Characteristics of 488 megacycles per second radio signals reflected from the moon

R adio signals at 488 m egacycles pel' second, received after refl ec tion from t he moon have been studied usin g a continuous wave bistatic ra dar s vstem.located ncar Ottawa Ca;l ad a .These experiments were carried out durin g 1957 a nd consist ed of mo ni torin g t he ~i gna l s ]'e-c81 ved on t wo orthogonal dipoles mounted at the fo cus of a 28 foo t pa ra bolic t rac kin g a ntenn a.The total m ea n received signal yielded an effective radar cross section of t he moon at this frequency of 0.05 of t he projected a rea.The lib ration fadin g as obse rved in the two o1'thoo'onal receive r cha nnels was in synchronism, w it h a cross-correlation coeffi cient of 0. 89.I t was establ is bed t hat the sig nal is not d e p o l f'lri~ed s i ~nific antly o n refl ection at t he s u rface of t he moon or in pass in g th rough th e io nosph ere.Rot ation of the p lan e of polari zation of the rad io wave in th e doubl e p assage t hrough the ionosph ere was obs r v d to cha nO'e by nearly 180 degrees over a s ix-hour p riod during qu iet ionosph eric co ndi Lions..