Ionosonde Studies of Field-Aligned Irregularities during High-Power HF Heating at Arecibo

摘要

Backscatter ionograms recorded by an airborne digital ionosonde during the September 1981 ionospheric HF heating campaign at Arecibo have been simulated using simplified ionospheric models and analytic raytracing techniques. The simulations indicate that irregularities were created at all altitudes from the interaction height (where the plasma frequency was equal to the heater frequency down to the base of the F layer, but with a preferred altitude near the interaction height. There was no evidence for the existence of irregularities at altitudes much above the interaction height. The horizontal east/west extent of the irregularity patch was approximately 100 to 150 km, shifted towards the west with respect to the Arecibo magnetic meridian (asymmetry 25 km to the east/125 km to the west). Keywords: Ionosphere, Heating, Digital Ionosonde, Ray Tracing. (mjm)