FORWARD-SCATTERING OF RADIO WAVES BY METEOR TRAILS

Abstract

Radio waves which are too high in frequency to be reflected by the ionospheric layers are often reflected back to the earth's surface by the ionization in meteor trails, and may be detected at distances of the order of 1000 kilometers from the transmitting station. These forward-scattered signals have been studied by the use of several transmission paths in Canada. The paper summarizes the characteristics of the individual signals and presents some preliminary results of the investigation. It seems likely that the technique will prove to be useful in meteoric studies.