MIT Haystack and University of Washington researchers have developed and refined a series of instruments that harness existing broadcast FM and TV signals. Software defined radio and a sophisticated signal processing chain resolve turbulence in the ionosphere. Previous hobbyist efforts have also detected large, nearby hard targets such as airplanes, but detecting plasma turbulence 100+ km in altitude is a far more difficult task.

Our contribution to this effort was automated computer vision algorithms detecting ionospheric disturbances, for ionospheric turbulence classification and characterization.