Electron density profiles over the Southern Ocean from oblique incidence ionograms

This paper presents a first attempt to use oblique incidence ionograms over the 4500 km path from Sanae, Antarctica, to Grahamstown, South Africa, to deduce information about the ionosphere in the intervening regions. It is shown that existing methods for the reduction of oblique incidence ionograms to N(h) profiles give reasonable results even over the two-hop path involved. By comparison with vertical incidence ionograms made from a research ship below the reflection regions it is shown that the maximum observed frequency is normally limited by conditions at the southernmost reflection point, though this may be modified by ionospheric tilts, sunrise and sunset. (author)