Incoherent scatter from space shuttle and rocket engine plumes in the ionosphere

Enhanced echoes from the 430 MHz radar at Arecibo were observed during burns of the space shuttle orbital maneuver subsystem (OMS) engines near 317 km altitude. Similar radar signatures of enhanced backscatter were also obtained by the Millstone Hill radar observing the plume of a Centaur engine burning in the ionosphere. A theoretical model of incoherent scatter is presented to explain the radar backscatter observations. The theory considers molecular ion beams generated in the exhaust plume as a result of charge exchange between the ambient O+ ions and the high‐speed exhaust molecules (primarily H2O). The field‐aligned gyromotion of the pickup ions affects the radio wave scattering from the random thermal fluctuations of electron density. Numerical calculations are carried out for plasmas modified by the space shuttle or Centaur engines, and reasonable agreement with observations is found for the total scattered power. Incoherent backscatter spectra respond to characteristics of the exhaust plume such as vector flow velocity, temperature, and composition. The nonequilibrium velocity distributions for the ions in the pickup ion plume are similar to the distributions found in strongly convecting auroral region ionospheres. The incoherent scatter from the plume ions can be used to validate techniques used to study naturally disturbed plasmas. The predictions of our radar scatter calculations will be tested in future experiments using the space shuttle OMS engines over incoherent scatter radars located at equatorial latitudes and midlatitudes.