Actual altitudes of radioacoustic sounding in decimeter wavelength band

An expression for the signal-to-noise ratio was achieved in radioacoustic soundings allowing estimation of the maximum sounding altitude under actual conditions, considering mean wind speed and antenna location. Under actual characteristic conditions the primary contribution to decreasing the useful signal and thus descreasing H(sub max) is that of displacement of the center of the spot of mirror-reflected radiation from the aperture of the receiving antenna, disrupting the conditions of synphase addition of scattered waves in the reception area. By assigning the minimum necessary signal-to-noise ratio for adequate signal processing, the equation can be used to calculate the theoretical variation of H(sub max) as a function of transverse wind speed for a specific radiosounding system. Theoretical results obtained in this manner are compared with experimental data obtained with a decimeter waveband system, yielding good results.