refining the Arecibo designs, he was
famously in contact with Dr. Kenneth Bowles, a recent
Cornell PhD, then at the National Bureau of Standards
(NBS) in Boulder, Colorado. Bowles had access to an NBS
41 MHz forward-scatter transmitter/antenna system located
near Long Branch (Havana) Illinois. All he needed was
a suitable zenith-looking antenna system of sufficient gain
and capability to handle the 4–6 MW peak power. The
116 m × 140 m half-wave dipole array (1024 elements) was
quickly built by a tree surgeon from Ithaca, New York and
the experiment to test for incoherent scattering was con- Figure 1. William E. Gordon and William McGuire working with
ducted with positive results (Bowles, 1958). On 22 October a late 1958 model of the Arecibo radar dish and feed system.
1958 Gordon, then chairman of the US National Committee Note that the original feed system envisioned was simply a 500-
foot tower at the center of the parabolic dish. Professor McGuire
URSI (International Union of Radio Science) and attending
was on the faculty of the Cornell Department of Civil Engineer-
the URSI/IRE (Institute of Radio Engineers) Joint Meeting
ing and was involved in the structural design and in the main-
at Penn State University, gave the fourth paper of the 14:00– tenance of the Arecibo dish and platform structural infrastruc-
17:00 EST session 3 on “Scattered Signals” titled “Incoher- ture for many decades. (Photo courtesy of Cornell University and
ent Scattering of Radio Waves by Free Electrons with Ap- Prof. D. B. Campbell; also Robinson et al., 2009.)
plications to Space Exploration by Radar” (Gordon, 1958a).
This talk featured the announcement that Ken Bowles had
earlier that day observed incoherent scattering from the iono-
sphere (Butrica, 1994). Bowles’ paper on this result was re- feeds. ARPA received the construction proposal in the sum-
ceived at Physical Review Letters on 12 November 1958 and mer of 1958 with a funding contract signed with AFCRL in
published in the 15 December 1958 edition (Bowles, 1958). November 1959 (Altschuler, 2002). An early description of
A copy of the relevant pages of the URSI abstract booklet the design and construction process is given by Berth (1966).
(discovered in the National Academy of Sciences archives) The first (less than successful) 430 MHz linefeed used at AIO
will be made available online. is shown in Fig. 2. Linefeeds at 430 MHz and the BMEWS-
Even before submission of the IRE paper, Gordon’s work derived radar system will be discussed in a later section. Sec-
on antenna design was proceeding under some existing ONR tion 5 of Cohen (2009) gives a very thorough description of
(Office of Naval Research) funding that he had under the di- the inception through dedication phase of AIO.
rection of Dr. Arnold Shostak at ONR (Butrica, 1994). Some The first Arecibo Advisory Committee was formed to ad-
time between the submission of the IRE paper and its publi- vise ARPA and AFOSR on the scientific issues related to
cation in November 1958, a preliminary design for a 1000- AIO (Gordon, 1962b). Ronald Bracewell chaired the com-
foot diameter parabolic dish to be located in a sinkhole (it is mittee with Herbert Friedman, Fred Haddock, Colin Hines,
unclear when the actual sinkhole was selected) near Arecibo, Otto Struve, and Arthur Waynick as members. This commit-
Puerto Rico was produced as seen in Fig. 1. However, af- tee first met at AIO on 27–28 November 1962.
ter having searched for additional funding sources, the newly Figure 3 shows the Arecibo Ionospheric Observatory
created ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) and the (AIO) as it looked as construction was completed and as
primary ARPA contact, Ward Low, provided the necessary the facility was dedicated on 1 November 1963. The dedi-
continuing funding. Additionally, with critical insight aimed cation and brief history of AIO was reported in Physics To-
towards flexibility of the AIO reflector, Ward Low asked Gor- day (Editor, 1964). AIO was at this point managed and oper-
don to visit the antenna group at the Air Force Cambridge ated by Cornell University under an Air Force contract and
Research Laboratories (AFCRL) to talk about spherical re- directed by Gordon. AIO was, however, a multi-use facility
flectors. Spherical reflectors allow beam steering at the cost with interests in radio astronomy and planetary radar as well
of using line feeds to correct the incumbent spherical aber- as ionospheric studies. This may have led to the ascendency
ration. This led to the adoption of a much more flexibility of Cornell astronomy influences on Arecibo and perhaps
system with a 305-m (70◦ ) spherical cap reflector, the three- to the eventual move of Gordon to Rice University, where
tower azimuth-elevation tracking platform, and use of line- he would remain for the remainder of his career (Butrica,

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J. D. Mathews: A short history of geophysical radar at Arecibo Observatory 21

