The ionospheric valley region extends from the altitude of the daytime E-region electron density peak to the bottomside F-region, typically covering the 120–200 km altitudes. Complex processes couple the neutral and ionized components in this region and ions transition from collisionally dominated at the bottom to mostly collisionless at the top. The valley region creates the effective boundary between terrestrial and space weather domains and is important for shaping the entire ionosphere (e.g., Immel et al., 2018). In the case of low magnetic latitudes, this region develops dynamical and chemical features, which displays some of the least understood observations of the atmosphere/ionosphere system. These observations have revealed the existence of strong irregularity structuring in the electron density distribution in the low-latitude valley region (LLVR) causing strong VHF radar backscatter generally referred to as “150-km echoes.” An understanding of the source of the LLVR irregularities causing the 150-km echoes, as well as their spatial, altitudinal, spectral, and temporal characteristics, has been lacking. Since aeronomers rely on the measured Doppler spectral shifts of 150-km echoes to monitor the equatorial F-region zonal electric fields, a key parameter necessary for understanding the entire low latitude electrodynamics (e.g., Kelley, 2009), it is important to understand the source of these measurements.

Needless to say, explaining the 150-km echoes and irregularities and solving the related LLVR “riddles” has emerged as a compelling science objective necessary to improve our understanding of all important LLVR processes. This is particularly true given the increasing number of on-going and planned global observations from ground and space in the space science community, as well as sophisticated modeling of the whole atmosphere that is making rapid progress in characterizing the near-space environment. As indicated by Chau and Kudeki (2013), “understanding of the enhancements and modulation of the daytime LLVR echoes occurring in the peak production region of the lower F region ionosphere in the close proximity of the underlying and field-line-connected E regions may well represent the last unexplored frontier in the theory of fluctuations in a plasma teetering at the edge of thermal equilibrium.” A multi-disciplinary group of experts were brought together to focus on 4D (altitude, longitude, latitude, time) explorations of the LLVR, from observational, modeling and theoretical points of view, and to come up with solutions of the riddles surrounding the LLVR observations and physics. The outcome of these efforts regarding daytime LLVR or 150-km echoes is reported in this paper.

The daytime LLVR echoes were first discovered in the early 1960s at the Jicamarca Radio Observatory (JRO) (11.95°S, 76.87°W, ∼ 0.75°N dip latitude) (e.g., Balsley, 1964). Contrary to other strong and persistent echoes at JRO, e.g., equatorial electrojet (EEJ) and equatorial spread F (ESF), that were studied intensively and whose physical mechanisms are currently well known (e.g., Farley, 2009; Woodman, 2009), 150-km echoes have received very little attention (e.g., Røyrvik and Miller, 1981; Røyrvik, 1982). Investigations of 150-km echoes were intensified after Kudeki and Fawcett (1993) reported their altitude and temporal features with unprecedented resolution, revealing features connecting the echoes to neutral dynamics. Moreover, these new observations could not be explained with typical plasma instabilities used in other ionospheric phenomena. Although the presence of the echoes was not understood, as suggested by Kudeki and Fawcett (1993) and later shown by Chau and Woodman (2004a), their Doppler shifts are a good proxy for deriving F region plasma drifts. Nighttime LLVR echoes also exist but they are less frequent and their physics is well understood (e.g., Chau and Hysell, 2004; Patra and Pavan Chaitanya, 2014; Hysell et al., 2017).

These echoes are up to 40 dB stronger than incoherent scatter echoes and occur between 130–170 km altitude. Given their altitude occurrence and complexity, they have been referred in the literature also as F₁ echoes (Tsunoda, 1994), 150-km riddle (Chau and Kudeki, 2006b), and 150-km puzzle (Patra, 2011). Besides JRO, they have been observed at low magnetic latitudes and only at lower VHF frequencies (between 30 and 60 MHz), i.e., Pohnpei (6.96°N, 158.19°E, 0.25° dip latitude), Brazil (2.33°S, 44°W, ∼ 1.3°S dip latitude), India (13.5°N, 79.2°E, 6.3°N dip latitude), Christmas Islands (2.0°N, 202.6°E, 3°N dip latitude), Indonesia (0.20°S, 100.32°E, 10.36°S dip latitude), and China (18.4°N, 109.6°E, 12.8°N dip latitude) (e.g., Kudeki and Fawcett, 1993; Choudhary et al., 2004; De Paula and Hysell, 2004; Patra et al., 2008; Tsunoda and Ecklund, 2008; Li et al., 2013). All of them showing echoes between 130–170 km altitude, occurring in layers, with the lowest altitudes occurring at noon. Note that the indicated dip latitudes represent values when 150-km echo observations were made. So far experiments at similar frequencies trying to observe these echoes at middle and high latitudes using MU radar (35°N, 136°E) (e.g., Fukao et al., 1985) and MAARSY (69.30°N, 16.04°E) (Latteck et al., 2012), respectively, have been unsuccessful. Similarly, low latitude experiments at higher frequencies (above 100 MHz) and high power using ALTAIR (9.39°N, 167.47°E, 4.4°E dip latitude) have also been unsuccessful (e.g., Kudeki et al., 2006).

