Studies of atmospheric structures and dynamics at small scales require high-resolution observations in space and time. Stratosphere-troposphere radars offer high potentialities for such studies, in particular, with the dual-frequency domain interferometry (FDI) technique used for tracking thin atmospheric layers. In the present paper, attention is drawn to the performances of this technique, discussed in light of comparisons between data sets collected in different radar configurations with the middle and upper atmosphere (MU) radar (Shigaraki, Japan, 34.85 ¿N, 136.10 ¿E). Measurements in FDI mode with two range resolutions (300 and 600 m) and two frequency differences (0.50 and 0.25 MHz) have been conducted, interleaved with measurements in Doppler-beam-swinging mode performed at a range resolution of 150 m. From the data comparisons it is found that the thickness of the echoing layers in FDI mode strongly depends on the initial range resolution used. Thus, even if the FDI mode is believed to give a better description of the stable layers, the FDI-deduced thickness with an initial range resolution of 300 m may not be consistent with the true thickness of the atmospheric layers. It could then be misleading to use FDI observations in order to estimate the thickness of atmospheric layers. However, it is also shown that under some circumstances, FDI can provide reliable information on the characteristics of the atmospheric structures which cannot be available with non-FDI techniques. ¿ 2001 American Geophysical Union