Resolution analysis of tomographic reconstruction of electron density profiles in the Ionosphere

Traditionally, knowledge of the ionospheric electron density is obtained using Faraday rotation or differential Doppler techniques which measure total electron content in columns of the ionosphere. Conventional data processing can only image the electron density in the direction perpendicular to these columns, thereby forming one‐dimensional images. Because this data is proportional to line integrals through the region of interest, tomographic techniques may be used to reconstruct two‐dimensional electron density images. In this paper, the resolution limit of the image reconstruction process is analyzed in terms of limited‐angle tomography.