Since most of the observations have been made with radar beams pointing perpendicular to the magnetic field (B), the echoes were believed to be from field-aligned plasma irregularities (FAIs). JRO observations have revealed that the majority of their 150-km echoes are observed simultaneously perpendicular and slightly off-perpendicular to B (Chau et al., 2009). The spectra of these oblique observations were much wider than those observed perpendicular to B and were similar to incoherent scatter spectra, i.e., showing a double hump spectra, suggesting that they were naturally enhanced incoherent scatter (NEIS) echoes. Peculiar altitude-temporal behavior of the echoes during solar flares (e.g., Reyes, 2012) and solar eclipses (e.g., Patra et al., 2011) have also contributed additional pieces to the puzzle. These observations have provided key clues regarding the physics behind most of the echoes.

For many years, parameters that typically cause ionospheric plasma instabilities (e.g., electron density gradients, wind shears, strong electric fields, etc.) were proposed as part of the mechanism underlying 150-km echoes (e.g., Røyrvik and Miller, 1981; Kudeki and Fawcett, 1993; Tsunoda and Ecklund, 2000). However, recently explanations invoking the role of photoelectrons (Oppenheim and Dimant, 2016) and upper hybrid instabilities (Longley et al., 2020) have provided a compelling model for the fundamental driver of the majority of 150-km echoes. This mechanism still leaves many features of these echoes unexplained.

The relatively slow progress in understanding 150-km echoes, since 1964 (Balsley, 1964) when they were discovered, to 2016 (Oppenheim and Dimant, 2016) when a first theory explaining some of the key features was published (more than 50 years), can be attributed to the following main factors: (a) until late 1990s, those echoes were observed only at Jicamarca; (b) key altitudinal-temporal features were possible with the modernization of the radar systems in the mid 1990s; (c) new observations with less sensitive radars at other latitudes show echoes only with beams pointing perpendicular to the magnetic field (mid 2000s); and (d) previous theoretical attempts were biased towards explaining the echoes as coming from FAIs. The discovery that the majority of 150-km echoes were NEIS was in mid 2000s using the high-power large aperture Jicamarca radar. The NEIS echoes and later the sensitivity of the echoes to solar flares, motivated the investigations of other type of plasma instabilities. Thanks to advances in computational power, particle-in-cell simulations were able to explain the importance of photoelectrons in NEIS echoes.

To help understand the complexity of the LLVR, in Section 2 we briefly described the main LLVR daytime features. Selected radar observations at equatorial and low latitudes are presented in Sections 3–6. Key features will be highlighted and identified. We will connect them later with the proposed physics. Until recently the LLVR echoes has been mainly a radar phenomena. However, we will show that understanding the echoes and the physics behind them goes beyond radar echoes. In Section 7 we show their connection to electron density contours using high-resolution ionosonde observations as well as a state-of-the-art general circulation model. The current modeling and theoretical efforts are presented in Section 8 as well as some qualitative arguments for other potential contributors. Finally, the observations and proposed mechanisms are discussed in Section 9 with a special emphasis on what is solved and what remains unsolved. For the latter, suggestions for future observations, modeling and theoretical developments are presented and discussed.

In this section we list briefly the main features of the daytime LLVR, i.e., altitudes between 130–170 km and low latitudes that will help understand the complications of the region, the proposed physical mechanisms, and later the discussions. Namely:

• In this region, the molecular ions, dominant at lower altitudes [NO⁺, O 2 + , N 2 + ], transition to atomic oxygen ions [O+] dominant at F-region altitudes (e.g., Schunk and Nagy, 2009).

