Ionospheric Heating Analysis

Abstract

Enhancements of various features of the incoherent scatter spectrum are observed when the ionosphere is illuminated with powerful, high-frequency radio waves. The radio waves excite plasma instabilities producing lines or more complex spectral features near the local plasma frequency, at the local ion-acoustic frequency, near the local gyrofrequency and twice the gyrofrequency. The enhancements occur in a thin slab as observed by the incoherent scatter radar and at both upshifted and downshifted frequencies with respect to the probing radar frequency. The enhancements are observed to vary with time when the high frequency transmitter that produces the radio wave excitation is held at constant power, and to vary with time as the high frequency transmitter is turned on or off.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 01, 1974
Accession Number
AD0781178

Entities

People

  • Herbert C. Carlson
  • William E. Gordon

Organizations

  • Rice University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Electromagnetic Wave Propagation
  • Electron Density
  • Electrons
  • Frequency
  • Fresnel Zones
  • Ionograms
  • Ionosondes
  • Ionosphere
  • Measurement
  • Observatories
  • Plasma Instabilities
  • Power Spectra
  • Probability Distributions
  • Radio Waves
  • Reflectors
  • Theses
  • Wave Propagation

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Electronics Engineering
  • Plasma Physics / Magnetohydrodynamics
  • Spectroscopy.