radars. As described in Chapter 19 of Buderi (1996) the de-

signers of the BMEWS radar systems faced the same chal-
lenges as Gordon. They needed what we now refer to as
HPLA (high-power, large-aperture) radars. Fortunately, Lin-
coln Labs was at the forefront of this development (Delaney
and Ward, 2000) and Gordon was certainly fully aware of
this. In particular, various high-power klystrons were be-
ing developed with these systems ultimately fielded at both
Millstone (location of the MIT Lincoln Labs test radars and
now home to the MIT Haystack Observatory (http://www.
haystack.mit.edu/atm/mho/about/index.html) and Arecibo.
Early high-power UHF klystrons were built by Eimac Cor-
poration (ultimately a division of Varian Associates; http:
//www.cpii.com/history.cfm) and then by Varian and finally
by Litton (see page 14 of Caryotakis, 2005; also pages 409–
410 of Buderi, 1996), who ultimately provided the tubes
for the AIO transmitter. The original AIO 430 MHz trans-
Figure 2. The original 430 MHz square cross-section linefeed as it mitter system (still in use but with substantial updates) was
was raised to the carriage house in this photo dated 14 August 1963. designed and built for AIO by Levinthal Electronic Prod-
Photo courtesy of Cornell University and Arecibo Observatory. ucts (later Radiation at Stanford) where the project engineer
was Gene E. Talmadge. The AIO/AO transmitter (Radiation
at Stanford Model PC-349) is very similar to the Millstone
1994). Gordon (1964) gives a delightful early history of AIO (Haystack) 440 MHz systems but operates at 430 MHz and
that emphasizes the versatility and potential of the facility originally used a pair of (production BMEWS) Varian VA-
and thoroughly supports the radio astronomy and planetary 843 klystrons (J. B. Hagen, personal communication, 2013)
radar astronomy initiatives. These early thoughts are ampli- that were not too successful, resulting in a move to “socket-
fied in his oral history interview (Butrica, 1994). Details of compatible” Litton L-3403 tubes that exhibited reasonable
the evolving science and of the individuals, institutions, fund- lifetimes but an efficiency of under 30 %. Finally, more mod-
ing sources, and politics behind Arecibo are given in Chap- ern and more efficient Litton L-5773 klystrons were adopted
ter 4 of Butrica (1996). Cohen (2009) thoroughly reviews the and are in use today. All these klystrons were designed for a
early history of Arecibo and the context that led to rapid con- nominal 1 MHz bandwidth and, as pairs, to deliver a nominal
struction of the facility. Rankin (2008) gives some details on peak power of 2.5 MW (6 % duty cycle). The AIO transmit-
life in Puerto Rico in the late 1960s along with a description ter fed the CH#1 linefeed via 1500 feet of WR2100 waveg-
of the computing environment at AIO and compelling details uide that connected to the carriage house (CH#1) via a slotted
on the excitement surrounding early pulsar work. probe and then to the linefeed via a turnstile junction (Hagen,
The National Science Foundation took over funding and 2005). This basic system remains in place today.
management oversight of AIO on 1 October 1969. AIO be- The transmitter system arrived at AIO well before the dish
came Arecibo Observatory of the National Astronomy and and platform were completed. As the radar was available, a
Ionosphere Center (NAIC) that was also based at Cornell 16-foot-per-side, square-aperture 430 MHz horn antenna that
(Altschuler, 2002). The first major upgrade that included a towered some 60 feet was built, under the direction of Bell
new dish surface was dedicated on 15–16 November 1974. Labs engineer, T. E. Talpey (then on leave from Bell Labs
The state of the observatory systems at that point is described and employed by Cornell), and L. M. LaLonde and used to
by LaLonde (1974). The second major upgrade, which in- test the entire 430 MHz transmitter and receiver system in-
cluded the Gregorian dome that replaced carriage house #2, cluding the turnstile junction (Gordon, 1962a). This system
was dedicated on 14 June 1997. This upgrade included a sec- (shown in Fig. 4) was confirmed as having a ∼ 10◦ half-power
ond 430 MHz feed allowing dual-beam incoherent scatter ob- beamwidth and was in operation by mid-October 1962. It
servations. was used to receive the sun in transit and to obtain lunar
echoes as the moon transited near zenith. The lunar echoes
3 The AIO 430 MHz radar were additionally received bistatically from near Ithaca using
a 17-ft dish. This system was also used to detect the Echo I
As Gordon investigated the state of radar technology in 1958 satellite and to search, apparently with no success, for inco-
relative to the needs for detection of incoherent scattering herent scattering.
from the upper ionosphere (Gordon, 1958b), he was aware As AIO observations commenced using the on-dish
via MIT Lincoln Laboratories, AFCRL, and other sources 430 MHz radar, incoherent scattering was readily detected.
of the BMEWS (Ballistic Missile Early Warning System) However, it was immediately clear that the original square

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22 J. D. Mathews: A short history of geophysical radar at Arecibo Observatory

Figure 3. AIO at about the time it was dedicated on 1 November 1963. Note the 430 MHz linefeed projecting below the elevation arm – see
Fig. 5 for a close-up picture of this linefeed. The waveguide from the transmitter located in the left side of the building nearest the dish is
mounted above the catwalk that reaches from the triangle to near the base of the tower nearest the buildings and is then seen to reach from
this point to the top of the cliff above the transmitter/operations building. Photo courtesy of Cornell University and Arecibo Observatory.

