Digital demodulation techniques and spectral analysis are used to study the short term (<1 s) characteristics of the ion-acoustic radio auroral echoes. Examination of 0.4 s time sequences indicates that the signal amplitude undergoes a deep and quasi-periodic fading with strongly marked periodicities in the 2–10 Hz range. Evidence shows that the fading is not due to interference but to the appearance and disappearance of independent scatterers, causing a sequence of backscatter signal bursts. If the assumption is made that these scatterers are longitudinal plasma density waves, the observed signal fading can be interpreted in terms of the growth and decay of individual regions of plasma instability rather than as interference between signals from separated coexisting scattering regions. Investigation of a large number of records suggests the following features for the irregularities associated with the ion-acoustic echoes: (1) their lifetime is in the 0.05–0.25 s range. (2) their growth (or decay) rate is in the 10–60 s−1 range, (3) their velocity remains fairly constant, even during growth and decay, and is always within the ion-acoustic velocity range in the medium.
A novel ultrasonic Doppler fetal heart rate detection system using windowed digital demodulation