Here we summarize the observations of LLVR echoes made with radar beams pointing perpendicular to B. As mentioned in the Introduction, these echoes received a world-wide attention after the high altitude-time resolution observations reported by Kudeki and Fawcett (1993). Until then, it was known that the persistent echoes occurred during the day and were confined between 130 and 170 km (e.g., Balsley, 1964; Røyrvik, 1982). Kudeki and Fawcett (1993) became aware of these echoes by performing high-resolution mesospheric experiments with short interpulse period (IPP). To their surprise, they found that 150-km echoes were range-aliased and strong enough to contaminate their targeted mesospheric echoes. Since then, 150-km echoes are one of the main research topics at JRO. An example of echoes observed over JRO in a high-power mode between 50 and 1,000 km can be found in Figure 1 of Hysell (2022), where clearly 150-km echoes are a daytime phenomena (Obs01). From here on, we label the main observational features of 150-km echoes by ObsXX, where XX represents the key observation number.

Figure 1 shows an example of coherent echoes over JRO below 200 km altitude during the day, i.e., mesospheric echoes between 60 and 80 km, EEJ echoes between 95 and 115 km, meteor echoes between 80 and 120 km, and LLVR echoes between 130 and 170 km. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is color coded. The white circles represent the mean E ×B vertical drift from 150-km echoes. Note that strong counter EEJ (CEEJ) echoes are also observed when the vertical drift is negative. CEEJ echoes are not usually observed at JRO, since they require strong westward electric fields (downward vertical drifts) (e.g., Woodman and Chau, 2002; Farley, 2009). The salient features from this figure that are common in most 150-km observations are:

• In the early morning and late afternoon the echoes occur at higher altitudes, and the minimum altitude occurs around local noon, presenting a necklace shape (Obs02).

Figure 2 shows nine consecutive days of SNR observed in January 2009 over JRO. Although the general characteristics of LLVR echoes mentioned above are observed (e.g., necklace, layering, pearls, altitude boundaries), they do present a strong day-to-day variability (Obs10). For example, the necklace shape and regions of strong echoes are not the same from day to day. During this time, the solar conditions were low and the geomagnetic conditions were quiet (e.g., Chau and Kudeki, 2013, for more details). This is another indication that neutral dynamics play a role on their day-to-day variability. More features of this figure are described in Section 8.

Thanks to the high-power large-aperture capabilities at JRO, even higher time resolution measurements can be made. Figure 3 shows high-resolution observations for selected regions of echoes lasting for a few minutes (pearls). These high-resolution observations show that the strength of echoes is also modulated at subminute scales (Obs11). The dominant periods on the selected regions are indicated at the top of each frame. These periods vary between a few seconds to tens of seconds. More details can be found in chapter 5 of Reyes (2017).

It is important to note that high-power JRO observations of LLVR echoes have been limited to a few days a year in the last 2 decades. However, thanks to the wide range of SNR, the echoes have been routinely measured at JRO in a low power mode called JULIA (Jicamarca Unattended Long-term investigations of the Atmosphere), namely the large JRO array is used with unattended low power transmitters (e.g., Hysell et al., 1997; Hysell and Burcham, 2002). JULIA observations of 150-km echoes have contributed to study their seasonal behavior, i.e., at JRO the echoes occur at all seasons, and a seasonal variability (Obs11) is observed in the number of layers and altitudinal coverage of the echoes (Chau and Kudeki, 2006b). Furthermore, no correlation was found with concurrent magnetic activity using the K _p index (Matzka et al., 2021). Recently, Yokoyama et al. (2022) has reported a negative correlation between 150-km echo occurrence over Indonesia, but using K _p indices with 1 day delay.

Currently, JULIA 150-km observations constitute the longest database of ground-based vertical and zonal E ×B drifts at the magnetic equator. JULIA drifts have been used to study ionospheric changes at low latitudes during sudden stratospheric warming events (e.g., Chau et al., 2010a), to validate empirical equatorial zonal electric field models based on satellite magnetometer data (e.g., Alken, 2009), or were directly used to develop statistical relations between variations at low latitude magnetometer ground stations and the vertical drift (e.g., Anderson et al., 2004, 2006; Stolle et al., 2008).

The fact that 150-km echoes could be measured with lower power systems and that they provide valuable measurements of the F-region electric fields, motivated the exploration of such echoes at other equatorial and off-equatorial sites. Close to the magnetic equator, successful measurements have been conducted over Pohnpei (e.g., Kudeki et al., 1998; Tsunoda and Ecklund, 2000), and Sao Luis (e.g., De Paula and Hysell, 2004; Rodrigues et al., 2011). Off-equatorial observations have been made over Gandanki (e.g., Choudhary et al., 2004; Patra and Rao, 2006), Indonesia (e.g., Patra et al., 2008; Yokoyama et al., 2009), Christmas Islands (Tsunoda and Ecklund, 2008), and China (e.g., Li et al., 2013). Currently only observations over Gadanki and Indonesia are routinely made.

