Ionospheric vertical TEC measurements using radar observations of Starlink satellites

There is increasing interest in space domain awareness (SDA) worldwide, motivating the use of non-traditional sensors for space surveillance.One such sensor is the Buckland Park Stratosphere-Troposphere VHF radar, which has demonstrated an ability to detect over 2000 resident space objects (RSO) daily.A by-product of these observations is the measurement of ionospheric group retardation, which can be used to measure the total electron content (TEC) between the ground and the satellite altitude.This paper describes Buckland Park VHF radar observations of Starlink satellites, demonstrating the ability of the radar to measure vertical TEC (vTEC) from the ground to 560 km, allowing estimation of the ionospheric and plasmaspheric components of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) estimated TEC.