The Implementation of a New Method of Determining the Rotational Angle of a Polarization Ellipse for the University of Hawaii Faraday Project

Abstract

The Faraday Project is a theoretical and experimental research program to study properties of the ionosphere and the relationships of these properties with solar and geophysical phenomena. Experimental data for the study are pre­ sently being obtained by measuring the total electron content in a cylinder of unit area from Hawaii to a geostationary satellite, ATS-1. The total electron content is obtained from the polarization angle twist of VHF telemetry-carrier transmissions received from the satellite. The signal transmitted from the ATS-1 is linearly-polarized, but the polarizatJon angle of the received signal changes with time because it is rotated by its passage through the electron density of the ionosphere.