cross-section linefeed (Fig. 2) had a gain of only ∼ 56 dBi circularly polarized 430 MHz linefeed based on the evolu-
and an aperture efficiency of only 22 % (LaLonde, 1974). tion in design of radio astronomy linefeeds at 611 MHz (Co-
These values were well below the theoretical expectations for hen and Perona, 1967) and at 318 MHz (LaLonde and Har-
this system and would lead to the replacement of this line- ris, 1970) was constructed based on a detailed design study
feed. The contract under which this linefeed was designed by Alan Love (1973, 1971). This feed, installed in January
and built is apparently described in Kay (1961) which the 1972, proved to be very successful – it is still in use and is a
author has been unable to locate but which is referenced in tribute to Alan Love’s design genius – yielding a (radio as-
LaLonde and Harris (1970). tronomy) gain of about 61.5 dBi (19.8 K Jy−1 ). The high gain
The earliest publication using the incoherent scatter radar of this feed, combined with a low temperature (∼ 80 K) re-
at AIO appears to have been Thome (1964), who in the ac- ceiver front-end, and high transmitter power uniquely yields
knowledgements credits ARPA under Project Defender for ion-line incoherent scattering with daytime signal-to-noise
AIO support with technical oversight by AFOSR. Other ratios (SNR) greater than one from the base of the D-region
early papers include Gordon (1964), who reviews the his- (∼ 80 km) to nearly 1000 km altitude. For example, the D-
tory and research scope of AIO and notes that a 40 MHz region ledge is easily visible to this radar (Mathews, 1984)
radar capability was being installed. The first PhD awarded as are D-region tidal winds (Mathews, 1976) and continuous
using the Arecibo ISR (incoherent scatter radar) was that “sporadic-E” (Morton et al., 1993; Mathews, 1998). Also,
of Carlson (1965). This was followed by Thome (1966), interestingly and uniquely for the incoherent scatter radars,
Trost (1969), and Behnke (1970). near-field effects for this feed illuminating the 305 m dish
As mentioned above, the performance of the original are important up to approximately 300 km, resulting in sig-
430 MHz linefeed was found to be well below optimal. There nificant corrections to the incoherent scatter radar equation
are hints in the early reports that Professor Thomas “Tommy” (Breakall and Mathews, 1982; Shen and Brice, 1973). Early
Gold (Director, Cornell Center for Radiophysics and Space results using the new linefeed were given by Behnke and
Research (CRSR) – CRSR managed AIO for Cornell) in par- Harper (1973) and others.
ticular pushed for a more efficient linefeed. In any case, a new

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J. D. Mathews: A short history of geophysical radar at Arecibo Observatory 23

Figure 4. The first functioning radar feed at AIO. This 430 MHz
hornfeed was constructed to test the full radar system before the
dish was completed. This feed had a ∼ 10◦ half-power beamwidth
and was in operation in mid-October 1962. It was used to receive
the sun in transit and to obtain lunar echoes as the moon transited
near zenith (Gordon, 1962a). Photo courtesy of Carmen G. Segarra-
Saavedra (Segarra-Saavedra, 2012).

Figure 5. A picture from 13 May 1971 showing carriage house 1

4 The AIO 40.12 MHz radar (CH1) with the 40 MHz radar feed system consisting of four Yagi
antennas placed symmetrically around the original square cross-
The success of the original Bowles radar (Bowles, 1958) section 430 MHz linefeed. Note the cable car giving convenient ac-
likely led to the decision to include a similar radar at AIO, cess to the platform relative to the catwalk which is located to the
right and above the cable car in this photo. Photo courtesy of Cor-
though this is speculation and the mystery as to why this
nell University and Arecibo Observatory.
radar was installed at AIO remains. The proposal for this
system was sent to AFOSR in early August 1962 and it
was funded by 29 August 1962 (Gordon, 1962b). This radar,
designed and built for AIO under ARPA funding (Gordon, ionospheric use was for ionospheric D- and E-region heat-
1962a), was initially to be installed in July 1964 but ulti- ing, which was strikingly successful (Showen, 1972). The
mately was commissioned in June 1965 (Gordon, 1965). This Watkins report is a detailed study of the likely capabilities
system employed four four-element Yagi antennas symmet- and uses of the radar with no mention of actual observa-
rically arrayed around the 430 MHz feed at the appropriate tions. It is likely that severe difficulties with the radar were
position below the paraxial surface, as shown in Fig. 5. The encountered. An AIO funding proposal to AFOSR (Drake,
peak antenna gain was 36.9 dBi and transmitted power was 1968) reports without details the use of this radar in conjunc-
1.2 MW peak (50 kW average power) with the power sup- tion with the 430 MHz system for incoherent scatter stud-
ply and actual transmitter located adjacent to the 430 MHz ies of the ionosphere; these results have not been located,
klystron and power vaults with RF delivered to the carriage adding to the mystery. The radar was also used to map the
house via 6-inch co-axial cable (Campbell and Muhleman, moon (Thompson, 1970) and in an attempt to detect scat-
1969; Thompson, 1970). tering from the solar corona (Parrish, 1967). Campbell and
While there are hints that this radar was installed at Muhleman (1969) used this radar along with the 430 MHz
AIO for ionospheric heating experiments and for incoher- radar to measure the total electron content between Venus
ent scatter observations in conjunction with the 430 MHz and Earth. The radar was decommissioned with the advent
system (Watkins, 1967), it appears that the only published of the upgraded circular 430 MHz linefeed (Figs. 8 and 9).

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24 J. D. Mathews: A short history of geophysical radar at Arecibo Observatory

Figure 6. The Arecibo Observatory feeds in July 1972. The new 430 MHz linefeed is mounted on carriage house #1 to the right in this photo.
In the center is the HF log-periodic feed for ionospheric heating experiments. To the left is carriage house #2 with various radio astronomy
feeds including those at 318 MHz (left, 40 feet long), 611 MHz (right, 45 feet long), the far-right feed is likely 1667 MHz test feed while the
feeds at the far left are likely nested Yagis at 111 MHz and 196 MHz (D. B. Campbell, personal communication, 2013). Note the catwalk at
the upper left of the photo. Photo courtesy of Cornell University and Arecibo Observatory.

