TY - JOUR T1 - Faraday Rotation of Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) Signals as a Method of Ionospheric Characterization JF - Radio Sci. Y1 - 2017 A1 - Cushley, A. C. A1 - Kabin, K. A1 - Noël, J.-M. KW - 2443 Midlatitude ionosphere KW - 2447 Modeling and forecasting KW - 2467 Plasma temperature and density KW - 2494 Instruments and techniques KW - Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcst (ADS-B) KW - electron density KW - Faraday rotation KW - ionosphere KW - total electron content (TEC) AB -

Radio waves propagating through plasma in the Earth's ambient magnetic field experience Faraday rotation; the plane of the electric field of a linearly polarized wave changes as a function of the distance travelled through a plasma. Linearly polarized radio waves at 1090 MHz frequency are emitted by Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) devices that are installed on most commercial aircraft. These radio waves can be detected by satellites in low Earth orbits, and the change of the polarization angle caused by propagation through the terrestrial ionosphere can be measured. In this manuscript we discuss how these measurements can be used to characterize the ionospheric conditions. In the present study, we compute the amount of Faraday rotation from a prescribed total electron content value and two of the profile parameters of the NeQuick ionospheric model.

VL - 52 SN - 1944-799X UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2017RS006319 IS - 10 JO - Radio Science ER -