All of these observations have been made at low VHF frequencies (between 30 and 60 MHz) and with beams pointing perpendicular to B, i.e., observations at 3 to 5 m Bragg wavelengths (Obs13). Using similar frequencies, radar experiments at middle and high latitudes using MU radar (e.g., Fukao et al., 1985) and MAARSY (Latteck et al., 2012), respectively, have not revealed signatures of 150-km echoes, i.e., LLVR echoes appear to be a low latitude phenomena (Obs14) since they have been observed only between ±13° dip latitude.

Figure 4 show altitude-time SNR observations over Gadanki, India (left) and Sao Luis, Brazil (right) for three consecutive days. Although these systems are less sensitive than JRO’s high-power large-aperture mode by more than 10 and 20 dB, respectively, both systems show the general 150-km features, i.e., necklace, layering, minute variability, lower and upper altitude boundaries, day-to-day variability. More details on these observations and the systems used can be found in Patra (2011) and Rodrigues et al. (2011), respectively.

The Sao Luis observations were made at 30 MHz with a much smaller antenna array than Gadanki’s and JRO’s arrays. Although frequency dependence of ionospheric plasma irregularities have been observed in other ionospheric echoes (e.g., Balsley and Farley, 1971), the strength of the reported echoes was unexpected. In Section 6, we elaborate more on the frequency dependence of the echoes.

Observations at sites with beams pointing perpendicular to B but at relative large east and west angles, show a persistent feature in 150-km echoes, East echoes are stronger than West echoes, i.e., perpendicular echoes present a zonal asymmetry (Obs15) (e.g., Kudeki et al., 1998; Tsunoda and Ecklund, 2000, 2008; Yokoyama et al., 2009; Pavan Chaitanya et al., 2018). Figure 5 shows an example of 150-km echoes observed over Indonesia with the EAR (Equatorial Atmosphere Radar) using four beams in the zonal plane perpendicular to B. The echoes are consistently stronger in the East beams. Yokoyama et al. (2009) attributed this asymmetry to arc structures in the plasma instabilities responsible for the echoes.

At JRO, oblique observations are limited to ±2° in the zonal direction. Multi-beam experiments in the East-West direction using these small angles have not revealed the asymmetry reported at other sites (Fawcett, 1999).

Until 2004, 150-km echoes were identified only in experiments using beams perpendicular to B, presented narrow spectral widths, and therefore were attributed to FAIs. Chau (2004) reported the first observations of 150-km echoes with beams pointing a few degrees with respect to B (oblique observations) using JRO’s high-power large-aperture capabilities. The experiments were not planned to study LLVR echoes, they were aimed to study meteor head echoes (Chau and Woodman, 2004b) and simultaneously obtained drifts from 150-km Doppler shifts with a newly developed acquisition system at the time. The latter was expected to be obtained from echoes observed with JRO’s antenna sidelobes as it was done in Aponte et al. (1997), but using a pulse-to-pulse spectral analysis. Serendipity took place and besides the expected narrow spectra, off-perpendicular to B echoes showing wide spectra (Obs16) were observed. Since the experiments were performed with relatively long IPPs, the spectra were frequency aliased. Non-etheless, they were at least 100 times wider than perpendicular to B spectra. Although Chau (2004) identified the first oblique 150-km echoes, they had been already present in standard oblique incoherent scatter measurements at JRO, but were confused with 150-km echoes coming from antenna sidelobes pointing perpendicular to B (Aponte et al., 1997).

Altitude-time observations of oblique 150-km echoes showed similar features to the perpendicular ones, i.e., daytime occurrence, necklace shape, upper and lower altitude boundaries, layering, minute-scale structures (e.g., Chau, 2004, Figure 3). The strength of these echoes were reported to be 2-3 orders of magnitude weaker than those from perpendicular echoes, based on SNR measurements. In retrospective, this statement has been misleading, since the SNR of oblique echoes given that their spectra is much wider, will be much smaller than the SNR of perpendicular echoes for the same signal (S). In other words, the strength of oblique echoes is comparable to those from perpendicular beams, but their total noise is larger.

The initial connection to the traditional 150-km echoes was made indirectly just by comparing altitude-time SNR features. A series of experiments were conducted at Jicamarca aimed to better characterize these echoes and to try to understand their origin. For the latter, high-resolution electron density (N _e ) measurements using incoherent scatter techniques were performed to see if there were enhanced narrow layers of N _e . These experiments did not reveal a significant enhancement on N _e (e.g., Chau et al., 2010b).

