Discovery Science in Space Science using Incoherent Scatter

The incoherent scatter technique remains the most incisive method for
measuring state parameters and space plasmas in the near-earth
environment where it remains an essential tool for discovery research.
Expanding, developing, and combining incoherent scatter with other
experimental methods will be necessary for realizing the discovery
potential. At high latitudes, for example, incoherent scatter and
ionospheric modification can be combined in detailed, controlled
studies of energetic electron acceleration and transport relevant to
auroral processes. At middle latitudes, the dominant space-weather
phenomena, MSTIDs, midlaitude spread F, and patchy sporadic E layers,
remain poorly characterized, their complicated spatio-temporal
structures being difficult to probe with incoherent scatter
alone. Expanded use of coherent scatter would expedite progress in
this important domain of space weather. At low latitudes, the
incoherent scatter technique can be applied throughout the
plasmasphere and possibly in the magnetosphere, solar wind, and even
out to the solar corona. In the future, incoherent scatter may be
applied much more broadly throughout geospace.