Figure 1: Ionosonde D4: Responsible to send the pulses to ionosphere layer.

Source: Lowell Digisonde International, LLC © 2012

The Ionosonde is a type of radar peak power of the order of 10 kW and the average power of around 500 W, which emits pulses of electromagnetic energy at variable frequencies between 0.5 to 30 MHz, which are transmitted vertically to the layer ionosphere. The Digisonde serves to provide data for analyzing the behavior of the electron density of the E and F layers of the ionosphere. This equipment uses a transmitting antenna and four receivers. After receiving the signals are recorded and processed, showing the parameters and ionospheric electron density profile through ionograms (DAE / INPE - Digital Ionospheric Sounding Radar - Digisonde, 2003).

Data collected by ionosonde are essentially echoes of the signal reflected by ionospheric layers. These echoes are arranged according to their frequency of transmission and reflection time to form the so-called ionograms.

Figure 2: Receptor antenna

Source: Lowell Digisonde International, LLC © 2012