We present an estimation of the heating rate due to Joule heating in the F region of the ionosphere as a result of its interaction with high-power HF O-mode radio waves transmitted by a ground-based antenna. We refer to experiments conducted at Platteville, Colorado in the 70’s, i.e., at a mid-latitude ionosphere, as the ionospheric conditions and experimental facility parameters are well known. Analytical expressions for the electric field of the HF wave, ionospheric electric conductivity and heating rate are inserted into the calculations. The subsequent spatial and temporal changes in electron and ion temperatures were estimated. The results show that the electron temperatures demonstrate an increase of 115% above their unperturbed values and the ion temperatures demonstrate a corresponding increase of 13%.

In this paper we use previously calculated ionosphere electron temperatures Te in order to estimate the 6300Å (red) airglow intensity enhancements attributed to thermal electrons from the tail of a Maxwellian electron distribution of sufficiently increased electron temperature. Then, we compare our results with the relevant observed measurements and we comment on the quality of the comparison and the possible causes of the differences. We also calculate the airglow intensity characteristic rise and decay times and compare them to the experimental ones, and we investigate the origin of the electrons which excite the red airglow. In the end, we assess the departure of the ionosphere electron energy distribution from a purely Maxwellian one, and the role of the electron elastic and inelastic collisions with the other components of the ionospheric F-region.