Incoherent scattering of an electromagnetic wave in the mesosphere: A theoretical consideration

Incoherent scatter spectra for a plasma with a negative ion component are calculated successively by the kinetic and hydrodynamic approaches. It is shown that mesospheric negative ions enhance significantly the scattered power and the width of the ion component of the incoherent scatter spectrum. A simplified method is proposed for determining the mesospheric parameters from the measured incoherent scatter spectrum.