Chau et al. (2009) performed simultaneous perpendicular and oblique experiments aimed to characterize the oblique spectra and the altitude-time behavior of both echoes. They performed basically two experiments with simultaneous perpendicular and oblique beams: (a) with volumes separated by a couple of kilometers in the north-south direction at 150 km altitude, and (b) common volume. The former was performed by using different sections of the main JRO array, while the latter was performed with the aid of a small receive-only array located a few kilometers south of JRO. Figure 6A shows the geometry used for both experiments. Both of these experiments were performed with short IPPs to avoid frequency aliasing of the oblique wide spectra at the expense of F-region range-aliased incoherent scatter echoes. The range aliased echoes contributed to increase the noise of 150-km echoes, but not to change their shape.

Figures 6B, C show examples of spectra observed with the common volume perpendicular and oblique beams, respectively, after 3 minute integration time. In both figures the blue dots represent the normalized spectra by interpolating the zero-Doppler spectral bin, while the orange line represents the fitted spectra using incoherent scatter theory described in Kudeki and Milla (2006). The solid line in Figure 6B shows the normalized spectra including the zero-Doppler spectral bin. Both spectra qualitatively conform with the expected spectra of an ionosphere in thermal equilibrium, i.e., the spectra predicted by incoherent scatter theory at angles close to perpendicular to B (e.g., Sulzer and González, 1999; Woodman, 2004; Kudeki and Milla, 2012). Namely the spectra are wide/narrow at oblique/perpendicular angles and they are dominated by the ion/electron dynamics. Moreover the spectral width of the oblique echoes increases with increasing altitude, as expected for this region (Chau et al., 2009, Figure 5). One could be tempted to routinely fit the observed oblique spectra with incoherent scatter theory to get temperatures and composition, but a better understanding of the physics governing these oblique echoes is still needed.

The two-beam experiments confirmed the connection made earlier by Chau (2004), i.e., oblique 150-km echoes are related to the traditional perpendicular ones. However, the connection is valid for the majority of echoes, not for all. Figures 6D, E show the simultaneous observations of perpendicular and oblique 150-km SNR, respectively. The two salient features of these two figures are: (a) all oblique echoes are accompanied by perpendicular ones (Obs17), (b) simultaneous oblique and perpendicular echoes are the majority (Obs18), and (c) there are regions of only perpendicular to B echoes (Obs19). More examples of these features can be found in Chau et al. (2009), where perpendicular-only echoes can be observed at layers where oblique echoes are observed, but not at the same time (e.g., Chau et al., 2009, Figure 2).

Comparing calibrated returned signals from these two-beam experiments and performing experiments at larger angles with respect to B, Chau et al. (2009) reported that the oblique echoes present a north-south aspect sensitivity (Obs20) that in general varies with altitude (being less aspect sensitive at upper altitudes (Chau et al., 2009, Figure 4). Previously using radar interferometry in the north-south direction, perpendicular 150-km echoes were reported to be highly aspect sensitive (e.g., Fawcett, 1999; Lu et al., 2008). The oblique observations indicate that the majority of echoes are not high aspect sensitive. However, previous perpendicular observations can be understood given the strong spectral dependence on pointing angle with respect to B. As in the case of incoherent scatter theory, low-frequency spectral components will be highly aspect sensitive, i.e., most of the power of the perpendicular spectra is concentrated in low frequency bins (electrons dominating the spectra). Such angular dependence of incoherent scatter spectra at small angles with respect to B have been used to measure the B inclination at ionospheric heights (Woodman, 1971).

Given that the oblique echoes also show minute-scale SNR variability (e.g., Figure 6D), in Figure 7 we show the time evolution of normalized oblique spectra in lineal scale, at two selected altitudes, i.e., 160 (top) and 145 (bottom) km, observed on 10-December-2004 (e.g., Chau et al., 2009, Figure 2). Although the 3-minute integrated oblique spectrum shows the expected symmetric double-hump (see Figure 6C), the higher time resolution spectra show a time variability of their spectral peaks, showing spectral asymmetry with sub-minute to minute variability. As in the case of incoherent scatter spectra asymmetries observed at high latitudes (e.g., Fontaine and Forme, 1995), field-aligned currents might be behind the observed asymmetry in 150-km oblique echoes.

Based on the spectral features of the two-beam experiment, Chau et al. (2009) associated the oblique echoes (and their perpendicular counterpart) to some kind of naturally enhanced incoherent scatter (NEIS) echoes. On the other hand, the perpendicular-only echoes were associated to FAIs. In both cases, echoes are a few orders of magnitude stronger than expected echoes from plasma in thermal equilibrium.

