A simple model for testing the effects of gravity-wave-produced vertical-oscillations of scattering irregularities on spaced-antenna, horizontal drift measurements

Abstract

It has been suggested that the velocities produced by the spaced antenna partial-reflection drift experiment may constitute a measure of the vertical oscillations due to short-period gravity waves rather than the mean horizontal flow. The contention is that the interference between say two scatterers, one of which is traveling upuard, and the other down, will create a pattern which sweeps across the ground in the direction (or anti-parallel) of the wave propagation. Since the expected result, viz. spurious drift directions, is seldom, if ever, seen in spaced antenna drift velocities, this speculation is tested in the following model.