Development of the Atmosphere Radio-Acoustic Sounding Method in Ukraine and in the World in the Period of 1961-2000

The report presents the main historical information about the emergence and development of the atmosphere radio acoustic sounding (RAS) method in the period 1961-2000. It is shown that the method was proposed in the USA in 1961 and the first experiments in this area were carried out at the same time. The short range of sounding disappointed the researchers and the development of the method was stopped in Western countries until 1972, when the main miscalculations of the experiments were revealed. However, the development of the RAS method in this period continued intensively in Ukraine (at Kharkiv National University of Radio Electronics - KNURE): a number of radio acoustic sounding systems were created, including the second in the world and the first in Europe radio acoustic sounding systems (1965). The effect of significant atmospheric absorption of high-frequency acoustic waves, limiting the probing range of RAS systems, was experimentally revealed by the researchers of KNURE much earlier than by Western scientists, back in the early 60s. The development of new RAS systems in the 60s was already carried out in accordance with the new knowledge gained, which made it possible to obtain significantly greater sounding ranges than in the first experiments performed in the USA.Thus, in the period from the beginning of the 60s to the beginning of the 70s, when the method was not developed in the West, research in this subject area was actively carried out in Ukraine. Sufficiently effective RAS stations were created, and significant diverse experience was accumulated, which was subsequently actively used in the development of methods for using RAS systems in the process of solving various scientific and applied problems, as well as in constructing the theory of radio acoustic sounding systems.The RAS method was actively developed in Ukraine also in subsequent years. It is shown that the level of development of the RAS method and systems in subsequent years in Ukraine was not inferior to the world level, both in the field of theory and practice of propagation and scattering of acoustic and radio waves in the atmosphere, and in the construction and use of RAS stations.