However, the 6-inch coaxial cable from the transmitter room the powerful (150 kW at 252 KHz) Radio Luxembourg was
to the platform found use for delivering power to the first of heard superimposed on that of a weaker Swiss radio station
the on-dish HF heater antennas. It is possible that the radar at 652 kHz (Huxley and Ratcliffe, 1949; Tellegen, 1933). The
was decommissioned simply to use the co-axial cable to de- AIO incoherent scatter radar was uniquely capable of prob-
liver HF power to the heating antenna. However there was an ing heating phenomena and thus use of the AIO dish for iono-
unsuccessful attempt to convert this system to 50 MHz using spheric heating was of great early interest.
a single large transmitter tube and a socket-located resonant Figure 6 shows the dual-polarization log-periodic HF feed
cavity “tank” circuit provided by the NBS (National Bureau system mounted at zenith above the Arecibo dish. This sys-
of Standards; or perhaps ESSA per the next section) in Boul- tem, which was plagued by arcing and led to the Islote
der, Colorado (J. B. Hagen, personal communication, 2013). heater described next, replaced the 5.62 MHz crossed-dipole
with reflector (likely a dual-polarization, two-element Yagi)
system described in Gordon et al. (1971). The Gordon et
5 Early on-dish HF heating al. (1971) article describes O-mode HF ionospheric heating
with this system at transmitter power levels of 100 kW CW
Ionospheric heating occurs when intense medium frequency or pulsed (at any duty cycle) and a ∼ 10◦ beamwidth. Carl-
through HF (high frequency) and even VHF (Showen, 1972) son et al. (1972) elaborate that the HF transmitter was similar
radio waves accelerate the electrons in the ionosphere caus- to those described by Utlaut (1970), who states that the HF
ing collisional heating, plasma wave generation, and related transmitter was designed, built, and installed by staff of the
interesting phenomena. As the heating or modification lev- Institute for Telecommunications Sciences of Environmen-
els can be controlled, ionospheric modification experiments tal Science Services Administration (ESSA; later NOAA).
– rather than the usual incoherent scatter radar observations L. M. LaLonde designed and built the feed. Unfortunately, a
of the natural ionosphere – become possible. An example picture of the dipole heater feed mounted over the dish has
manifestation of ionospheric modification/heating is cross- not been located.
modulation, whereby two radio frequency signals cross- Gordon et al. (1971) described the effects of O-mode HF
modulate due to non-linear interaction in the ionosphere. The heating on the ionospheric F-region electron temperatures
earliest example of cross-modulation is known as the Lux- as derived using 430 MHz incoherent scatter observations.
embourg effect. This arose in 1933 when the signal from

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J. D. Mathews: A short history of geophysical radar at Arecibo Observatory 25

Carlson et al. (1972) describe the effects of the HF heat-

ing on the incoherent scatter spectrum. In particular they de-
scribe enhanced ion-line scattering at the altitude at which
the HF wave reflects from the ionosphere. They also reported
strongly enhanced up/down-shifted plasma lines with addi-
tional features due to plasma parametric instabilities.
As the original crossed-dipole HF feed was restricted to
a single frequency (5.62 MHz), it was replaced by a dual-
polarization log-periodic feed (Fig. 6) that yielded the fre-
quency flexibility required for the ever-expanding needs of
the HF heating community. Dias and Gordon (1973) report
using the frequency agility of the new feed to study elec-
tron cyclotron lines in the HF-enhanced incoherent scatter
spectrum. Gordon and Carlson (1974) reprise the results in
the earlier papers cited above and introduce new results ob-
tained using the new feed and a transmitter now capable of
160 kW power. Unfortunately the log-periodic feed would
often “light-up” with arcs that quickly burned through the
wires forming the feed, resulting in repeated failures. This
issue, combined with the need for even higher power levels
and greater ISR pointing flexibility (the HF feed restricted
carriage house pointing to zenith angles greater than ∼ 4◦ )
led to the design of the stand alone HF heater array that was
located ∼ 17 km NNE of AO at Islote on the coast of Puerto
Rico.
In a rather unique use of the log-periodic feed Sulzer et
al. (1982) used the heater HF transmitter at 12 kW peak
power level and 3.155 MHz frequency to provide the prob-
ing or “wanted” pulse for a D-region cross-modulation ex-
Figure 7. The Islote heater facility circa 1997. In these aerial views
periment where the 430 MHz radar performed as the heater
most of the two 4 × 4 log periodic antenna arrays is visible with
transmitter. This “inverted role” system successfully demon- the transmitter/control building to the left/top and the ocean just
strated wave interaction (cross-modulation) and is the only visible at the top right. The dual, closed coaxial “cable” (constructed
known example of UHF (430 MHz) heating of the iono- from irrigation pipe) transmission line system to the center of each
sphere D-region. log periodic feed is clearly visible as are the support towers. The
wire log periodic feeds are not visible but are suspended from four
towers with two linear polarizations each driven from a separate
6 The islote stand-alone HF heater transmission line. Photo courtesy of Cornell University and Arecibo
Observatory.
In mid-1980, construction began on the Islote heater facil-
ity with operations commencing in September 1981 (Fejer
et al., 1985). In its initial manifestation this system oper- No. 2, September 1983) with all upgrades completed in early
ated at frequencies of 3–12 MHz with an effective radiated 1997. These upgrades allowed for reliable use at the full
power (ERP) of up to ∼ 120 MW. This was accomplished 600 kW CW. Interestingly, this upgrade successfully replaced
with HF transmitters supplying up to 600 kW (4 × 150 kW the old open wire pseudo-coax cables with coax formed
transmitters) continuous power, depending on the diesel gen- using large irrigation pipes (NAIC/AO Newsletter No. 23,
erators and the state of the transmission lines to the two sets November 1997). Unfortunately, this facility was severely
of ∼ 20 dBi gain 4 × 4 log periodic antenna arrays shown in damaged by Hurricane Georges on 21–22 September 1998
Fig. 7 (Isham et al., 2000; Fejer et al., 1985). (NAIC/AO Newsletter No. 26, November 1998) and this,
Transmission lines used in the first manifestation of this combined with the government decision to return the wet-
facility were open-wire pseudo-coaxial cables that resulted lands on which the facility was located to natural state, led to
in severe mismatch and cross-coupling effects. These is- decommissioning of the facility in 1999.
sues, along with diesel generator shortcomings, resulted in Early use of the Islote heater included the 25 November
peak power limitations with a maximum at or below 400 kW. and 8 December 1981 observations of HF-enhanced plasma
The HF facility was upgraded in stages, with new transmis- lines using the 140 kW peak-power 46.8 MHz Max-Planck
sion lines beginning in September 1983 (NAIC Newsletter radar discussed in Sect. 7 (Fejer et al., 1983; Röttger et al.,

