BC/ISR Antennae Installation on Ascension Island

BC/ISR engineers Ted Beach and Matt Proctor traveled to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in early December to install a new set of BC-built receivers and antennae on Ascension Island.  The equipment will carry out multi-frequency observations of "scintillation" caused by equatorial plasma bubbles in the ionosphere.  Scintillation is random fluctuations in phase and amplitude that occur when radio signals, like GPS signals at L band (1 - 2 GHz), propagate through ionospheric plasma turbulence.  BC/ISR is evaluating the impact of these scintillations on space-based communications and navigation systems. Ascension Island is a great place to study the phenomenon because it routinely experiences some of the highest L-band scintillation levels in the world during solar maximum periods, which we are now approaching.   

Photo credit: T. Beach