To further characterize 150-km echoes in terms of day-to-day, seasonal and solar variability, additional two-beam observations would have been ideal. However, those observations are limited to JRO and to a handful of days. The former is due to the lack of enough power-aperture at other radars located at low latitudes. Common volume two-beam experiment at JRO were only possible during a special campaign where a receive only station was installed for a few weeks south of JRO. The main purpose of the additional array was to study meteor echoes (Malhotra et al., 2007). Additional two-beam experiments using only the JRO array as described in Chau et al. (2009), i.e., with short IPP, have not been performed frequently since they are useful only for 150-km studies, and there has been more demand to study more than one region simultaneously, e.g., the so-called MST-EEJ-ISR or multiple-beam ISR modes (e.g., Milla et al., 2013; Lehmacher et al., 2020).

In this section we return to the routine observations made with perpendicular beams. Motivated by the localized strong echoes in altitude-time plots of SNR, Patra (2011) and later Chau and Kudeki (2013) investigated the relationship between SNR and spectral width of perpendicular echoes over Gadanki and JRO, respectively. Based on the 2D histogram distributions as a function of these parameters, they found two main populations and named them type A and type B echoes (Obs21), i.e., in type A echoes the SNR (in dB) is linearly dependent on spectral width, while in type B echoes the SNR is almost independent of spectral width. Furthermore, over Gadanki and JRO, type A echoes are the majority (Obs22) and they are 1–3 orders of magnitude weaker than type B echoes.

Figure 8 shows selected examples taken over JRO (left) and Gadanki (right) during: low (top) and medium (bottom) solar flux conditions. The results of Figure 8A were obtained from the observations shown in Figure 2.

Based on the clear but short two-beam experiment dataset (see Section 4), Chau and Kudeki (2013) suggested that the populations from the two-beam datasets (i.e., oblique and perpendicular echoes) and from the SNR and spectral width distributions, were associated. Namely, type A echoes were associated to NEIS, and type B to FAIs. By incoherent scattering they were referring to the association to incoherent scatter radar theory. Similar type of incoherent scatter enhancements are found at high latitudes called NEIALs (Naturally Enhanced Ion-Acoustic Lines) (e.g., Rietveld et al., 1991; Kontar and Pécseli, 2005), although they might not be physically related to 150-km NEIS.

The association of type A to NEIS is also supported by the expected spectral behavior at angles close to perpendicular to B. Since beams pointing perpendicular to B are finite, the resulting spectra will be a convolution of spectra signatures from different angles with respect to B within the observing beam. From Figure 6B, one can see that for weak signals the spectral width will be dominated by the signals coming exactly perpendicular to B (narrower spectra), while as the signal increases, the signals from the oblique angles start to contribute, increasing the measured spectral width. This is particularly true if a simple spectral moment or single Gaussian fitting methods are used. In cases where larger volumes (beam width and range resolution) are used (e.g., over Gadanki), the resulting spectra might be a convolution of both type of echoes occurring at different altitudes. Patra et al. (2020b) have shown that a simple moment method could be misleading on such occasions and suggested a classification considering also the frequency spread of the echoes. Perhaps a two-Gaussian fitting procedure would be more appropriate under these circumstances, i.e., one for the narrow spectral region with large amplitude and one for the wider region with less amplitude.

In the case of type B, echoes coming from FAIs are expected to be narrow and their SNR to be strong, given their longer correlation times. Patra (2011) suggested that intermediate layers with perhaps metallic ions, might be creating small density gradients and conditions for FAIs to occur.

The SNR and spectral width estimations should be considered as relative quantities, since they depend on the acquisition parameters (e.g., effective bandwidth), background noise (e.g., passing of the center of the Galaxy), estimation parameter (e.g., moments or Gaussian fitting). Non-etheless, all four examples in Figure 8 provide a qualitative separation of populations. A striking feature in this figure is that in both JRO and Gadanki, type B echoes occur more often during solar minimum conditions, i.e., there is a strong solar variability in type B echoes (Obs23) (see also, Patra and Pavan Chaitanya, 2016; Reyes, 2017).

Figure 8A also shows qualitatively that smaller systems like Pohnpei, Sao Luis, EAR, etc. being less sensitive than JRO’s high-power large-aperture modes, would be mainly sensitive to type B echoes. On the other hand, Gadanki should be sensitive to both type of echoes, as shown in Figures 8C, D.

