A radio lens in the ionosphere
Using a modified version of the classical Cornu spiral, fading patterns in agreement with observations of radio signals on 140 and 360 MHz from the geostationary satellite ATS6, have been obtained. The particular fading patterns chosen show modulated quasi-periodic fading before and after a deep central minimum. It is shown that a cylindrical lens in the ionosphere required to produce this is only about 100 m across (an order of magnitude smaller than the size of the pattern on the ground) and if it were circular in cross-section would have a maximum plasma frequency of over 40 MHz. This suggests the reason why calculations based on a transparent phase screen did not give the observed fading pattern for 40 MHz signals. It was not possible to deduce the height of the lens above the ground, though we would incline to an E-region origin.