Modern high-power, large-aperture (HPLA) radars have been used in a variety of investigations including the investigation of meteoroid fragmentation. The identification of fragmentation has been based on a detailed interpretation, based on radio science, of head- and trail-echo properties. We now extend the discussion of fragmenting meteoroids to include apparent high-altitude (130–180 km) meteors observed at the Jicamarca Radio Observatory (JRO). While there have been a few reports of high-altitude meteors observed both optically and with radar, the meteor radar community has remained sceptical, with suspicions of antenna side-lobe contamination being the most commonly raised objection. We report results from two sets of meteor observations carried out at JRO in 2010 April. Our findings include meteoroid fragmentation results that are similar to those from the Arecibo VHF radar. These...

The Jicamarca Radio Observatory (JRO) main 50-MHz array antenna radar system with multiple receivers is being used to study meteors via two interferometric receiving modes. One of the major challenges in these studies is the phase calibration of the various receiver (interferometric) channels (legs). While investigating some ambiguous features in meteor head-echo results, we developed a ‘new’ calibration technique that employs satellite observations to produce more accurate phase and pattern measurements than were previously available. This calibration technique, which resolves head-echo ambiguities, uses the fact that Earth-orbiting satellites are in gravitationally well-defined orbits and thus the pulse-to-pulse radar returns must be consistent (coherent) for an entire satellite pass through the radar beam. In particular, the satellite yields a reliable point source for phase and t...

The Jicamarca Radio Observatory (JRO) two-dimensional square array radar system operating at ~ 6-m wavelength was used to study the Moon and low Earth orbit satellites using the Range-Doppler inverse synthetic aperture radar technique also known as Delay-Doppler imaging. The radar data was collected on Oct 21, 2015. A circularly polarized coded pulse was transmitted from a quarter-array antenna segment during lunar transit over JRO. Dual-linear polarization receive systems were employed on two quarter-array segments and on two 1/64th array modules giving the longest possible baselines across the transit path. A Range-Doppler mapping technique that uses the rotational motion of the targets and an autofocusing motion and ionospheric delay compensation technique has been implemented to generate the two-dimensional maps of the point-target (Satellite) and range-spread target (Moon). A review...