The routine observations at the low-latitude stations mentioned above and JULIA 150-km observations at JRO have shown that 150-km echoes present a seasonal variability that appears to vary depending on the type of echo, longitude and perhaps latitude. For example, echoes occur: (a) mainly in the summer over Pohnpei (Tsunoda and Ecklund, 2000), (b) more often and stronger during solstices than equinoxes over Indonesia (Pavan Chaitanya et al., 2018), (c) more frequently in June solstice over Gadanki for both type A and B (Patra and Pavan Chaitanya, 2014), (d) all year without a strong seasonal dependence over Sao Luis (Rodrigues et al., 2011), (e) all year without a strong seasonal dependence over JRO with JULIA mode (Chau and Kudeki, 2006b). Except for JULIA and Gadanki, the reported seasonal results in the other systems are most likely for type B echoes.

As in the case of seasonal dependence, the solar cycle dependence have been also studied at different sites. As shown in Figure 8, type B echoes are more frequent during solar minimum conditions over JRO and Gadanki. Echoes over EAR also show a strong solar cycle dependence, they are stronger during solar minimum conditions (Yokoyama et al., 2022). Given the sensitivity of EAR, this solar dependence is most likely only applicable to type B echoes.

Are the physics of type A and type B related? Do echoes from NEIS and FAIs have some physics in common? We come back to these questions in Section 9.

Previously we mentioned that the 150-km echo observations made with the relatively small Sao Luis radar (De Paula and Hysell, 2004; Rodrigues et al., 2011) were surprising, suggesting a strong frequency dependence of the echoes. Patra et al. (2018) presented the first co-located observations of 150-km echoes over Gadanki at 30 and 53 MHz. Figure 9 shows SNR examples taken during four consecutive days during summer solstice with the 30 (left) and 53 (right) MHz systems. These initial observations were collocated but made with different volumes and transmitted power, i.e., 53 MHz observations were made with a smaller volume (larger array) and more power than 30 MHz observations. Despite the differences, one can observe a clear qualitative frequency dependence (Obs24) of the echoes. The majority of strong 30-MHz echoes are not observed in the 53 MHz system, some strong 53-MHz narrow layers are observed in the 30 MHz system. Using a 2D histogram based on SNR and spectral width, type B echoes are more frequent than type A in the 30 MHz observations, contrary to what has been observed in previous 53 MHz observations (e.g., Patra et al., 2017, Figure 3).

Common-volume 53- and 30-MHz observations confirmed that type B echoes have a strong frequency dependence. Patra et al. (2020a) accomplished that by reducing the transmitter power and antenna size of the 53 MHz radar, i.e., comparing only the strong 53 MHz signals with the 30 MHz signals. Although not explicitly mentioned in the Gadanki papers, these results suggest that indeed there is a frequency dependence, and the dependence is stronger in type B echoes than in type A. The frequency dependence of 150-km echoes seems to be large, favoring lower VHF frequencies. Perpendicular as well as oblique observations of the valley region with the low latitude ALTAIR VHF/UHF (∼150, ∼422 MHz) radars have not shown any indication of power enhancements around 150-km altitudes (e.g., Kudeki et al., 2006; Milla and Kudeki, 2006).

Observations of the daytime LLVR have also been pursued with a high-resolution HF radar over Africa. Echoes coming from 150-km virtual height were suggested to be part of the 150-km echoes observed at VHF (Blanc et al., 1996). However based on recent measurements with a high-resolution ionosonde and HF-beacon network around Jicamarca (e.g., Hysell et al., 2016), echoes around 140–160 km virtual height, are most likely coming from low elevation EEJ kilometer-scale echoes.

As mentioned above, the valley region is difficult to observe using both ground- and space-based instruments. Radar echoes have been the most common way to observe the region. Recent advances in ionosonde technology has yielded higher time, frequency and range resolutions allowing the exploration of this region of low N _e . In Figure 10 we show concurrent measurements of 150-km echoes with the high-power large-aperture 50-MHz radar at JRO and a modern ionosonde called a VIPIR (Vertical Incidence Pulsed Ionospheric Radar). Figure 10A shows high-resolution 150-km echoes and the temporal variations of gap regions (forbidden zones) with solid color lines. The solid yellow lines represent their smoothed series. Figure 10B shows the simultaneous virtual height measurements with VIPIR for different reflecting frequencies (i.e., N _e contours). The high-frequency gap times series in Figure 10A are overplotted on frequency contours with the highest correlation. These results shows that 150-km features are connected to electron densities (Obs25). Previously Tsunoda and Ecklund (2007) and Chau et al. (2010b) suggested that 150-km echoes were connected to the F ₁ electron density peak and N _e changes, but without explicitly indicating what features in N _e correspond to 150-km echoes.

