Narrowband and Wideband Channel Sounding of an Antarctica to Spain Ionospheric Radio Link

Abstract

La Salle and Ebro Observatory have been involved in remote sensing projects in Antarctica for the last 11 years (approximately one solar cycle). The Ebro Observatory has been monitoring and analyzing the geomagnetic and the ionospheric activity in the Antarctic Spanish station Juan Carlos I (ASJI) (62.7 S, 299.6 E) for more than eighteen and ten years, respectively. La Salle has two main goals in the project. The first one is the data transmission and reception from Antarctica to Spain to obtain a historical series of measurements of channel sounding of this 12,760-km ionospheric HF (high frequency) radio link. The second one is the establishment of a stable data low power communication system between the ASJI and Cambrils, Spain (41.0 N, 1.0 E), to transmit the data from the remote sensors located on the island. In this paper, both narrowband and wideband soundings have been carried out to figure out the channel availability performed using a frequency range from 2 to 30 MHz with 0.5 MHz step during the 24 h of the day, encompassing wider channel measurements than previously done, in terms of hours and frequency. This paper presents the results obtained for the austral summer in 2014, using a monopole antenna at the transmitter and an inverted V on the receiver side. These results led us to the final physical layer design for the long haul link, dividing the day into two parts: daytime, with low data throughput design, and nighttime, reaching high data throughput.