Scintillation Simulator Test Results: Hardware-in-the-Loop Emulation of Ionospheric Scintillation

Ionospheric scintillation induces distortion onto RF communication and radar signals that propagate through the ionospheric medium. Unless properly accounted for, this scintillation may greatly impact the performance of military and commercial satellite signals. Accurate verification of satellite systems and associated ground equipment is achievable through the use of hardware-in-the-loop (HWIL) scintillation simulators. Test results of a scintillation simulator are presented and compared with theoretical performance of Rayleigh, Rician, and Nakagami-m fading.