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26 J. D. Mathews: A short history of geophysical radar at Arecibo Observatory

1981). The use of both the 430 MHz and weaker 46.8 MHz
radars in the presence of ionospheric heating underscores
the scientific versatility of AO. Fejer et al. (1984) report de-
tection of Bragg scattering of the X-mode HF signal from
the periodic irregularities, induced by O-mode heating at the
base of the F-region. In this scenario CW heating below the
peak F-region plasma frequency results in a standing wave –
a result of the combined incident and reflected waves – with
sufficient E-field magnitudes that the ponderomotive forces
produce a corresponding modulation of the electron concen-
tration profile at half the local HF O-mode wavelength. The
heater is then used as pulsed transmitter in X-mode to probe
the region, revealing the Bragg-scattering from the resultant
∆N/N ≈ 10−4 ionospheric structuring.
Fejer et al. (1985) reviewed heater-related science from
1981–1984; this review excluded posters presented at the
1984 URSI GA in Florence, Italy. Topics discussed included
what came to be known as SEE (Stimulated Electromag-
netic Emission) that was discussed in more detail by Thidé
et al. (1989). Isham et al. (2000) review the many scientific
uses of this facility over its lifetime.

7 Bi-static HF radar

Gonzales and Woodman (1984) report the use of the Islote

heater system as the transmitter component of a bistatic HF
partial reflection radar with the receive antenna on the dish.
The goal of these observations was the understanding of
Figure 8. The Max Planck Institute for Aeronomy 46.8 MHz
D-region turbulence processes. In these tests Gonzalez and
SOUSY radar feed mounted downhill from carriage house 1 (CH1)
Woodman transmitted complementary (orthogonal) code se-
and towed by CH1. This was an 11-element log-periodic an-
quences using the Islote system operating at ∼ 200 kW peak tenna with 45–55 MHz frequency range and an 8 dB gain, yielding
power and over a 5–8 MHz frequency range. The code se- 60◦ half-power beamwidth to efficiently illuminate the dish. The
quence used was a repeated series of 8 × 16-baud, 18 µs/baud 430 MHz radar line feed and 318 MHz radio astronomy feed are
pulses. The received signal was sampled every 6 µs on the mounted on the carriage house (Röttger et al., 1981).
appropriate bandwidth. The use of the complementary code
sequence allowed use of relatively short (4 ms) IPPs (Inter-
Pulse Periods) as the long coherence time of the E/F-region
direct-reflection and multi-bounce returns from prior radar 8 Max-Planck Institut für Aeronomie SOUSY
pulses to largely cancel, allowing much better processed 46.8 MHz MST radar
SNR on the quite weak D-region partial reflections. The re-
ceive system featured a zenith-pointed, wide-band crossed- Röttger et al. (1981) report the first pilot MST (Mesospheric,
dipole mounted at the parabolic focus of the dish. This an- Stratospheric, Thermospheric) radar results from April and
tenna arrangement yielded a half-power beamwidth of ∼ 13◦ May 1980 using a 46.8 MHz 4 kW peak power, 150 watt av-
at 5 MHz. As this antenna is difficult to see in the only photo erage power transmitter and the antenna configuration shown
available, this picture will be included only in web accessible in Fig. 8. The 46.8 MHz operating frequency was chosen,
materials for this paper. as interference was minimal at this frequency and remains
As Gonzales and Woodman report, this system was used to in use today. The Figure 8 antenna system was a broadband
determine 32-point power spectra for 256 ranges after coher- 11-element log-periodic antenna with 45–55 MHz operating
ent integration, decoding, and incoherent integration of the bandwidth and an 8 dBi gain over this range. The feed was lo-
FFT spectrum. This system detected scattering layers from cated 12 m below the paraxial surface. The paraxial surface
about 60 km through 130 km, with the strongest layers cen- for the AO 265 m radius dish is half the radius or 133 m; see
tered at about 73 km, 81 km, and 89 km altitudes. They also Love (1971) for a complete description of the dish geometry
report scattering near 150 km range that they attribute to me- and of linefeed antennas. At this frequency and feed location,
teors in the side lobes – this assumption bears reexamination. the dish acts as parabolic reflector as the relative deviation of

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J. D. Mathews: A short history of geophysical radar at Arecibo Observatory 27

the sphere from the parabola with focus at a point is minimal.

