Sounding of HF heating‐induced artificial ionospheric disturbances by navigational satellite radio transmissions

Abstract

[1] During experiments carried out in 2009-2011 the midlatitude ionosphere was modified by powerful HF pulses from the Sura heating facility located near Nizhny Novgorod (Russia) and operated by the Radio Physical Research Institute. GPS/GLONASS and Parus/Tsikada satellite radio transmissions responding to the heating-induced disturbances in electron density were analyzed. The variations in the total electron content (TEC), which are proportional to the reduced phase of navigational signals, were studied for various schemes of radiation of the heating wave. The variations in TEC (their amplitudes and temporal behavior) caused by HF heating are identified in several examples. The TEC spectra contain frequency components corresponding to the modulation periods of the heating wave. For the first time, the spatial structure of the wave disturbances generated in the ionosphere by high-power radio waves radiated by the Sura heating facility with a square wave modulation of the effective radiated power at a frequency lower than or of the order of the Brunt-Vaisala frequency of the neutral atmosphere is imaged using the method of low-orbital radio tomography and GPS/GLONASS data.Citation: Kunitsyn, V. E., E. S. Andreeva, V. L. Frolov, G. P. Komrakov, M. O. Nazarenko, and A. M. Padokhin (2012), Sounding of HF heating-induced artificial ionospheric disturbances by navigational satellite radio transmissions, Radio Sci., 47, RS0L15,

Generation of Artificial Acoustic-Gravity Waves and Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances in HF Heating Experiments

“…In general, there was a lack of definitive answer regarding the generation of artificial AGWs from the early ionospheric heating experiments. However, more recent development (Mishin et al 2012;Kunitsyn 2012) from a number of independent experimental investigations concurrent with ours have provided some new and useful insight on this question. Finally, the results from our ionospheric heating experiments (reported here) also offer consistent evidence that further confirms the ability of heater-induced thermal gradients to generate artificial AGW/TID.…”

Mutual Allocation of the Artificial Airglow Patches and Large‐Scale Irregularities in the HF‐Pumped Ionosphere

“…The enhancement of the STEC near the edge of the pumped volume at the SURA facility was reported by Frolov et al () and Kunitsyn et al (). The adequate interpretation of this effect with moderate ERP requires detailed consideration of the formation of large‐scale irregularities.…”

“…These regimes made it possible to study location and temporal characteristics of the red line patches. However, STEC measurements did not reliably detect variations with a 6 min or close period; slower undulating STEC variations with periods from 8–12 to 40–50 min corresponded to the IPP tracks scaling from 20 to more than 100 km were observed (Frolov et al, ; Kunitsyn et al, ; Ryabov et al, ). The latter value exceeds the size of the main lobe of the SURA antenna pattern at the height of the heating source.…”

“…Propagated through the heated region, satellite's microwave signals acquire an additional phase increment stipulated by the dispersion of the radio waves in the ionospheric plasma and linearly related to the total electron content (TEC) on the propagation path (slant TEC, or STEC). Since 2007 this method has been used to determine the STEC in the ionosphere during HF pumping at HAARP (Kendall et al, ; Milikh et al, ; Najmi et al, ; Pedersen et al, ) and SURA (Frolov et al, ; Kunitsyn et al, ; Ryabov et al, ) facilities. In this case, the satellite signal propagating to ground‐based receiver through a main lobe of the heating facility antenna pattern makes a radio scan of the HF‐induced ionospheric irregularities.…”

Peculiarities of Excitation of Large-Scale Plasma Density Irregularities During Modification of the Ionospheric F 2 Region by High-Power HF Radio Waves

“…The method of sounding of the disturbed ionospheric region by radio signals of the navigation satellites GPS/GLONASS has recently been widely used at the SURA facility at frequencies of 1.2 to 1.6 GHz [23,24]. The signals from these satellites are received using several two-frequency receivers installed both on the territory of the SURA heater (having the coordinates 56.15 • N, 46.1 • E) and around it at a distance of up to a few tens of kilometers.…”