In recent years, more and more radar systems with multiple-receiver antennas are being used to study the atmospheric and ionospheric irregularities with either interferometric and/or imaging configurations. In such systems, one of the major challenges is to know the phase offsets between the different receiver channels. Such phases are intrinsic to the system and are due to different cable lengths, filters, attenuators, amplifiers, antenna impedance, etc. Moreover, such phases change as function of time, on different time scales, depending on the specific installation. In this work, we present three approaches using natural targets (radio stars, meteor-head and meteor trail echoes) that allow either an absolute or relative phase calibration. In addition, we present the results of using an artificial source (radio beacon) for a continuous calibration that complements the previous approach...

Radar observations typically employ periodic pulses to study any target. This scheme allows a simple processing of the data but the results frequently shows range or frequency aliasing. In order to solve this problem Uppala and Sahr [1] introduced the aperiodic technique (AT) in the radio science community. The AT is based on transmitting pulses at non uniform intervals and allows to study moderately overspread targets. Some equatorial Spread F (ESF) echoes belong to this category, particularly those from the topside. Using this idea Jicamarca Radio Observatory (JRO) has done a couple of experiments to study ESF echoes. Chau et al [2] used the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) to compute spectra from those experiments and developed some criteria to remove clutter due to the aperiodic sequence. A second scheme of work was introduced by Hysell et al [3] and this scheme uses a Bayesian method to...

Presentado en MST12 - 12th Workshop on Technical and Scientific Aspects of MST Radars, London, Ontario, Canada, 17-23 May 2009.