The peak gain of this system was ∼ 40 dBi.
This low-power MST radar system was used to observe ST
(stratospheric, tropospheric) echoes. Perhaps surprisingly, it
also detected mesospheric scattering from near 72 km and
80 km altitude. The 80 km mesospheric scattering layer ex-
hibited apparent aspect sensitivity, while the lower layer
faded away over about 80 min. Sufficient SNR was available
to measure winds over the 72–84 km range.
The success of the pilot low-power transmitter as reported
by Röttger et al. (1981) quickly led to the late 1980 instal-
lation of a 30 kW peak power, 4 % duty-cycle transmitter
that was used for a series of lengthy joint UHF/VHF radar
campaigns; the 140 kW peak power system reported by Fejer
et al. (1983) appears to have been only temporarily avail-
able. Röttger et al. (1983) report the results of a campaign
conducted over the period of 10 December 1980 through 18
January 1981. As before, scattering from ∼ 8–25 km (upper
troposphere and lower stratosphere) and ∼ 60–82 km (meso-
sphere) was observed at least near local noon. While full day
observations were conducted, most observations ran from
11:00–13:00 AST (Atlantic Standard Time, AST = UT – 4 h).
These observations often included the 430 MHz incoherent
scatter radar and, somewhat amazingly, this observational ap-
proach captured the effects of a type 4 solar X-ray flare on the
mesosphere (Figure 1 of Röttger et al., 1983). This flare was Figure 9. The modern 430 MHz linefeed and coaxial 46.8 MHz
thoroughly analyzed by Rastogi et al. (1988), who concluded dual-polarization Yagi feeds as of August 2012. The 46.8 MHz feed
that the enhanced VHF scattering that was observed was due is comprised of four, 3-element Yagi antennas and yields ∼ 1.4◦ full-
to turbulent mixing of the flare-enhanced electron concen- width at half-maximum beamwidth and ∼ 40 dBi gain (Mathews et
tration profile, resulting in enhanced fluctuations at the VHF al., 2010). Photo by author.
Bragg scale. The full D- and lower-E region electron concen-
tration contours of this flare event are given in Figure 10 of
Mathews (1984).
seded in 1986 by the current arrangement seen in Fig. 9
(Isham et al., 2000). The upgraded 46.8 MHz radar was
9 Evolution of the current 46.8 MHz radar only lightly used until computer technology reached the
point that raw voltage returns over a significant range could
As the SOUSY transmitters were located at AO on a tempo- be recorded for each radar pulse and be subjected to effi-
rary basis only, a transmitter with 50 kW peak power and 2 % cient post-observation analysis. This, along with the fortu-
duty cycle was designed and built by Tycho Technology, Inc. itous coaxial 430/46.8 MHz beams, enabled nearly unique
(John Brosnahan) (NAIC Newsletter No. 1, 1 March 1983). meteor head-echo observations. This subject, pioneered by
It was finally installed and was operational as of June 1985 Chapin and Kudeki (1994) and Pellinen-Wannberg and
(NAIC Newsletter No. 5, June 1985). As this system was in- Wannberg (1994), has become known as high-power, large-
tended to operate at only 46.8 MHz, the Fig. 8 log-periodic aperture (HPLA) meteor observations and was followed by
feed was replaced by twin, dual-element (i.e., linear polariza- the 430 MHz radar work of Zhou et al. (1995) and Mathews
tion) Yagi antennas located 9.3 m below the paraxial surface. et al. (1997). Importantly, Zhou et al. (1998) reported dual-
The receiver system was also upgraded at this time. A de- frequency meteors with complex range-spread trail-echoes
scription of the system prior to installation of the coaxial to at VHF. This was followed by Mathews et al. (2010), who
the 430 MHz line feed antenna system is given by Röttger et reported meteoroid fragmentation based on radio science as-
al. (1986). pects of individual meteors observed simultaneously by the
The Yagi antenna system (photo not available) that re- V/UHF radars. This capability is nearly unique, with only the
placed the Fig. 8 log-periodic feed was located 2.16◦ “down- ALTAIR 160/422 MHz radar configured in a similar fash-
hill” from the 430 MHz beam-center and was also towed ion (Close et al., 2002). The ALTAIR (ARPA Long-Range
by CH1. However, this arrangement prevented common Tracking and Instrumentation Radar) system is located on
volume observations with the two radars and was super- the Kwajalein Atoll in the US Marshall Islands.

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28 J. D. Mathews: A short history of geophysical radar at Arecibo Observatory

