High‐power ordinary mode radio waves produce artificial ionization in the F region ionosphere at the European Incoherent Scatter (Tromsø, Norway) and High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (Gakona, Alaska, USA) facilities. We have summarized the features of the excited plasma turbulence and descending layers of freshly ionized (“artificial”) plasma. The concept of an ionizing wavefront created by accelerated suprathermal electrons appears to be in accordance with the data. The strong Langmuir turbulence (SLT) regime is revealed by the specific spectral features of incoherent radar backscatter and stimulated electromagnetic emissions. Theory predicts that the SLT acceleration is facilitated in the presence of photoelectrons. This agrees with the intensified artificial plasma production and the greater speeds of descent but weaker incoherent radar backscatter in the sunlit ionosphere. Numerical investigation of propagation of O‐mode waves and the development of SLT and descending layers have been performed. The greater extent of the SLT region at the magnetic zenith than that at vertical appears to make magnetic zenith injections more efficient for electron acceleration and descending layers. At high powers, anomalous absorption is suppressed, leading to the Langmuir and upper hybrid processes during the whole heater on period. The data suggest that parametric upper hybrid interactions mitigate anomalous absorption at heating frequencies far from electron gyroharmonics and also generate SLT in the upper hybrid layer. The persistence of artificial plasma at the terminal altitude depends on how close the heating frequency is to the local gyroharmonic.

[1] On 4 February 2005, the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) facility was operated in O and X mode while pointing into the magnetic zenith to produce artificial optical emissions in the ionospheric F layer. The pump frequency was set to 2.85 MHz to ensure passing through the second electron gyroharmonic of the decaying ionosphere. Optical recordings at 557.7 and 630 nm were performed simultaneously with the side-viewing high frequency (HF) and colocated ultra high frequency (UHF) ionospheric radars. No X-mode effects were found. For O-mode pumping, when passing from below to above the second gyroharmonic frequency, the optical intensity shows a distinct increase when the plasma frequency passes through the second electron gyroharmonic, while the UHF backscatter changes from persistent to overshoot in character. The optical intensity decreases when pump wave reflection ceases, dropping to zero when upper-hybrid resonance ceases. The HF radar backscatter increases when the upper-hybrid resonance frequency passes from below to above the second gyroharmonic frequency. These observations are consistent with the coexistence of the parametric decay and thermal parametric instabilities above the second gyroharmonic. The combined optical and radar data provide evidence that up to three electron-acceleration mechanisms are acting, sometimes simultaneously, depending on the pump frequency relative to the second gyroharmonic. In addition, we provide the first evidence of lowerhybrid waves in HF radar centerline data and show that the parametric decay instability producing Langmuir waves can be stimulated in the magnetic zenith at high latitudes despite the pump wave not reaching the nominal frequency-matching height.Citation: Kosch, M. J., T. Pedersen, E. Mishin, S. Oyama, J. Hughes, A. Senior, B. Watkins, and B. Bristow (2007), Coordinated optical and radar observations of ionospheric pumping for a frequency pass through the second electron gyroharmonic at HAARP,

Abstract. High-resolution radar and lidar measurements of sporadic sodium (Na) and sporadic E (E) layers were made at the Sondrestrom incoherent-scatter radar facility on 11 December 1997. These measurements suggest a causal link between E• and Na•, supporting the proposed mechanism in which Na' ions in the E• are neutralized to form the Na•. This Na•, by contrast, does not appear to have been formed by the presence of auroral precipitation or ionization, and, in fact, the sodium density is seen to decrease during an auroral event.

We report on artificial descending plasma layers created in the ionosphere F region by high-power high-frequency (HF) radio waves from High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program at frequencies f(0) near the fourth electron gyroharmonic 4f(ce). The data come from concurrent measurements of the secondary escaping radiation from the HF-pumped ionosphere, also known as stimulated electromagnetic emission, reflected probing signals at f(0), and plasma line radar echoes. The artificial layers appeared only for injections along the magnetic field and f(0)>4f(ce) at the nominal HF interaction altitude in the background ionosphere. Their average downward speed ~0.5 km/s holds until the terminal altitude where the local fourth gyroharmonic matches f(0). The total descent increases with the nominal offset f(0)-4f(ce).

[1] On 4 February 2005 the High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) facility was operated at 2.85 MHz to produce artificial optical emissions in the ionosphere while passing through the second electron gyroharmonic. All-sky optical recordings were performed with 15 s integration, alternating between 557.7 and 630 nm. We report the first optical observations showing the temporal evolution of large-scale pump wave selffocusing in the magnetic zenith, observed in the 557.7 nm images. These clearly show that the maximum intensity was not reached after 15 s of pumping, which is unexpected since the emission delay time is <1 s, and that the optical signature had intensified in a much smaller region within the beam after 45 s of pumping. In addition, adjacent regions within the beam lost intensity. Radar measurements indicate a plasma depletion of $1% near the HF reflection altitude. Ray tracing of the pump wave through the plasma depletion region, which forms a concave reflecting radio wave mirror, reproduces the optical spatial morphology. A radio wave flux density gain of up to $30 dB may occur. In addition, the ray trace is consistent with the observed artificial optical emissions for critical plasma frequencies down to $0.5 MHz below the pump frequency.