Comparison of Radar Waveforms for a Low-Power Vertical-Incidence Ionosonde

Vertical-incidence (VI) ionosonde is a kind of high-frequency radar. The sounding waveform is an important characteristic for measurement by ionosondes. This letter compares, both theoretically and practically, four different biphase-coded pulse compression radar waveforms which can be employed in the Wuhan Ionosphere Comprehensive Sounding System at VI sounding, including interpulse-coded m sequence, interpulse-coded Wolfman-Goutelard sequence, intrapulse-coded Barker sequence, and intrapulse-coded complementary sequence pairs. The experimental results demonstrate that among the four waveforms, the intraphase-coded complementary-sequence pairs have the best performance.