A first-principles derivation of Doppler noise expected from solar wind density fluctuations

The level of Doppler noise (DN) expected from solar wind (SW) density fluctuations (DF) is derived beginning with the expression for refractive index variations. The calculation takes account of up and downlink paths and of the method actually used to produce the DN values. The usual assumptions that the DF are frozen in, that the large-scale radial variation can be separated from the DF, that the DF power spectrum is a power law with outer scale k sub 0 and that the DF are homogeneous on scales less than 2c delta t, delta t = sample time, are made. The result agrees quite well with previous observations of DN. Corrections for the finite number of points used in the actual algorithm are discussed.