Ronald F. Woodman
Instituto Geofisico del Peru
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Primary Section: 16, Geophysics Secondary Section: 33, Applied Physical Sciences Membership Type:
International Member
(elected 2007)
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Research Interests
Most of the research work I have done since my doctoral graduation, including my PhD thesis, has been related, theoretically and experimentally, with the use of radars for the remote probing of the upper atmosphere, from a few kilometers to thousands of kilometers of altitude. My interests include the statistics of the fluctuations in the index of refraction of the scattering medium responsible for producing radar echoes and its theoretical relationship with the statistical characteristics of the echoes they produce. This comprises incoherent scattering theory, the technique used by many powerful radars built to study the ionosphere, a theory very closely connected with plasma fluctuation theory, where I have made some contributions. The same radars have been proven to be very powerful tools to study plasma and atmospheric turbulence, and in turn use turbulence as a tracer of the dynamics of the fluid in which they are embedded. In fact, many of my scientific contributions are related with the developing of new techniques to exploit the use of these radars for the study of related atmospheric and ionospheric phenomena, such as clear atmospheric turbulence and ionospheric irregularities. My interest was not limited to the development of the techniques, but included an effort to understand the physical mechanisms of the new phenomena I observed.