Although ionosondes at low latitudes have been operating for more than 80 years, high frequency, range, and temporal resolution measurements needed to characterize the LLVR have recently become available with modern ionosondes. The VIPIR system at Jicamarca consist of a wide-band log-periodic antenna that transmits vertically propagating radio wave pulses with a 4-kW peak power transmitter capable of sweeping its frequency from 0.3 to 20 MHz. The results presented here were taken by sweeping the frequency from 1.6 to 12.5 Mhz on a pulse-to-pulse basis over a period of 10-s duration. The reflected pulses from the ionosphere were detected using eight short dipoles arranged in two orthogonal sets of interferometric baselines. Despite the advances in hardware, automatic processing of the new high-resolution ionosonde measurements are still not possible, therefore manual detection analysis was needed. Some of the challenges particularly for the LLVR are: (a) strong daytime EEJ scattering making the F ₁ traces fuzzy, (b) E-region peak N _e blinding upper altitudes with lower densities, and (c) the highly altitudinal and temporal N _e variations of the region. More details on these radar and VIPIR LLVR studies and their challenges can be found in Reyes et al. (2020).

The connection of 150-km echoes with both electron densities values and variations have been independently reported during special geophysical conditions. Temporal and altitudinal features of 150-km echoes vary significantly during solar flares (Obs26) (see Figure 11A). For example: (a) the lower boundary is moved to even lower altitudes for a short time, (b) the gap regions (forbidden zones) change significantly, (c) distances between layers are reduced (e.g., Reyes, 2012). Pedatella et al. (2019) simulated the solar flare effects of 07-September-2005 over JRO, using the WACCM-X (Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model with thermosphere-ionosphere eXtension). Figures 11A, B show the JRO observations and the WACCM-X N _e , respectively. The results show that indeed 150-km echo structure follows changes in N _e . Furthermore, Pedatella et al. (2019) were also able to simulate the observed vertical drifts during this event, pointing to the importance of conductivity changes locally and along the B lines connecting to the E region.

Further WACCM-X simulations have been used by Lehmacher et al. (2020) to study 150-km echoes with high-power large-aperture modes over JRO, therefore allowing the observations of echoes and features not observed at other lower sensitivity radars. The results also show that general features of 150-km echoes follow N _e contours. Figures 11C, D show 150-km echoes over JRO and WACCM-X N _e contour, respectively. By combining observations and Ne modelling for different seasons and solar conditions, Lehmacher et al. (2020) show the seasonal and solar cycle variability of the wide gap altitudes and the separation between gaps to absolute values of N _e (or plasma frequencies).

The wide gaps appear to happen when the upper-hybrid frequency is an integer multiple of the electron gyrofrequency. Using values from the IGRF (International Geomagnetic Reference Field) model for 2015 (Alken et al., 2021), the electron gyrofrequency is ∼0.652 MHz. For the particular example of 14-April-2015, those lines are indicated in red and yellow in Figures 11C, D and corresponds to contours of ∼3.9 and ∼4.5 MHz, respectively (see, Lehmacher et al., 2020, for more details).

Observations of LLVR echoes have also shown a peculiar response during a solar eclipse (Obs27) (see Patra et al., 2011, Figure 1). Patra et al. (2011) reported the presence of 150-km echoes over Gadanki during the solar eclipse of 15-January-2010. Before/after the central time of the eclipse the observed echoes were ascending/descending in altitude as function of time. These observations were complemented with ionosonde observations showing electron densities ascending/descending before/after the central time of the eclipse.

Here we review the different suggestions that explain LLVR echoes, with a particular emphasis on recent modeling and theory developments that solve some of the key riddles behind these echoes. Before discussing those suggestions and developments, in Table 1 we summarize the main observational features associated to LLVR echoes. Each of the features have been mentioned in the text above and selected references are included in the table. To help the reader, we also include the numbers of the figures used in the paper that support the majority of those observational features.

Instead of making a chronological description, in this section we start with the latest modeling and theoretical results, and later list additional aspects that have been suggested to contribute to the understanding of the echoes.

Despite 150-km echoes being first observed in the early 1960s, their fundamental physical mechanisms were only recently identified. The recent modeling of Oppenheim and Dimant (2016); Pedatella et al. (2019); Lehmacher et al. (2020) and theoretical analysis of Longley et al. (2020), as well as the new observations of Patra et al. (2018); Lehmacher et al. (2020); Reyes et al. (2020) have helped researchers understand the origin of many of the features of 150-km echoes. Non-etheless, many important riddles remain about the structure and observations of 150-km echoes.