10 2380 MHz radar investigation of the lower

atmosphere

Radar scattering from clear air turbulence led to the use of the
JRO (Jicamarca Radio Observatory) 50 MHz radar in what
became known as MST (Mesosphere, Stratosphere, Tropo-
sphere) radar observations of these regions (Woodman and
Guillen, 1974; Rastogi and Woodman, 1974). The JRO ob-
servations led shortly thereafter to the first use of the AO
430 MHz radar in an attempt to observe scattering from the
stratosphere and lower mesosphere (Aso et al., 1977). Not
unexpectedly they detected only scattering from the strato-
sphere, thus supporting initial ideas concerning UHF versus
VHF scattering from turbulence-induced index of refraction
fluctuations in the stratosphere relative to the mesosphere.
Aso et al.’s (1977) observations were immediately followed
Figure 10. The Higuillales (Los Caños) 30.5 m parabolic dish used
by those reported by Farley et al. (1979), who also pro-
by Woodman (1980a) for S-band studies of stratospheric turbu-
vide a short but comprehensive review of the subject to that
lence. Photo courtesy of Cornell University and Arecibo Observa-
point. Then Woodman (1980b) introduced new AO 430 MHz tory.
stratospheric observations using the Arecibo-designed and -
built planetary radar decoder, a new radar controller, an ar-
ray processor that allowed use of fast sampling, and a 32-bit, neered early moon bounce communications at 432 MHz us-
1 µs/baud complementary code pair that yielded 150-m range ing this dish, as well as the main AO dish (DeMaw, 1965).
resolution and strong code sidelobe suppression. This code For these observations the 2380 MHz radar was used at
employed the intrinsic 1 MHz bandwidth of the transmitter an average power level of 400 kW and potential resolution
klystrons. These improvements allowed for the processing of of 15 m, although processing limitations yielded 30-m reso-
256 altitudes to spectra and thus winds with 150-m altitude lution. The 30.5-m parabolic dish was outfitted with a just
resolution and approximately 2-min time resolution after av- under 20 K maser receiver and, together, the bistatic sys-
eraging. tem yielded an illuminated volume of ∼ 200 m horizontally
The above-described evolution of MST radar and, specif- and ∼ 600 m vertically. This unique and very powerful radar
ically, the observations of the stratosphere using the AO yielded 30-m resolution turbulence scattering RTI plots up
430 MHz radar, set the stage for use of the AO 2380 MHz to about 19 km altitude as the intersection of the two beams
planetary radar for similar measurements but at much more was adjusted. Scattering layers over the few hours of obser-
enhanced altitude resolution. However, the AO 2380 MHz vations ranged in total thickness from 100 m to a few hundred
radar did not and does not have a fast transmit/receive switch meters but with peak scattering “cells” at or smaller than the
and so low altitude observations must utilize a bi-static (or 30 m range resolution. Coverage was limited by the common
multi-static) antenna system. Woodman (1980a) argues that volume of the two antennas and by processing limitations.
the 150-m altitude resolution achieved with the 430 MHz Ierkic et al. (1990) reports on further 2380 MHz radar obser-
radar is sufficient for the study of waves and winds at strato- vations of lower stratospheric turbulent scattering reaching to
spheric heights but does not resolve the details of the turbu- nearly 20 km altitude. In this effort the range resolution was
lent scattering layers. To this end, Woodman uniquely em- improved to about 20 m with 15 s time resolution.
ployed the 20 MHz bandwidth, 2380 MHz planetary radar,
transmitting long pseudo-random codes to study the strato-
sphere. The required bi-static reception was achieved us- 11 430 MHz horn feed and the Gregorian feed
ing the 30.5-m parabolic dish shown in Fig. 10. This dish
was located 11 km north of AO at Higuillales (Los Caños) While for political reasons rocket campaigns will likely never
in the hills just above the town of Arecibo. It was built by occur again from Puerto Rico, the “El Coqui” rocket cam-
AO under the direction of Rolf Dyce in 1975 specifically paign, conducted from 18 May through 13 July 1992 (the
for S-band planetary radar interferometry. It cost ∼ $300 K COQUI DOS campaign occurred in 1998 as described be-
and was likely the 5th largest US radio telescope at that time low) included chemical releases into the natural F-region
(D. B. Campbell, personal communication, 2012). The Higu- ionosphere as well as combined HF-heating of the iono-
illales location was that of an earlier 15-m parabolic dish sphere, chemical releases into the heated volume, and
built by – and at the then residence of – the famed ham radio HF/VHF-radar and ISR diagnostics of the modified iono-
operator Sam Harris (W1FZJ) and his wife Helen (W1HOY). sphere (Djuth et al., 1995). This campaign was organized un-
Sam Harris was the head receiver engineer for AO. He pio- der NASA by Dr. David L. Reasoner and all AO activities in

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J. D. Mathews: A short history of geophysical radar at Arecibo Observatory 29

