Channel and Device Modeling

Meteor Burst Communications
SRI designed, built, and deployed a system to measure the footprint and channel characteristics of a meteor burst communication channel. This system continuously sent up a VHF probe signal to a region of the sky and waited for passing meteors to create an ionized column of air that would momentarily reflect the signal to a relatively restricted and predictable area. Several dozen receivers distributed in the expected return path collected data on bit error rates, burst duration, and the geographic distribution of the reflected wave.