Report of the Oblique Ionospheric Sounding Results from Korea to Japan

Ionospheric sounding experiments have been conducted at RRL (Radio Research Laboratory), Ministry of Communications, using Digisonde 256 since its installation in 1990. Routine observations of the vertical sounding are carried out 48 times (or 39 times) a day, at every 24 hour. In addition, we also made oblique sounding experiments to obtain the real time data of Maximum Usable Frequency (MUF) and detect the anomalous HF propagation, as a part of the joint study between RRL and CRL (Communications Research Laboratory) of Japan. The two stations involved in the study were Anyang (RRL, Korea) and Kokubunji (CRL, Japan). The ionosondes used in both stations were Digisonde 256, developed by ULCAR (University of Lowell, Center for Atmospheric Research), U. S. A. , and the synchronization of time was accomplished with the help of GPS receiver. During most part of the experiments RRL transmitted non-modulated pulses, and CRL received them. The experiment was scheduled from October 25 through October 29, 1993. However, the ionosphere was not developed well enough to conduct the experiment with pre-set operation parameters. The experiment became successful (from 0500 UT to 0800 UT, October 29) only after the operation parameters had been changed, and the continuous ionograms were obtained by CRL at 0718 UT and 0733 UT in October 29, 1993. We believe this type of experiment will ensure the qualitative enhancement of solar-terrestrial physics research and a routine observation of the oblique ionospheric sounding. In this report, we present the results of the fore-mentioned oblique sounding as well as the vertical sounding results obtained by Digisonde 256 at Anyang station of RRL.