this campaign were conducted under a blanket proposal for sults. While there were plans to continue these observations
all participants (F. T. Djuth, personal communication, 2013). with an enhanced ASIS system, this appears not to have hap-
Of particular interest is that for the first time two 430 MHz pened. Tepley’s (1997) Table 1 gives a summary of the AO
radar beams were employed. These were the CH1 line- radar capabilities circa 1997.
feed (∼ 61.1 dBi gain, 80 K system temperature) discussed A series of campaign-mode observations, the Caribbean
in Sect. 2, and a fixed zenith-looking 430 MHz hornfeed Ionosphere Campaign (Kelley et al., 2000) and COQUI DOS
(∼ 51 dBi gain, unknown system temperature) mounted just (II), occurred in 1998 and 1999. During these campaigns
below the paraxial surface. Unfortunately, no pictures of this two HF radars – the Cornell University Portable Radar Inter-
430 MHz hornfeed – or any published data derived from this ferometer (CUPRI; 46.9 MHz, 40 kW peak power) and the
system – have been found. However, the author recalls see- University of Illinois radar (49.92 MHz, 35 kW peak power)
ing ISR power profiles from this system and recently found were deployed near the south coast of Puerto Rico such that
this feed “retired” under the dish. the perpendicular-to-B zone of the E- and F-regions was vis-
Perhaps as inspired by the limited success of the 430 MHz ible to the north of AO (Swartz et al., 2000a). The HF radar
hornfeed and the successful development of the necessary observations revealed F-region FAI (Field-Aligned Irregular-
power-splitter, when the spherical aberration-correcting Gre- ity) scattering (Swartz et al., 2000b) at a slant range of 400–
gorian system was designed, provisions were made for a sec- 800 km that was apparently associated with spread-F (insta-
ond 430 MHz radar beam. Unlike the original “point” horn- bility) structures observed over AO with the incoherent scat-
feed that had a gain of ∼ 51 dBi because of spherical aber- ter radar (ISR). A particularly strong FAI-producing event
ration, the Gregorian feed (with exact aberration correction was observed on 17 February 1998 (Swartz et al., 2000a). Us-
and suitable illumination of the dish) has a gain of ∼ 59.3 dBi ing high-resolution ISR data, Mathews et al. (2001) demon-
with a total system temperature as low as ∼ 65 K. This sys- strated the presence of highly organized, sub-kilometer hor-
tem became available in early June 2001 (NAIC Newsletter izontal/vertical scale F-region structures over AO during
#33, October 2001) and has been steadily used since then – the 17 February 1998 spread-F event. While not common-
e.g., Gong et al. (2012). The Gregorian and linefeed systems volume, this series of observations clearly established the
together enable beam-swinging ionospheric vector wind and link between F-region FAI-scattering structures and associ-
electric field observations and other unique observations as ated small-scale structures observed with ISR. Only AO has
described by Gong et al. (2012). the signal-to-noise ratio necessary to observe details of these
features, which were first reported at the Japan MU radar
(Fukao et al., 1988).
12 Various other radar experiments An ongoing common volume exploration of coherent E-
region quasi-periodic echoes (QPEs) – also FAI scattering
In addition to the specific radar developments outlined above, structures – and the underlying ionospheric features seen
Arecibo Observatory has hosted and continues to host a in the incoherent scatter radar was initiated by Hysell et
wide range of nearby collaborating radars. Perhaps the great- al. (2004) using a 30 MHz interferometric imaging radar de-
est single assembly of such radars was associated with the ployed on St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. From St. Croix, this
“El Coqui” rocket campaign (1992) discussed in Sect. 10. system is sensitive to E-region magnetic-field-aligned echo-
Djuth’s (1995) Table 1 lists an HF radar (SRI International), ing structures in a volume over Puerto Rico that includes the
two bi-static HF radars (Los Alamos and NRL), two VHF AO 430 MHz radar beam. The results of these common vol-
radar interferometer systems (Cornell and Geospace Re- ume observations of QPE/Sporadic-E are updated in Hysell
search, Inc.), and a digisonde (Phillips Lab/SRI Interna- et al. (2009). A second VHF imaging radar to be located
tional) all of which diagnosed various aspects of the heated on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe in the Leeward Is-
volume and of the barium releases into the heated region of lands will be sensitive to field-aligned scatterers in the F-
the ionosphere, e.g., Bernhardt et al. (1995). region over Arecibo. Various radars looking over Arecibo
Examples of other uses of the Arecibo radar systems in- from these islands were deployed in the past for the “El Co-
clude a comparison between 430 MHz ISR D- and lower-E qui” rocket campaign mentioned above.
region winds with those determined by a classical meteor Finally, a new “on-dish” HF heater is now being installed
wind radar located near Ramey, Puerto Rico (Mathews et al., at AO for operations to commence in 2013 if all goes well.
1981) and an attempt to use the moon as a radar calibration
target (Mathews et al., 1988). Palmer et al. (1997) deployed
three 430 MHz Yagi-Uda antenna arrays, forming an interfer- 13 Some mysteries?
ometer (the Arecibo Spatial Interferometry System or ASIS)
at about 327 m from the center of the dish to bi-statically In writing this history the author admits to gaps that, hope-
probe the troposphere over about 3–10 km altitude. The bi- fully, the readers will fill by contacting the author, who
static mode was necessitated by limitations of the T/R switch promises a suitable update to this paper. The largest known
on the 430 MHz system and successfully produced wind re- gap is why the 40 MHz radar system, built specifically

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30 J. D. Mathews: A short history of geophysical radar at Arecibo Observatory

for AIO, was installed at AIO and then abandoned with in large part to the kind and continuous funding from NSF for use
no reported incoherent scatter observations of the iono- of Arecibo Observatory in the author’s research activities. This
sphere. In fact the only known ionospheric usage was that of particular effort was supported under grants ATM 07-21613 and
Showen (1972). Further, the system was abandoned by 1972 ATM 12-02019 to the Pennsylvania State University.
– probably to free the 6-inch coaxial cable to feed the on-dish
Edited by: K. Schlegel
HF heater antenna described in Sect. 4 – only to have a sub-
Reviewed by: D. Campbell and one anonymous referee
stantially less powerful 46.8 MHz system brought in by 1980.
Had the early report by Watkins (1967) on the ionospheric
uses of the 40 MHz system been seriously considered, the
radar would likely have led to discoveries that anticipated References
MST radar and to HPLA radar meteor research. Watkins
must certainly have been aware of the latter, given his home Altschuler, D. R.: The National Astronomy and Ionosphere Cen-
institution was the Royal Radar Establishment (Malvern UK) ter’s (NAIC) Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, in: ASP Con-
and his involvement with Greenhow in VHF/UHF study of ference Series, Single-Dish Radio Astronomy: Techniques and
meteors (Greenhow et al., 1962; Greenhow and Watkins, Applications, Arecibo Observatory, 2002.
Aso, T., Kato, S., and Harper, R. M.: Arecibo middle
1964). Perhaps the answer to this is just that this radar was
atmosphere experiment, Geophys. Res. Lett., 4, 10–12,
unreliable and could not be maintained? doi:10.1029/GL004i001p00010, 1977.
Perhaps other mysteries or answers will come to light in Behnke, R. A.: Vector Measurements of the ion transport velocity
two autobiographical memoirs that the author just learned of with applications to F-region dynamics, Ph.D. thesis, Rice Uni-
but has not yet seen. One is that of Alan F. Kay, the designer versity, 1970.
of the original square cross-section 430 MHz linefeed (Kay, Behnke, R. A. and Harper, R. M.: Vector measurements of F Re-
1961, 2008), while the other is that of Thomas “Tommy” gion ion transport at Arecibo, J. Geophys. Res., 78, 8222–8234,
Gold (2012), who figured significantly in the early days of doi:10.1029/JA078i034p08222, 1973.
AIO especially (as discussed in Sect. 2) as he was the Di- Bernhardt, P. A., Siefring, C. L., Rodriguez, P., Haas, D. G., Baum-
rector of the Cornell Center for Radiophysics and Space Re- back, M. M., Romero, H. A., Solin, D. A., Djuth, F. T., Dun-
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