Ionospheric Radar

Design problem: Create a system that measures the ionosphere's time-varying impulse response using Linear Frequency Modulation (LFM) radar, with signals sourced from Coastal Ocean Dynamics Applications Radar (CODAR) systems and a forthcoming Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite developed at the University of Victoria (UVic). The outcome is the creation of versatile software that operates across multiple platforms and Software-Defined Radios (SDRs), enabling citizen scientists to contribute to ionospheric research by gathering and uploading data to a shared repository. 

Solution: To achieve the objective of measuring the ionosphere's time-varying impulse response, this project implements two complementary solutions: a MATLAB-based approach and a GNU Radio-based approach.The MATLAB solution involves generating an LFM signal, which is then cross-correlated with the received signal to identify echoes or reflections caused by the ionosphere. The GNU Radio flowgraph replicates the LFM signal generation and cross-correlation processes, offering real-time data processing and visualization capabilities. 

Role: I executed all the functionalities of this project as described in the design problem. The two solutions were compared with almost identical results after testing the simulations with real-time CODAR recordings at different sampling frequencies.